The Conveyancing Task Force (CTF) has responded to a recent consultation on reforms to the home buying and selling process. While supporting the goal of a faster and more reliable system, the CTF said delays and additional costs are driven less by technology and more by structural, behavioural, regulatory, and accountability issues within the market.
The CTF highlights several key areas contributing to delays and consumer harm in the homebuying process:
+ Overlapping obligations such as anti-money laundering regulations and building safety legislation create unavoidable friction and cost.
+ Delays are caused by opaque lender panel practices, inconsistent instructions, and slow decision-making.
+ Delays in local authority searches, incomplete Land Registry data, and local authority failures to enforce planning obligations.
+ Lawtech providers shift liability for data accuracy onto consumers and property lawyers
+ Contradictory or outdated statutes create significant friction points.
The CTF argues that structural inefficiencies arise from public-sector delays, lender requirements, inconsistent enforcement, and legal and regulatory obligations. The Task Force asserts that technology is not a substitute for legal judgment and that digitalisation moves risk towards consumers without statutory liability. The CTF calls for reforms that address the causes of delay, not just the symptoms.
+ The CTF outlines several guiding principles for reform:
+ A national roll-out should occur only where empirical evidence shows reduced transaction time, lower fall-through rates, and reduced consumer cost.
+ Liability should sit with those who control the data.
+ Reforms must strengthen legal oversight, supervision, competency, and enforcement against misrepresentation and construction defects.
+ Digital tools should support practitioners but not replace legal scrutiny.
+ Reforms should be phased, compatible with regulatory frameworks, and supported by clear liability rules.
The CTF says it agrees with the objectives of improving speed, certainty, and consumer outcomes but does not agree with the diagnosis that digitisation is the central solution. The Task Force supports the overarching aims of improving speed, reducing abortive cost, and strengthening consumer protection but emphasises addressing structural, regulatory, and accountability failures.
The CTF makes several key recommendations:
+ Mandate lenders to publish objective, lawful, non-discriminatory lender panel criteria.
+ Reframe AML obligations so UK-regulated banks hold primary AML responsibility.
+ Introduce legal liabilities on lawtech businesses for the accuracy of the data they produce.
+ Prioritise investment in HMLR capacity before mandating digital logbooks.
+ Introduce statutory deadlines for local authority searches with enforceable consequences.
+ Require stronger supervision, competence standards, and regulatory oversight in high-volume hybrid firms.
+ Consult practicing property lawyers before legislating and avoid contradictory objectives.
The CTF concludes that the conveyancing system requires targeted, practitioner-led reform rather than wholesale, tech-driven restructuring.
The system does need reform but let’s be honest here – the single biggest reason that the conveyancing process takes as long as it does is because conveyancers are overloaded with cases. We all know it.
That’s why we occasionally have a buyer who says “My conveyancer will get this through for me in a few weeks” – and if the sellers solicitor is on the ball – then they are able to do it – because they are prioritising the case over the others.
Solicitors overload their conveyancers – simple as that.
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In my day to day life I will generally respond to emails and return phone calls within an hour, perhaps two maximum. In the world of conveyancing the norm seems to be a day or two (if at all). I am generalising of course and I deal with some (not many) conveyancers who are more responsive but I’m sure my experience is not uncommon. When it takes two conveyancers four for five days to correspond with each other on every matter that arises in a transaction you can see how the process can easily take 4 months.
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Maybe there would be less chasing, calling and Emailing to Solicitors for updates if they provided regular updates either via on line portals or through Email, rather than generic responses that do not answer anything, meaning that we have to call again and again.
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I speak only from my 5 offices and what we personally see and hear.
1. I’m working from home and the files are in the office???
2. I don’t work Wednesdays
3. I have too many files and will deal with it when I can.
They need to take on less cases, not afraid to say we can’t act and give a quality service to the clients you have.
Estate agents could help by not agreeing poor deals. Clients that say they are cash….. then they are not.
Clients don’t help, I’ll offer it chain free then two weeks into sale, I never said that, I’m now tying in a purchase.
It’s all a mess but the bottom line is (in my area) property lawyers don’t work a five day week, have been told that the norm now is to offer a 4 day week to get ‘good ones’. and greed comes in as they take on too many cases.
Have a great day all!!
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Post by a Bold Legal Group member firm.
Conveyancing fees:
I think we all agree that these need to go up and by A LOT!
So this year rather than talk the talk we walked the walk
I made the bold decision to become one of most expensive conveyancing firms in our market.
Did my team think I was mad? ✔️
Did we lose clients? ✔️
Did our conversion drop? ✔️
BUT….
Despite opening 20% less files than 2024 our revenue has increased by almost 30%!
What did we gain…
Increased wellbeing of our team ✔️
Stronger client base ✔️
Market leader for quality and service ✔️
Increased revenue and profit to invest in our team and business ✔️
So the question is… why are you still stacking them high and selling them cheap?
Get paid what you’re worth
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This illustrates my point above perfectly. You’ve taken the bold (but wise) decision to not stack them high – and you’re seeing your service and reputation improve massively.
You’re absolutely right – get paid what you’re worth. Glad it’s working for you 🙂
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I can only speak from experience. For my last sale, a cash purchase, I was an RTM director and was able to provide my solicitor upfront with everything she needed apart from the ground rent info which had to come from the freeholder (although I did send it). I was prevented from communicating with her (couldn’t get past the customer ‘service’ barrier!). She kept sending a stream of questions, despite having all the answers. Clearly, she couldn’t be asked to check the file. It took 5 months to complete.
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From my current experience, I am seeing that lenders are placing much more reliance onto lawyers and therefore lawyers are put in a position, where they must take a ‘belt & braces’ view on pretty much everything, to avoid issues later down the line. Their own indemnity insurances also force this issue. I have seen many more buyers who are clearly using AI to see what questions they should be asking, which in some cases, raises enquires which are unnecessary. I agree that searches play a part in the delay, as do managing agents, but would suggest that we are still seeing cheap, warehouse law firms, with inexperienced teams causing huge issues within chains. Their initially quoted low fees remain tempting to buyers and sellers alike. I am constantly flabbergasted at how these firms can continue within a regulated environment. They must be sailing very close to the wind! There are many very good lawyers out there, but as with estate agents, it takes very few poor ones for the ripple effect to be huge.
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Very well said 🙂
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Time for the red pill;
1) There are about 11,140 property lawyers (e.g. people who are either solicitors or licensed conveyancers) acting within around 3,700 firms in England & Wales, both down circa 9% on 2021
2) Predictions are 1.2m property completions in 2025, or around 2.4m legal files (seller + buyer). Or put it another way, about 1.6m sales agreed where lawyers were instructed (so 3.2m legal files)
3) As around 66% of buyers buy with a mortgage, the buyers lawyer will also have acted for the lender on about 800k of those property completions
4) Circa 23% of property completions are now Leasehold, the average property is within a chain of 4, so it is now highly likely a property chain will include a leasehold property
5) Approximately 30% of all legal files are completed by the top 10 conveyancing firms, in contract very few files are completed by the bottom 1,500 firms (on the whole, these will be businesses that also specialise in other firms of law)
6) In contrast, there are approx. 52,400 estate agents working within 24,500 estate agencies, acting for sellers and buyer, but not their lenders, in England & Wales
So on average, across 2025, that’s about 61 sellers & buyers per sales agreed, per estate agent (person). 287 per property lawyer (person), plus of course the buyers lender.
Anyone else spot it?
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AI spotted it:
Here’s a clear, concise summary that pulls the figures together and highlights the key implications:
Supply of property lawyers is shrinking: England & Wales now have around 11,140 property lawyers across 3,700 firms, a fall of about 9% since 2021.
Transaction volumes remain high: Forecasts suggest around 1.2 million property completions in 2025. This equates to 2.4 million legal files (buyer and seller), or up to 3.2 million legal files when viewed as 1.6 million sales agreed where lawyers are instructed.
Mortgage work adds complexity: As roughly 66% of buyers use a mortgage, buyer-side lawyers also act for lenders on around 800,000 completions, increasing workload without increasing lawyer numbers.
Leasehold and chains are now the norm: About 23% of completions are leasehold, and with the average chain length of four, most transactions are likely to involve at least one leasehold property, adding further complexity and risk.
Work is highly concentrated: Around 30% of all legal files are handled by the top 10 conveyancing firms, while the bottom 1,500 firms complete very few files, typically because conveyancing is not their primary focus.
Estate agents outnumber lawyers: There are approximately 52,400 estate agents across 24,500 agencies, acting for buyers and sellers (but not lenders).
Workload imbalance: On average in 2025, each estate agent (person) is involved in about 61 buyers and sellers per sale agreed, while each property lawyer handles around 287 buyers and sellers per sale agreed, plus the buyer’s lender.
Overall: transaction volumes and complexity are rising, conveyancing capacity is shrinking and increasingly concentrated, and individual property lawyers are carrying a far heavier workload than estate agents—despite also managing lender requirements and leasehold risk.
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What holds my pace back is…..other conveyancers. The poor quality and those who defend it are the real issue at the moment. The system is fine. The actual quality of the person allowed to badge themselves as a conveyancer needs to change.
Too many vested interests after £, rather than looking after the public…..so nothing will change.
Good luck in 2026.
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That is harsh and a tad unfair 3 week. I would suggest it is the employers at fault who train (?) and then release the inexperienced conveyancer on to the unsuspecting public.
My first employer (a damn good property lawyer) told me it would take me 12 years to become a very competent conveyancer. And I don’t think it was because he thought I was any dimmer than your average bod! Whether it takes 12 years, less or more, one thing is certain, if you look at the number of complicated legal questions posted on the Bold Legal Group’s online forum every week you will appreciate how complex some transactions are, and the number of issues outside of the conveyancer’s control, that often cause delays.
If the stats produced by Gonzo38 are correct not only do we have a shortage of good conveyancers now, but we will have a worse one going forward. Experience is leaving and not being replaced quickly enough by new entrants,
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So a conveyancer tells of his experiences and you dismiss them as untrue
It does not matter whose fault it is the fact is many are just not good enough
As a developer and someone who has been involved in property for many decades we have always had the expression “look for the prat in the chain”
There is nearly always at least one conveyancer who is rubbish and holds everything up for the whole chain
I am sick of trying to contract lawyers who are “working from home” but not available
Most transactions – certainly in our case where it a new build are not complicated
We will not need as many solicitors in future
I have seen an AI system which one of our sols will be using from Feb will do all of the basic stuff that needs doing – send contract – raise enquiries – reply to enquiries – request info from Land Registry request deposit etc to the point of exchange
There will be some more complex issues it cannot yet resolve at which point it is sent to a solicitor
Client says this system works 24 hours a day 365 day s a year
This will enable them to take on more cases and hugely reduce staff costs
Friends who is a barrister days AI has taken the place of a lot of junior members who do research for leading counsel
Anyone who thinks that their job is not going to be massively affected by AI is dreaming
Whre AI is mot is the equivalent pf the model T Ford but it will develop much faster
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“There is nearly always at least one conveyancer who is rubbish and holds everything up for the whole chain.” Details of the chain would help.
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Before I retired, I was providing AI-based solutions to central government to deal with lengthy and complex processes. If the knowledge was available, the solution could be trained to use it, and could handle all but the most complex cases. That was 6 years ago and the technology is so much more advanced today.
The Legal profession was one of my targets, and I did try to get government to consider our digital solution for evictions and mediation. Of course, they turned me down because they were already investing in it.
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