Some conveyancers received up to 83 times more Land Registry queries than others, with requests varying by 8,176%, analysis from Novus Strategy found.
The technology consultancy looked at official data and found requests for information sent to conveyancers ranged from 2.9 per 100 applications to 237 per 100 applications.
The average for all businesses filing register updates was 11.7 per 100.
Novus Strategy took an average for the 10 residential conveyancers with the highest and lowest proportion of requests over the last year.
Out of 5,742 organisations submitting update applications, 135 firms received more requests for information than applications submitted, while 393 organisations received no requests for information at all.
Many of these cases involved remortgages where no property changed hands.
Chris Williams (pictured), founder of Novus Strategy, said: “While the particular circumstances of these transactions and the exact mix of conveyancing business attended to by these firms are unknown, this clearly illustrates the scale of the opportunity that presents itself.
“The cost and duration of transactions can and should be slashed by the amount of innovation we see moving into the homebuying industry at the moment.
“That’s very welcome after years of slow progress caused by an absence of interoperability.”
Williams added: “So while these figures are quite alarming, transformation is on the horizon now thanks to the adoption of HDI strategies, where these sorts of queries should largely evaporate if the sector can create seamless data handoffs in the property transaction process.
“A level of digital maturity has been reached across the home buying and selling ecosystem, and we’re seeing lots of innovations coming forward, not least Land Registry’s own digital registration service and its move to accept qualified electronic signatures.
“It means shared verifications, permissions, open networks and common data standards will consign manual rekeying of information and endless delays to history, with higher margins, scalable capacity and a better customer experience to boot.”
