What conveyancing is actually doing while nothing appears to happen

This is written to be used rather than admired. Each section below is a decision about conveyancing, and each one has a default.

The work is sequential

Title is examined, searches are ordered, enquiries are raised on what those reveal, and replies are chased before a contract can be approved. Each stage depends on the previous one, so a delay early on propagates through everything after it. This is why a transaction can appear to stall for weeks and then move in a day.

Searches come from third parties

Local authority, drainage, environmental and mining searches are supplied by external bodies with their own queues. Turnaround varies dramatically by authority and is not something a solicitor can accelerate. Ordering them at the earliest possible moment is the only available lever, which is why instructing early matters.

Enquiries are where time goes

Anything unusual in the title — a right of way, a covenant, a missing building consent, a shared drain — generates enquiries. Replies often require the seller to find paperwork from years ago, and that is frequently the true bottleneck.

Sellers who assemble their documents before marketing shorten their own sale considerably.

Common obstacles

Missing building regulation certificates for past work, unregistered land, absent freeholder on a leasehold flat, and indemnity policies used to bridge gaps. Indemnity insurance covers a risk rather than fixing it, and lenders vary in whether they accept it. None of these are unusual; all of them add weeks.

Adjust the size of it until it is something you would actually do tired.

What you can actually do

Return every form the day it arrives, supply identification documents immediately, and answer questions in full rather than in instalments. Ask your solicitor for the current blocking item by name — a specific answer is available and a general one is not. Politeness with your own conveyancer is more productive than pressure, since they are usually waiting on someone else.

The takeaway

Instruct early, return everything immediately, and ask what the specific blocking item is.

The version you keep doing is the version that works.