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How do you solve a problem like conveyancing?

ended 30. July 2024

A recurring theme on Newspage is how the UK conveyancing system, on the whole, moves at a glacial pace and is kaputt. Why is this and what can be done to improve it? Which conveyancers, or conveyancing platforms, have got the most streamlined processes and what are they doing right that others aren’t? Is a key problem that new conveyancing tech is fine in itself but, if siloed and unable to sync with other tech, achieves little? Free legals in particular attract a lot of criticism for service levels and transaction times — why is this and what are your views on them? If you had carte blanche to overhaul the UK’s conveyancing system, what would you do? How can all the dots of property transactions be joined up seamlessly to speed things up?

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
The conveyancing process is by far the biggest contributor in the time it takes to buy a house in the UK right now. There are circa 4500 law firms practicing conveyancing and around three quarters of them transact such small volumes that they struggle to justify spend on process efficiencies and tech. The big boys rely too much on technology and process vast volumes without oversight from experienced solicitors which can cause bigger issues much later in the process. There is a happy compromise here whereby firms should be adopting tech to improve admin, whilst also managing work volumes to ensure solicitors can report to clients within reasonable timescales. Conveyancing firms are typically bad at charging properly and managing work volumes. "Stacking it high and selling it cheap" is just as bad as the one-man bands who take the old-fashioned approach to post and dictation over AI. If experianced lawyers have less work with tech support, they will do a good job quickly.
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Dr Konrad Rotthege
Co-founder at Conveyo
Endless delays, poor communication and a general lack of transparency plague the conveyancing process, causing immense frustration for buyers, sellers and estate agents alike. To address this, the industry must prioritise efficiency and transparency. Key areas for improvement include the provision of information upfront, as preparing properties in advance can significantly accelerate the process. Digital transformation, namely streamlining workflows and improving communication, is also key. Crucially, there needs to be industry collaboration: fostering cooperation between estate agents, conveyancers and lenders to create a seamless experience. Lastly, there needs to be consumer education, i.e. buyers and sellers better understanding the conveyancing process and their rights. We have embraced these principles and they have demonstrated that a significantly faster conveyancing experience is achievable with transactions exchanging within five weeks on average.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Conveyancing needs to get into the 21st century. There are still firms that write to each other. They don't appear to pick up a phone and talk and don't seem to diarise to chase things through and back. In all honesty, good and efficient law firms are very few and far between, which shouldn't be the case in the current climate. This goes back to technology slowing the process down, too. Free legals are a pain as the lenders pay the firms very low minimum fees, they only work on behalf of the lender and they only tend to employ processors rather than experienced staff. The whole system is broken and needs to be more proactive and joined up.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
The key issues with conveyancing are not direct issues with the firms or people who are in the space, the vast majority of which are doing their best to help their clients. However, they are dealing with third parties such as Local Authorities, Land Registry or Water Companies that have no commercial benefit in answering questions quickly. They must do it, but they put in place the minimum resource to do it. You can have the slickest fanciest systems in the world at the conveyancer's office, but they are still going to have to wait for information to come out of these non-commercial entities that will do it in their own time. The other issue is that in most cases people shoot themselves in the foot, as they select their conveyancer on price. They get a few quotes from people and then go with the cheapest, but for a conveyancer to be the cheapest they must sacrifice things. If you want great service and a swift transaction, then you need to look at reviews not price.