Upfront information cuts additional enquiries, landmark survey suggests

Additional enquiries have long been the drag anchor of the English and Welsh conveyancing transaction. They arrive late, they arrive in volume, and they frequently ask for information that could have been assembled on day one. A landmark industry survey now suggests what many practitioners have argued anecdotally for years: when material information is provided upfront, the number of additional enquiries falls.

What the evidence points to

The survey findings, reported by Today's Conveyancer, indicate a measurable reduction in additional enquiries on transactions where upfront information was supplied at the point of listing or instruction. That matters because enquiries are not a neutral administrative step. Each one is a letter out, a wait, a chase, a review and often a follow-up. Multiply that across a caseload and the cumulative effect on transaction times and fee-earner capacity is substantial.

The causal logic is straightforward. A large proportion of additional enquiries are not genuinely bespoke. They are predictable questions triggered by gaps: no title plan clarity, no building safety information, no evidence of planning consent for an extension, no flood or drainage position, no indication of tenure complications. Where those gaps are closed before the buyer's solicitor opens the file, there is simply less to ask about.

Why this strengthens the case for early ordering

Conveyancers have often been cautious about ordering searches and property data at the point of instruction. The objection is understandable: if the transaction falls through, who pays? But the evidence now shifts the balance of that argument. If upfront data demonstrably reduces enquiry volumes, then the cost of early ordering has to be weighed against the cost of a longer, more enquiry-heavy transaction and the increased risk of fall-through that comes with delay.

That reframing is useful when speaking to clients and to referring agents. Early search ordering is not a speculative expense. It is a method of front-loading the diligence so that the period between offer and exchange is spent resolving genuine issues rather than discovering basic ones.

The regulatory direction of travel

None of this sits in isolation. National Trading Standards material information requirements have already pushed estate agents towards disclosing tenure, council tax band, parking, building safety and other key facts at the point of listing. The Government's wider push on digital property data and the Digital Property Market Steering Group's work all point the same way: information earlier, in reusable form.

Firms that build upfront data gathering into their standard process are therefore not just chasing efficiency. They are positioning themselves ahead of a market that is being nudged, and in places pushed, towards upfront disclosure as the default.

Practical steps for firms

Several changes are low-cost and immediate:

Review your instruction pack. Decide which searches and data products can sensibly be ordered at instruction rather than on receipt of contract papers, and make that the default on sale as well as purchase files.

Build a seller information bundle. Title, plan, protocol forms, guarantees, consents, indemnity policies and search data assembled in one place gives the buyer's solicitor fewer reasons to write.

Track your enquiry data. Record the number of additional enquiries per file and the most common subjects. Firms that measure this quickly find three or four recurring themes that could be pre-empted with a single document.

Talk to your introducers. Agents are increasingly collecting material information already. Agreeing how that data flows to you avoids duplication and speeds up the opening of the file.

Set client expectations. Explain at the outset why early disbursements are being incurred and what they prevent. Most clients will accept a modest upfront cost in exchange for a faster, less frustrating process.

A cultural shift, not just a procedural one

The deeper change is in how firms think about risk and timing. The traditional model treats the enquiry stage as the point at which information is discovered. The emerging model treats it as the point at which information is verified. That is a different, and considerably faster, transaction.

The survey evidence gives practitioners something they have not always had in this debate: numbers. Where the case for upfront information was previously made on principle, it can now be made on outcomes.

See how Searchpoint can help you order searches and property data at the point of instruction.