Meanwhile, according to the 2024 EY UK Bridging Market Report almost one-quarter expect timeframes to increase further.

When looking at the possible reasons for this, many have pointed to issues within the legal process.

The outlook was echoed by Breeze Capital director Mark Harrison last week, who expressed his frustration on LinkedIn: “The legal process when trying to complete a bridging loan or a development loan is tortuous. Absolutely horrific at the moment.

“I'm not apportioning blame, there's no point as all of us involved in this process are probably culpable to some degree.

“Whatever the reasons, something in this process needs to change.”

According to Mark, bridging and development lending becoming more mainstream has affected timescales:“[Bridging and development loan facilities are] now almost quasi residential loans in terms of how they are underwritten and what lenders and their funding lines require legally to complete a loan. This has undoubtably impacted on completion times,” said Mark.

He believes the issue comes from a lack of communication between all parties, and even more so between both sets of solicitors.

Mark described a scenario whereby a lender’s solicitor sends queries to the borrower’s solicitor, only to receive incomplete responses, leading to an unnecessary back and forth.

Steve Burns, partner at Word On The Street, feels that valuations also contribute to transaction times becoming protracted but, when it comes to legal processes, problems could be due to lenders requiring more from their solicitors.

“Lenders are asking lawyers to do more and that passes down the line, so I’m unsure why people don’t expect timescales to increase, stated Steve.

“AML is a massive part of the process and requires more detailed responses than have been acceptable in the past.

“A lawyer’s job is tough and getting tougher. If every lender had a standard reporting format, things would be streamlined, but each has different requirements.”

For some, however, the issue stems from a lack of experience: “Generally, completion times have risen due to additional complexities, hangovers of Covid and, at times, borrowers using inexperienced solicitors who don’t get the short-term lending world,” explained James Bloom, director at Alternative Bridging Corporation.

“In our experience, it is often the borrower’s solicitor being a residential conveyancer who is asked to act on a short-term loan because they have always acted for the borrower.

“The borrower needs to use a solicitor who has the time and knowledge in our market to deal with enquiries and get the transaction completed quickly. This is a major issue which can cause delays.”

Mark added: “We had an instance recently where our introducing broker had to explain how a Deed of Priority works to his borrower’s solicitor. This isn’t ideal.”

Jonathan Newman, senior partner at Brightstone Law, feels that while there is plenty of discussion surrounding delays in bridging completions, under the correct conditions, a quick turnaround is possible.

“We work on bridging completions every day and often successfully complete loans in just a few days,” he divulged.

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“This rapid completion is achievable when all parties involved are equally motivated. The speed of bridging completion is influenced by multiple interconnected factors, any of which can lead to delays.

“The focus should, therefore, be on addressing each of these elements meticulously to ensure faster completion times.”

When it comes to solutions, dual representation doesn’t appear to be the key to unlocking a swifter process.

“Dual rep is a good idea, albeit very limited,” said Steve, “that said, you can still get a slow lawyer even that way.”

Jonathan questioned the efficacy of dual representation and whether solicitors should be representing both sides of commercial and regulated transaction interests in the first place.

“Professional conduct rues allow for solicitors to represent more than one party as long as there is no conflict, or significant risk of conflict — and it’s easy to see where a conflict may potentially arise in the future on a bridging transaction if there is a dispute over terms or fairness,” said Jonathan.

“This is not just about the sales piece. It’s important that lenders consider the security piece and, if the security is the primary concern, then dual representation should be very carefully considered. It really is a question of balancing priority needs.”

According to Jonathan, he has seen a rise in the number of advising solicitors who have been dragged into recovery proceedings on the grounds that the advice received by borrowers during the recovery process was not up to standard. When it comes to dual representation cases, this could cause extra issues for lenders if there are reasonable grounds to suggest a solicitor hasn’t acted with complete impartiality.

On the occasions that Breeze Capital has used dual representation, Mark claimed it hadn’t made a dent in completion times.

Instead, Mark believes the process can be sped up in other ways: “We already use No Search Indemnity, so that does help to cut down waiting times but, if you are providing development finance or you are funding land with planning, you would want physical searches carried out to protect you.

“The other key point is for the borrower to put their solicitor ‘in funds’ the moment the loan is approved by the lender’s credit team/committee, rather than wait for their valuation to come back, which can take two weeks.”

While Mark understands why borrowers wait, he notes that no work will be done by solicitors during this time, meaning two weeks can be lost.

From Jonathan’s perspective, he feels that clear and comprehensive documentation requirements being communicated to all parties could streamline legal processing times, in addition to utilising tech to avoid incomplete or missing paperwork.

“Leveraging technology for document submission and verification can significantly speed up the process and guard against a submission with missing fields or information,” he highlighted.

“As a general discipline, effective communication ensuring that all parties are aware of their responsibilities and deadlines can also help keep the process on track.

“Focusing on these areas can go a long way to reducing the overall processing time.”

Steve agreed that the answer was collaboration, and this included the broker: “We are there to liaise between lawyers, lenders, and valuers; let us help steer the ship. It works.”