Direction Law - Canterbury

Sandra N.

Standards have definitely slipped at Direction Law. I’ve used them 3 times before for sales and purchase and they were brilliant but this time they were a complete hindrance. Like others have said phone calls and emails went unanswered. We almost lost our new home because they went back and forth so many times about proof of deposit. If they’d specified what they needed to see in the first place then it would have saved so much stress. I actually got more updates from my estate agents throughout the process which is crazy when you’re paying these people thousands of pounds. And DL, please don’t bother with the copy paste apology response claiming you still aim for exceptional client service.

collette B.

Awful service including delays , administrative errors and lack of response. Used them to buy a shared ownership property and was impressed with their reasonable quote and recommendation on share to buy website.
Delays include asking for our mortgage offer 6 weeks after it was uploaded to their portal, getting names and dates of birth wrong, missing people off of the inhabitants list , sending paperwork to the wrong address after we had to move out of our previous property as the sale wasn’t completed in time - amongst 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 so asked them for conclusions to their investigation. They 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

Einstein L.

Direction Law handled my property purchase recently in December. I would have given them more stars (even 5), had I not experienced a major error on their part, and so close to Christmas (2 days before). The positives: they were fairly prompt and professional with progressing the matter and to replying to my queries. The negatives:

1. They incorrectly advised the wrong stamp duty amount only to be notified a couple weeks after completion and 2 days before Christmas that I had to pay more money due to the incorrect calculation. This really comes to the heart of it - do they know or care about the work? For a legal firm, there should be higher expectations given the nature of the work they are handling (I mean, solicitors on average get paid more because of the nature of the work they do) and more obligation to make right their errors to the satisfaction of their clients.
2. I had ordered a drainage search, but only received it after completion (when I complained) and no real advice on it. Interesting that had info on the drainage been part of the local authority search, they would’ve advised on it, but now that I had to request a search to be done, they don’t…odd
3. The report on the property searches is laden with typos/grammar issues. It doesn’t lend credibility to their quality of service

I was offered a gesture of goodwill, but it was not sufficient. I would think the gesture should reflect a sufficient reduction of the costs billed that are attributable to determining stamp duty and to cover the distress I felt when I found out I had to spend even more over the Christmas period (I had to actually alter the way I was going to celebrate with my family, but I don’t feel I should have had to) - I’m not made of money…

Myles C.

Unbelievably poor service. People cannot believe the level of service we have recieved. We are trying to sell our property with them for 7 months and we are still having issues.

We have been assigned at least 5 different fee earners on our case. They do not answer their phones, they do not update you and it really doesn't feel as if they take you seriously.

We have already lodged official complaints via the client services email. These are not taken seriously again, and in no way resolved. We've even been in contact with their senior partners who don't seem to care. We decided not to go ahead with using them for our onward purchase. After 4 months of instructing them they have done NO work on the case I just wish we had instructed a new firm for our sale as well.

I have very little confidence in this firm for the remainder of our sale. I will not be surprised if our sale falls through and I find it hard to believe our buyer's have waited so long. I will be issuing complaints to the legal ombudsman and would encourage others to do so because this firm should not be allowed to operate.

Helen N.

Unfortunately, I have nothing positive to say about this firm. They are recommended by my housing association to use for the sale/purchase of shared ownership. My buyer has gone with them. The level of incompetence is unimaginable. They don't answer emails or any communication. They don't update. I have everyone chasing them solicitor, buyer, agents, housing association to get my property completed and yet still they don't respond.They sent out documents filled with mistakes. It's truly unbelievable and urge people not not use them. For your sanity and anxiety, do not use them. I'm looking for ways to make a formal complaint even though they are my solicitor directly.

Fazila M.

Terrible company avoid at all costs!
I wish there is an option to leave them zero stars!

They are awful and just happy to take your money and just ignore you. Once I paid my deposit I assumed they were working on the sale process of the property I wanted to purchase, however the seller of the property reached out to me an informed me that Direction Law- my solicitors have not responded to their multiple attempts of contact. I had tried to contact them myself for an explanation and was ignored. I had to leave multiple messages before I heard anything and even then it was just an apology and not much else. This then set precedence for my whole experience with Direction Law with them just ignoring me despite my efforts at contact.

Then they tell me my assigned solicitor had left the firm. They failed to mention this and they took a very long time to reassign me a solicitor who also ignores my requests for updates and also likes to lie and blame the seller or housing association for delays but when I contact them they mention that it is in fact Direction Law who are not cooperating with them and not replying to their emails. This to me is dishonest behaviour.

I have tried to use their complaints service to voice my grievances but they fall on deaf ears. The Senior Partners: Tom Love, Andrew Theoff, Lucy Owens have ignored my emails.

They have exhausted my patience, I understand the buying process of a property is lengthy however my offer was approved in July 2021 we are now in December and I have no idea what is going on with my sale as they do not provide me with sufficient details. My mortgage offer will expire in January and have no clue if the sale will be completed in time. I have reported them to the legal ombudsman. I highly advise to never use this firm

Katrina B.

Terrible Solicitors - avoid!
If I could give 0 stars I would. Please don't use them, they caused me nothing but stress and anxiety the whole time i had to deal with them. They claim 'Exceptional client service constitutes a core value for Direction Law' but this is the worst communication I have ever had with any company in my lifetime. Even though I've completed, there's still lots of emails that went ignored by my solicitor Lyn and her assistant Leah. My emails and calls were ignored and when i escalated to their complaints team, they also ignored me. I even contacted the partners who were not helpful or even apologetic about the terrible service I received. Selling a property is stressful enough without adding a poor solicitor into the equation, who never answers your questions or responds to your emails. Getting updates on where the situation was at in the process was almost impossible, I was left in the dark for much of the time.

Ally B.

Worst solicitors I have and the experience of working with. I had to staircase my property, when taking my business they answered the phone after that everything was via email.

Phonelines went to voicemail, took ages to respond to emails. I had to chase chase and chase to make sure we completed on time. I had to speak to three different teams for completion. You don't get one assigned person. If the turnaround wasn't so tight I would have left. I even put in a complaint as it looked like we might not meet the completion deadline and guess what... yep no one followed up.

I would recommend Cavendish Legal who I bought the first half of the house with. A completely different experience. I did go there first but unfortunately they had no capacity and I can see why if Direction Law are the competitors. Thankfully completed but would never use this company again!