PVQs (Post Valuation Queries) are part and parcel of property transactions, but the way they’re handled today is one of the quietest causes of delay in the offer-to-completion journey. This is particularly topical, given the recent Santander report which labelled the home-buying process as “antiquated” and that more than half a million failed transactions per year are costing consumers directly about £560m.
Focussing on post valuation queries, what should be a routine request or disclosure from a conveyancer to a lender and ought to be resolved within a few hours, often ends up stuck in a tangle of emails. Questions arrive in the lender’s inbox without the full context, answers go back due to missing key details, and both sides often waste days clarifying what was meant in the first place. The outcome is familiar with PVQs that should take hours or days to resolve instead sit unresolved for weeks.
How PVQs drag cases down
The truth is that the problem isn’t the query itself, it’s the process. Email may seem flexible, but it’s completely unstructured. A single PVQ can bounce between multiple inboxes, generating long threads of “please confirm” or “please see attached again.” When multiplied across hundreds of live cases, the effect is significant, meaning conveyancers lose valuable fee earner time, lenders face mounting operational costs, and clients experience unexplained delays at the very point they are hoping for momentum.
This is more than an operational irritation, it’s a problem which undermines confidence through delays, adds to consumer stress, and contributes to the perception that conveyancing is slow and unpredictable.
Thankfully, there is another way. Instead of these open-ended emails, a structured digital workflow, can manage PVQs with the same discipline applied to other parts of the transaction. By guiding the query with specific fields and prompts, lenders can receive the information they need the first time, and conveyancers can avoid the frustrating endless back-and-forth.
This isn’t about replacing professional judgement and expertise, it’s about removing the friction around it to streamline the process for everyone. When a PVQ is raised through a structured channel the conveyancer can focus on the substance of the question rather than chasing the process and endless emails.
The result is measurable. PVQs that currently add weeks to a timeline can be resolved in hours. For firms under pressure to deliver more with less, that efficiency can make a tangible difference to caseloads and client relationships.
From delay to differentiation
Handled well, PVQs can prevent transactions being stuck in a bottleneck and start being the true value-add process they are meant to be, being an opportunity for conveyancers to raise genuine, valid queries with a lender for quick decisions. Lenders will value firms that raise valid PVQ’s and consistently provide the right information upfront. Clients too will notice when their transaction progresses without unexplained pauses. In a competitive market the ability to handle this routine but crucial task efficiently can set firms apart, whilst aligning well with industry moves to share as much data between parties as possible.
A true difference maker
Breaking the historic PVQ cycle perhaps exposes a broader truth about post-offer conveyancing, namely that delays are less about conveyancer effort but more about a broken process. When systems are fragmented and effective communication is difficult, even straightforward tasks expand to fill weeks. By contrast, when workflows are well structured and transparent the same tasks can be completed in days.
Not every challenge in conveyancing has a quick fix, but we are confident that a stand-alone solution like our “VERSA Connect” will make a major difference to lenders and law firms looking to break the historic PVQ cycle. Digital workflows cut weeks off transaction times reducing pressure on all involved. For the conveyancing profession and for lenders it’s a step towards a far more modern, collaborative and client-focused way of working. And for clients themselves, it can mean the difference between a stressful wait and a confident move.
Simon Slater, CEO of e4 Strategic UK
