The Two-Week Delay Caused by One Unsigned Form

At 3.40 on a Wednesday afternoon, a sales progressor gets a call from the buyer’s solicitor: the local authority search still hasn’t been ordered. The signed search authorisation is missing. It was sent to the buyer two weeks ago, but nobody spotted that it hadn’t come back.

The buyer thought the solicitor had everything. The vendor thought the sale was moving. The agency assumed the conveyancing team was waiting on the council. Meanwhile, the search hasn’t even joined the queue.

I saw this kind of quiet hold-up repeatedly in my ten years on the agency floor. It rarely looks dramatic on the day. Then the chain is still waiting weeks later, and everyone is asking when the delay started.

The form is small. The gap it leaves isn’t.

The search authorisation is one of many early documents a buyer may be asked to review and sign. The exact paperwork and timing vary between conveyancing firms. But where the solicitor needs signed authority before ordering searches, that missing signature can stop the next step from happening.

A local authority search and a drainage search are separate enquiries. The local authority search can cover matters held by the council, while the drainage search asks about water and sewerage connections. Neither is ordered simply because a sale has been agreed. The conveyancer needs the right instructions and information to do their work.

The hold-up often begins with ordinary things: an email buried beneath work messages, a buyer unsure which pages need signing, or one of two buyers returning the form while the second forgets. A solicitor’s team may have sent a reminder, but it can still go unseen. The agency might hear that searches are “being dealt with” without knowing that the instruction itself is outstanding.

I don’t expect a negotiator to interpret legal documents, and I wouldn’t ask one to. The solicitor owns the conveyancing and advises the buyer. But an agency can help keep the sale moving by noticing that a task has no recorded answer and asking the right person what is outstanding.

The clock that nobody sees

Two weeks lost before an order is placed is not the same as a council taking two weeks to return a search. It is an avoidable wait before the search process has properly begun. Once the solicitor sends the request, the timing depends on the relevant authority or provider; an agency can’t control that queue.

But the extra wait can still matter. Searches are one part of the work needed before the conveyancer can report to the buyer and advise on the purchase. If a chain is already juggling a mortgage offer, a sale on the buyer’s own property, or a vendor trying to agree a completion date, a late start gives everyone less room to respond.

There is a cost in staff time, too. A negotiator or sales progressor may spend several calls checking what happened, forwarding messages and updating the vendor. Those minutes are small in isolation; repeated across a busy pipeline, they take attention away from useful conversations with buyers and sellers. I won’t pretend every missing form causes a fall-through. But a preventable gap can make an already tight chain more fragile.

The practical point is simple: don’t guess where the delay sits. Confirm whether the authorisation has been received, whether anything else is needed, and, where the solicitor can confirm it, whether the search has actually been ordered.

A reminder-and-record routine

The fix isn’t for the agency to take over the solicitor’s job. It’s to make sure the request, reminder and answer don’t disappear between inboxes.

When a sale is marked as agreed in Reapit, Alto or Dezrez, a record can be created for the initial conveyancing milestones. One task might read: “Buyer solicitor to confirm search authority sent.” Another: “Check authority returned or outstanding.” The record should name who is responsible for the next check and when that check is due. It should not imply that the agency is ordering the search.

If the solicitor confirms that the authority has been sent to the buyer, an agreed reminder can go to the relevant agency contact if there is still no update by the recorded date. That person can then ask the solicitor whether the buyer needs a fresh copy or clarification. If the solicitor says the form has come back and the search is ordered, the agency records that update and moves on. If there’s no response, the task stays visibly open and can be raised with the branch manager or sales progressor.

This kind of reminder system can send a polite, factual nudge, but it must stay within the agency’s role. It should not chase the buyer as if the agency were their legal adviser, make claims about legal deadlines, or treat a lack of response as permission to proceed. Any message to the buyer should be agreed with the relevant people and make clear that questions about signing or the effect of the form belong with their solicitor.

Keep a clear record of the date, who confirmed the status and what remains outstanding. Share only information the agency needs to coordinate the sale. That means sensible access controls and handling personal data in line with GDPR. The aim is not a bigger pile of notes; it is a reliable answer to “What are we waiting for, and who has the next action?”

The Law Society explains the purpose of CON29 forms, and the government’s home-buying guidance sets out the roles involved. Both are useful context, but the buyer should always get advice on their own file from their conveyancer.

Where automation can help, and where it stops

At an agency, a reminder can be triggered by a status or date in the CRM, then recorded against the sale. If the CRM and the agency’s communication tools are connected, the team can see that a check is due without relying on one person to remember it between calls and viewings.

The handover still belongs to people. The solicitor confirms whether authority is required and whether searches have been ordered. The buyer signs and asks their solicitor for legal advice. The agency records the update, keeps the vendor appropriately informed and flags a delay that could affect the chain. No automated message should interpret a search result or tell anyone to exchange or complete.

That boundary matters. We can help agencies connect tools and keep administrative follow-ups visible, but the conveyancer remains responsible for the legal work. Our estate agency services and CRM integration work start from the agency’s existing setup rather than assuming every branch works the same way.

How I approach this at Nexform AI

At Nexform, I start by mapping what actually happens after a sale is agreed: which team member checks the file, where the solicitor’s updates arrive, how Reapit, Alto or Dezrez is used, and what the branch does when a document is still missing.

We begin with a 30-minute Discovery call. If there’s a clear case for improving how outstanding items are tracked, the next step is a paid Pilot, typically £3,000–£8,000, focused on that agreed part of the process. We review what works before discussing a wider Build. I won’t promise that a reminder shortens a council’s search queue. The question is whether it prevents a form sitting unnoticed before the solicitor can place the order.

If your agency wants to see whether a reminder-and-record system would fit its sales progression, book a 30-minute Discovery call. We’ll walk through where search-authorisation updates sit today, identify what the agency can responsibly chase, and outline what a Pilot could cover.

Phil Yassein is the founder of Nexform AI. He spent 10 years in UK estate agency before building AI automation around the operational problems he experienced first-hand. Nexform AI is an approved Crown Commercial Service supplier and works with UK agencies through Discovery, Pilot and Build engagements.