Direction Law Omdömen 1 056

Used for a shared ownership purchase and then a sale a few years back, along with an accompanying house purchase and was reasonably satisfied then. However, my next use, this last year, has been pretty dire. They’ve changed how they operate and it’s a mess. You cannot get hold of of documents. No one replies to any communication whether by email or phone, and you have to chase repeatedly. Copying in partners to communication doesn’t even achieve success as they seem totally uninterested in retaining business. I’m shocked this is how they do business. Do not use. Totally useless and a massive waste of time and money

Purchased a house 4 years ago & Direction Law were recommended as solicitors.. 4 years on & regret this as for the last 3 months I am in no mans land with my mortgage.. Someone forgot to register my name on the deeds.. Solicitors fault only!!
Although escalated to the highest level, still no progress..
Disgraceful Company please never use them..

Clueless and aloof throughout the entire purchase. I then had an email afterwards saying a piece of paperwork of missing- having already completed. Incompetent.

I used Direction Law for both my original purchase of a shared ownership property and then the staircasing transaction last year.
Both transactions were initially straightforward. I had numerous different contact and the file was passed from person to person and I never knew who was owning it, but I was kept up-to-date during the process and it completed on time.

Unfortunately, I've come back to review with only 3* as I am now selling this property using another conveyancer who has unearthed a number of paperwork errors made by Direction Law in the Land Registry filing which are holding up my current sale.

I've been asked by neighbours if I'd recommend them for their staircasing, and now I would struggle to do so. Let's see if they respond to my current conveyancers with any urgency.

AVOID. Disgusting and awful company who took my money and did not register my home on the Land registry for over two years! Hard to get thru the phones and no option to raise a complaint. They shall not be practising law as they are full of unlawful people themselves.

Avoid this bunch of solicitors. All the bad reviews you see here are very true.
We had a really stressful time dealing with them between August and November 2023. They responded to emails when they wanted. They rudely gave instructions here and there, failed to answer calls, and had even refused to have a video call with us. They even refused to meet with us one day when we traveled all the way to their office in Wells (3.5 hours) to discuss and resolve the issues. They did not even offer us a seat in their reception! But kept me, my wife, and daughters standing at the door in the cold for over 30 minutes!
Eventually, we terminated our engagement with them, got another solicitor and we have now completed the purchase.

Personally wouldn't use this company again. If you like to speak to your case worker on the phone especially during a scary time of buying a house it won't happen unless you go through the receptionist. This was also the same with the compliance team who check your documentation. Professionals just respond to emails, albeit usually within 24 hours which was positive. I was also sent an incorrect Lease with information that would of caused me to pay more rent and I was the one to find the mistake. Just felt a bit worried using them during the process and not very re-assured considering the amount of money I incurred to pay them for work.

Impossible to reach out to their staff. Called the reception several times in order to speak to Rebecca and Tamlyn but have never been able to reach them at all. Wrote them a couple of emails, not getting a reply at all. I wonder if their people are actually working.

I transferred funds to cover service charges, electricity, and energy as part of the completion process. However, these charges were later deemed inaccurate by the housing association, necessitating a refund. For the past seven months, my solicitors and I have diligently pursued the return of these funds, yet they either deflect our inquiries or fail to respond to our emails. Given this experience, I would never consider utilising their services, and I would actively avoid any involvement with them in future transactions. Their lack of responsiveness and accountability has caused considerable frustration and inconvenience, and I have no confidence in their ability to handle any future dealings effectively.

Awful service including delays , administrative errors and lack of response.
We used them to buy a shared ownership property and was impressed with their reasonable quote and recommendation on the share to buy website.
Delays include asking for our mortgage offer 6 weeks after it was uploaded to their portal- what were they doing during those’6 weeks? They got names and dates of birth wrong, missing people off of the inhabitants list. Then sending mortgage paperwork to the wrong address after we had to move out of our previous property as the sale wasn’t completed in time - amongst many others.
Constant excuse of ‘waiting on searches’ or ‘waiting for enquiries’ but no information on what they were waiting for until I asked and got a list to send to the housing association solicitors myself. Seems we had to chase a lot of stuff ourselves and push them for completion dates .
To top it off we made a formal complaint and didn’t get a reply within the 8 week period - despite my emailing to ask for information on how complaint was proceeding. On the final day they replied and promised to get back to us in 3/4 days and never did ! We have now passed complaint to the ombudsman.
Avoid at all costs

UPDATE Sept 24:
Made formal complaint with Ombudsman who are proceeding with their investigation. This firm didn’t even respond to the ombudsman’s initial enquiries so have now progressed complaint to next level !

Had the most awful experience with this solicitors just under 2 years ago whilst buying our new build home. Raised our concerns multiple times without response or success and have since had to return to them about their poor representation and not picking up very specific areas of failure. This evening I have received a response from Andrew Theoff, a supposed Partner who has been nothing but patronising and presumptive. Our issue stems from the fact that as experts they have failed to notify us of key information but have chosen to totally ignore this and the impact it has had and kept us waiting 3 months for a response that is less valuable that the qualifications these people hold. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Horrific - avoid at all costs.
The whole experience from start to finish was awful. We had no communication with our case handler who disappeared and continued to ignore calls and emails. We didn’t complete on the day we expected as she left it until that morning to request funds from our lender - continuous delays throughout the process.
We spent endless money on next reg postage of documents that were requested weeks late.
Our estate agent advised us we were not the only ones having issues with the same solicitors and this seems to be an ongoing issue.
The whole process tarnished our experience of buying our first home. I submitted a complaint on 24th October and have not had any response to this.

I am supposed to be completing any day now and my case officer has completely disappeared. I have not been kept well informed througout the process but towards the end she has stopped responding altogether.

She disappeared for 2 weeks following handover and we did not understand why completion was not set as everything seemed ready to go. She then replied and did not apologise for the late response and said there were 'outstanding enquires' which were being made with the sellers but that we should be completing by end of Nov. She then disappeared again and we were told by the sellers that she has not made any enquires.

The only people you can contact is the office reception but they can't do anything to help as the officers don't answer their phones or respond to messages. I have left 3 urgent messages and a complaint and have not been responded to. The service has caused immense amounts of stressed and has ruined what is supposed to be an exciting time, and we are still left in the dark.

Direction Law provided an excellent service to us during our house move. Their communication with us was second to none, always keeping us abreast of the latest developments and any points we needed to action. The inevitable delays (and the reasons for these) were also communicated in a timely manner. We felt very supported throughout the whole process and would highly recommend them to anyone buying a home.

I was supposed to finish the exchange of contract and completion in this week. Have chased the case officer by Email for three times since last week and didn’t even get a reply. I then Email to the supervisor of my case officer, did not get a reply neither. My case has been passed around throughout the year to different case officers. No communication, no reply!

Gave timeline of completion that was meant to easily be possible. There were queries over the house move but all we ever got when we chased was "there are still outstanding queries" with no update on how many or who is currently dealing with them. Moving closer to the requested completion date, seller ready to go and just needs Direction Law (DL) to say that I want to complete on Friday and then everything can be arranged. Have rung my case handler and the switchboard 5 times each in the last 48 hours and every time we are told that the case handler is on the phone even though I have just rung the line and know it to be clear. Asked to speak to the manager of the case handler but the person who took the call didnt know who the manager was. How do you not know the organisational chart of your company? Still waiting on a call back that was promised today but now closed and no further idea of when we will be completing. If I could go back in time and change solicitors then I wish I did. The thoughts of being in for Christmas are slipping away and all because we cant get a straight answer. Waste of time and only thing gained is a lot of stress. And before thinking this is just keyboard warrior, I would say this over the phone if I could get through.

Was about to submit this and then see a phone call was attempted but couldnt get through and left a voicemail. Except there was no voicemail because they didnt call me and I only know this because I got an email to tell me what they did/didnt do.

Awful service, no communication, constant chasing and you deal with juniors with little to no experience who essentially paper push! They sell you on competitive rates but then sting you with hidden costs at the final bill. They couldn't even commit to a guided timeline to completion which was very stressful, argued with my mortgage broker in an arrogant manner and took little to no accountability after making several errors on my contract when not fully understanding the deal brokered with my lender. The whole experience was incredibly frustrating. A formal complaint is being made.

Very good service and price.
Some slight miscommunication on completion day but was sorted and we still completed on time

I am very disappointed with the service, the final paper work ( head lease) has taken 2 years to finish and unfortunately not complete. A complaint was logged and no response from Direction Law team or acknowledgement.
I have forwarded my complaints to the legal ombudsman.
Very disappointing from Direction Law, especially with the fees being paid upfront.

Very happy with the service we received from the team at Direction Law. It made our moving home situation smoother & fast. They gave us good communication to what is happening all the way through buying our property. We were able to receive our keys as early as mid day. As we had paid them the day before. Very friendly service would definately recommend them