Conveyancers flag frustrations over ‘stakeholder chasing’

Rising levels of frustration among conveyancers as they try and cope with increasing delays and endless rounds of either chasing or being chased by stakeholders, including estate agents, have been revealed within a new report.

As conveyancers come under more pressure to speed up the process, the Landmark report – Residential Conveyancing: Looking Ahead to 2025 – found their biggest frustration (53%) is the length of time it takes to complete a transaction.

Administrative burden

Half of conveyancers complained about the administrative and regulatory burden and 43% about excessive work volume and insufficient resources.

When asked what improvements they wanted to see, 55% said faster transactions, 43% wanted less chasing between stakeholders and 40% wanted more efficient technology.

Conveyancers were also quizzed about how much time they spent ‘chasing’ stakeholders. The average was 43%, up from 39% in 2023, suggesting it is not only a persistent problem, but it’s getting worse.

Outside of their control

Many more added that delays in the completion of transactions are often outside of their control.

Nevertheless conveyancers are making a big effort to improve things, with 52% of respondents saying they are now taking matters into their own hands and are managing workloads more effectively. They are also investing in better training (41%) and the digitisation of more of the processes (34%).

And they are beginning to embrace AI in order to achieve efficiencies, but they are, say Landmark, still in the ‘discovery’ phase, with only 29% saying they have been using it for around the last two months.