Source of Wealth Checks: The Real Culprit Behind Conveyancing Delays

The Real Villain in Property Transactions

Contrary to popular belief on social media, solicitors aren't deliberately sabotaging property deals to pad their fees. In fact, most conveyancers operating on no-sale, no-fee panel arrangements have little financial incentive to delay transactions. Instead, the real bottleneck in the homebuying process lies elsewhere—and it's a problem that agents and lawyers can solve together.

Whilst government announcements about reintroduced Home Information Packs have blamed missing property data for transaction delays, industry professionals point to a different culprit entirely: source of wealth verification.

Source of Wealth: The Hidden Time Sink

Source of wealth checks represent one of the most significant—and least understood—causes of conveyancing delays. Unlike source of funds (which simply tracks where a buyer's down payment originates), source of wealth involves verifying financial information for third parties who aren't directly involved in the transaction but are lending money to the buyer.

When a parent, relative, or friend gifts or loans funds for a property purchase, solicitors must conduct the same rigorous checks on those individuals as they do on the primary buyer. This can mean collecting and verifying:

• Multiple bank statements
• Share certificates
• Wills and trust documents
• ISA statements
• Lawyers' letters
• Other financial records

Estimates suggest that source of wealth verification consumes between 20-25% of conveyancing lawyers' time—a staggering proportion of resources spent on an ill-defined process where legal teams effectively "mark their own homework."

The Compound Problem: Changing Circumstances

The challenge intensifies because buyers' circumstances frequently change during transactions. What was true at the outset—regarding third-party funding, employment status, or financial position—may shift significantly by the time contracts are exchanged. This means source of wealth documentation often requires complete re-verification shortly before exchange, creating fresh delays precisely when momentum should be building.

Conveyancing itself already takes considerable time; industry data shows the average transaction takes 14 weeks from instruction to completion. Clients spend approximately seven days simply onboarding, providing identification documents and completing forms accurately. During those 14 weeks, buyers have ample opportunity to change their minds, switch lenders, or pursue different properties entirely—each scenario requiring lawyers to restart or revisit investigations.

A Collaborative Solution

Unlike searches, FENSA certificates, or other traditional conveyancing impediments, source of wealth delays can be meaningfully reduced through simple collaboration between agents and solicitors.

If buyers are informed at the point of initial instruction that any third-party financial contributors will face identical verification requirements—and are asked to ensure these individuals prepare their documentation in advance—conveyancing teams could reclaim significant time currently spent chasing information.

Setting expectations clearly at the outset allows third parties to gather necessary documents proactively rather than reactively. This straightforward change could substantially compress transaction timescales and reduce the friction that currently defines many property deals.

The message is clear: the enemy isn't lawyer incompetence or deliberate obstruction. Rather, it's a system where different parties—agents, clients, and solicitors—aren't working in synchronisation. By acknowledging source of wealth checks as a legitimate (if resource-intensive) requirement and coordinating information gathering from the start, the property industry could genuinely improve the buyer experience.

As one conveyancing specialist notes, if both sides accept that solicitors aren't getting up each morning plotting to upset clients, and instead focus on practical improvements to information flow, property buying could become demonstrably faster and less frustrating for everyone involved.

Source: Property Industry Eye.