While much attention is paid to searches, enquiries and exchange dates, a growing proportion of today’s conveyancing workload now sits outside the stages most visible to agents and clients.
This work does not replace the legal process. It runs alongside it, often quietly, shaping when, and whether, a transaction can move forward.
Understanding where this hidden complexity sits helps explain why progress can stall even when a file appears legally complete, and why early decisions made by buyers, sellers and agents increasingly determine how smoothly a transaction runs.
What sits behind pre-exchange
Pre-exchange is no longer a single milestone driven purely by legal readiness. It is the point at which multiple dependencies must align.
Conveyancers are required to maintain live oversight of identity, sanctions and financial verification throughout the transaction, not just at instruction. Source-of-funds assessments now extend beyond simple document checks into context, consistency and plausibility, particularly where funds involve gifts, business income or overseas elements.
Alongside this, lender criteria continue to evolve during the life of a transaction. Mortgage conditions are not fixed at offer stage, and legal progress alone is no longer sufficient to trigger exchange.
From an agent’s perspective, this can mean a file looks ‘ready’ while critical background checks remain active.
Acting for the lender as well as the client
It is often overlooked that conveyancers act for both the buyer and the lender. In doing so, they are required to follow the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook, which sets out mandatory instructions that must be complied with before a lender will release funds.
Part One contains the core standards shared by all lenders, while Part Two is lender-specific and sets out individual requirements around acceptable documentation, reporting obligations, search insurance and risk policies.
This dual role introduces additional dependencies that sit outside the direct control of agents and clients.”
These instructions are not discretionary. Where reporting duties apply, conveyancers must notify lenders of relevant information, even if this occurs late in the transaction. Until the lender confirms that its requirements have been satisfied, the conveyancer cannot proceed.
This dual role introduces additional dependencies that sit outside the direct control of agents and clients.
Why lenders intervene late
Late-stage lender intervention is now one of the most disruptive, and misunderstood, aspects of modern transactions.
Further questions may arise following valuation outcomes, updated documentation, late confirmation of client funding, changes in buyer circumstances or internal lender reviews. In some cases, delays occur because information is reported to the lender later in the process, triggering further assessment at a critical point.
Once a matter is with a lender, it cannot be chased in the same way as other parties. Reviews follow internal risk and compliance processes, which can make delays feel prolonged for clients, conveyancers and agents alike.
Crucially, conveyancers have no discretion here. Where a lender pauses or reopens a file, legal progress must stop until conditions are satisfied.
The reality behind repeated document requests
Repeated requests for documentation are rarely the result of poor organisation. They are usually driven by timing.
Evidence relied upon earlier in a transaction may no longer meet regulatory or lender standards weeks or months later. Financial positions change.”
Evidence relied upon earlier in a transaction may no longer meet regulatory or lender standards weeks or months later. Financial positions change. Documents expire. Compliance rules require accuracy at the point decisions are made, not when information was first provided.
This means conveyancers must refresh evidence where timelines extend, even if it appears duplicative to the client. There is no flexibility to rely on out-of-date material.
How small gaps create larger delays
In practice, delays are rarely caused by a single missing document. They emerge when small gaps accumulate.
Late confirmation of gifted deposits, partial source-of-funds explanations, delays from managing agents, slow responses from third parties or lender follow-up queries all introduce uncertainty. Each uncertainty requires clarification. Each clarification extends the process.
By the time information arrives, circumstances may have shifted enough to require reassessment rather than progression.
This is where transactions lose momentum – not because work has stopped, but because it must be revisited.
Where agents make the biggest difference
Agents exert the greatest influence before pressure builds.
Encouraging early transparency around funding, flagging complex ownership or financial arrangements at instruction, and preparing clients for lender involvement beyond offer stage all reduce friction later.
Informed reassurance is often more effective than chasing.”
Equally important is language. When agents can explain that checks continue throughout the transaction, rather than framing them as delays, client frustration reduces and cooperation improves.
Informed reassurance is often more effective than chasing.
The takeaway for agents
The unseen work in modern conveyancing is not peripheral. It is fundamental. Agents who understand where transactions genuinely slow, and why, are better placed to protect deals, maintain confidence and guide clients through moments that might otherwise feel inexplicable or alarming.
Visibility does not remove complexity, but it does reduce conflict. And in a market where transactions are increasingly fragile, that understanding can make the difference between completion and collapse.
Tina Khanna is Conveyancing Director at RG Law.
Read Part 1 of Tina’s blog here – Conveyancing is taking longer these days – what’s the hold-up?
The post BLOG: Inside modern conveyancing – the extra steps agents and vendors don’t see appeared first on The Negotiator.
