Solicitor delays are creating an invisible workload for brokers that the industry has yet to fully address
Brokers are routinely absorbing hours of unbillable work chasing solicitors for updates — work that sits entirely outside their remit but that clients increasingly expect them to manage — according to polling conducted during a joint webinar hosted by One Mortgage System (OMS) and Smoove.
The findings expose a structural friction point that the mortgage industry has long acknowledged but rarely quantified at the broker level. More than half of respondents (56%) identified chasing solicitors for progress as their single biggest frustration with the conveyancing process.
A further 16% cited delays in receiving updates, and 14% pointed to clients not understanding where they stood in the transaction. Delays in obtaining documents or responding to enquiries accounted for the remaining 14%.
Taken together, the data paints a picture in which the communication breakdown between the legal and mortgage stages of a transaction is not an occasional inconvenience — it is the dominant operational burden brokers face once a case leaves their desk.
A problem that isn't the broker's, but lands with them anyway
The frustration is compounded by a simple commercial reality: when a transaction stalls in the conveyancer's court, the client does not call their solicitor; they call their broker. That dynamic places advisers in the unenviable position of fielding complaints about delays they did not cause and cannot resolve.
Jodie Andrews (pictured top), head of marketing, sales and partnerships at One Mortgage System, described this as a systemic workload issue. "Regardless of whether a broker has recommended a particular solicitor, they are often the first point of contact when clients want to know why their transaction isn't progressing, even when the cause of the delay sits outside their control," she said.
The scale of that additional burden is not trivial. The number of conveyancers working on UK cases dropped by 15.67% between 2021 and January 2026, leaving just 10,724 conveyancers in practice, according to research from Access Legal. Fewer legal professionals managing higher caseloads inevitably means slower turnaround times and more chasing — and that workload is falling, in part, on brokers.
The average UK home transaction now takes 170 days to complete, with conveyancing delays identified as a central driver of that figure. At that length, the window for client uncertainty — and the pressure on brokers to fill it — is considerable.
Conveyancer recommendations: an inconsistent practice
The webinar also explored how brokers approach conveyancer referrals, and the results suggest the industry has not yet settled on a consistent model. While 25% of respondents said they recommended a conveyancer on almost every transaction and a further 13% did so on more than half of cases, 38% said they rarely or never made a recommendation at all, while 24% only did so when prompted by a client.
That 38% figure is worth examining. Brokers who opt out of the referral process may believe they are protecting themselves from liability when things go wrong — but the poll suggests the opposite can be true. Without any influence over which solicitor a client instructs, advisers have even less visibility into the transaction and even less leverage to resolve delays.
David Burt, UK sales manager at Smoove, noted that the poll underscored how much of a broker's time is consumed by the legal stage of a transaction. "Four of the seven respondents identified chasing solicitors for progress as their biggest frustration, underlining how important clear, timely communication is," he said.
When those who do recommend a conveyancer were asked how they made their selection, 40% cited an existing relationship or panel arrangement, with 24% deferring to the client's own preference. Speed, price, lender recommendations, and professional network referrals each accounted for 12%.
The case for integration
Brokers are becoming increasingly reluctant to tolerate opaque communication from conveyancing providers, particularly when transactions encounter delays — and when communication breaks down, the resulting friction often reflects on the adviser relationship itself. As industry analysis has shown, the structural reasons behind slow completions are well documented, but the practical burden on brokers remains underaddressed.
Andrews argued that the answer lies in embedding conveyancing into the broker's existing workflow rather than treating it as a separate referral made at the end of the mortgage process. Integrating tools would allow advisers to manage referrals, monitor progress, and reduce duplication without leaving their CRM — an approach Burt framed as one that also gives brokers greater confidence to recommend conveyancing services more consistently.
For brokers navigating an increasingly complex transaction environment, greater integration between mortgage and conveyancing workflows offers a practical route to reducing one of the profession's most persistent frustrations.
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