New analysis has revealed major inconsistencies in the number of Land Registry queries conveyancers receive, with some firms facing 83 times more requests than others.
According to figures examined by technology consultancy Novus Strategy, requests issued to conveyancers varied by an “alarming” 8,176%, ranging from 2.9 per 100 applications to 237. The industry average across all businesses submitting register updates stood at 11.7 per 100 applications.
‘Requests for information’, previously called ‘requisitions’, are raised when the Land Registry cannot progress an update because information is missing, incorrect, or incomplete. Each time a request is issued, it can extend a transaction by three weeks, and the Land Registry has estimated that avoidable requests cost the industry up to £19.1m annually.
Novus Strategy calculated averages for the 10 residential conveyancers with the highest and lowest proportion of requests linked to register updates over the past 12 months. Of the 5,742 organisations that submitted applications, 135 firms (2.4%) received more requests than they filed applications. At the same time, 393 organisations (6.8%) faced no requests at all, a figure that includes remortgages where property did not change hands.
Conveyancers are not always responsible when requests are raised. Errors can occur, third parties may fail to provide the correct information, and the Land Registry itself can seek further details under rule 17 of the Land Registration Rules 2003.
For lenders, the efficiency of conveyancers has direct financial consequences. Longer completion times tie up capital, reduce flexibility in managing wholesale funding and savings rates, and increase the risk of transactions falling through. This, in turn, puts pressure on net interest margins.
The same delays affect other participants in the housing market, including estate agents, brokers, and developers, by disrupting cash flow and reducing profitability. When interest rates rise, consumers may also face higher borrowing costs if delays cause mortgage offers to expire.
Although the type and scale of work varies across firms, the findings highlight the extent of the challenges facing the sector. The Land Registry recently announced the launch of its digital registration service, scheduled for October, which will use automatic checks to block invalid filings.
These efforts form part of a wider drive towards interoperability in the housing sector. Known as horizontal digital integration (HDI), the framework developed by Novus Strategy promotes open networks and common data standards to improve transparency and information sharing.
Identity management is expected to be a major area of impact. The Land Registry has reported that name and identity issues alone lead to 195,000 avoidable requests each year.
“While the particular circumstances of these transactions and the exact mix of conveyancing business attended to by these firms are unknown, this clearly illustrates the scale of the opportunity that presents itself,” explained Chris Williams, founder of Novus Strategy. “The cost and duration of transactions can and should be slashed by the amount of innovation we see moving into the homebuying industry at the moment. That’s very welcome after years of slow progress caused by an absence of interoperability.
“So while these figures are quite alarming, transformation is on the horizon now, thanks to the adoption of HDI strategies, where these sorts of queries should largely evaporate if the sector can create seamless data handoffs in the property transaction process.
“A level of digital maturity has been reached across the home buying and selling ecosystem, and we’re seeing lots of innovations coming forward, not least Land Registry’s own digital registration service and its move to accept qualified electronic signatures.
“It means shared verifications, permissions, open networks and common data standards will consign manual rekeying of information and endless delays to history, with higher margins, scalable capacity and a better customer experience to boot.”
