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Despite having been a property lawyer most of my working life, I have never once handled a domestic conveyance. My experience has been as a punter, and also hearing colleagues' comments and stories.

From a punter's perspective, the two biggest causes of delay are getting the finance sorted, and dithering by people in the chain who are, after all, making one of the most significant financial decisions in their whole lives. Not everyone will feel happy about committing "on offer, with a five-day cooling off period." Mortgagees may be quicker than they once were, but a longish chain takes time to assemble, and may collapse at any time should something go wrong with any transaction in the chain.

And some sellers simply aren't ready: I have heard tales of sellers cancelling buildings insurance on receiving an offer, even though the house was in a known subsidence area and indeed had signs of subsidence (the cancellation of pre-existing insurance killed the sale); sellers who had done most of the work on the house themselves, and couldn't produce any certificates, party wall awards etc (two months' delay and 10% off the price); sellers who at a late stage changed their minds because of changed circumstances; and so on. I don't think 12 weeks or so is necessarily unreasonable. It can happen faster, but for many people they don't need (or necessarily want) it to happen much faster.

No doubt aspects of the process can be made better by some of the suggestions made by the CA, or the comments on this item, but it is still a very important transaction in most people's lives, and right it should be treated seriously.

Incidentally, the introduction of commonhold had nothing to do with "problems arising in leasehold conveyancing" anon at 9.42. It was introduced to avoid the perceived rapacity of landlords in levying high service charges, and threatening to forfeit if charges were not paid. Anecdotally, one reason for the low take up is that people realised that maintenance needed doing, and it was easier in many ways having a common 'enemy' responsible than the next door neighbour!

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