Staff shortages at conveyancing firms are slowing down property transactions, according to a prominent estate agent and former anti-home information pack campaigner.

Nick Salmon, commercial director of independent estate agents Harrison Murray who founded anti-HIP group Splinta, told the Gazette that ‘understaffed’ firms are struggling to cope with the increased volume of work after laying off conveyancers at the height of the recession.

‘As the recession started to bite in mid-2008, quite a number of firms reduced their staffing numbers as the volume of property transactions fell. But from spring/early summer 2009, transaction volumes started to rise a bit,’ said Salmon.

‘Understandably, in light of the economic uncertainty, firms have been very cautious about rehiring staff and are finding they have too few staff to deal with the volume of work they now have,’ he said.

Salmon said it was hard to quantify how much delay had ‘crept into the process’ but said it had become necessary to ‘really push firms to make matters progress’.

Richard Barnett, chairman of the Law Society’s conveyancing and land law committee, said: ‘The delays that occur could be put down to many other factors. How quickly a transaction is completed is determined by many issues including the time taken to get a mortgage and the actions of the lay clients.’

Jonathan Lay, national operations director at estate agents Spicerhaart, said: ‘We haven't suffered knowingly from staff shortages in the legal profession. It appears most of our legal partners are actively recruiting.’