Direction Law - Canterbury

Sandra Nelson

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 bates

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 Lubrin

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 Colbert

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.

Jack McGurran

The service I received from Direction Law during our property sale/purchase is the worst I have received from any company in any industry. There are too many specific instances to detail but generally, it was impossible to speak with anyone on the phone and emails would go unanswered for weeks. When we complained to senior partners at the firm, following the Complaints Policy (which we did multiple times), our complaints were unanswered also. Do not hire this firm to deal with your property sale/purchase.

Update Jan 2023:
After using the firm to buy my property 2 years ago, I recently discovered when trying to remortgage that they never submitted the Title Deed to the Land Registry, meaning that we were unable to complete the remortgage. This took them 3 months to resolve - 2.5 months of me chasing, and then 2 weeks to actually complete everything after I made a formal complaint.

Update 2025:
We're now facing difficulties in selling our property that will incur significant costs due to points that were missed during the purchase by Direction Law. Avoid at all costs.

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!

A B

I'm a First Time Buyer through the Shared Ownership Scheme and Direction Law was my solicitor throughout this process.
My experience was fantastic. Both Stephen and Jade were extremely professional, knowledgeable and helpful  made the process run smoothly, answered all my questions promptly via email, phone and DL portal and communicated well with both Clarion Housing & Censeo Mortgage Broker. The system used to submit documents through Thirdfort was easy and straightforward.
Everything went like a well oiled machine with less than 2 months from the first viewing to the day of completion.

Thank you for making this important step so easy for me.

Jak Drummond

If I could give zero stars I would, one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with! I unfortunately had to use Direction Law when I first purchased my property, 2 years ago - I am now renewing my mortgage and required a copy of the title deed to issue to the new lender, I find out Direction Law never even made the application to the land registry until I contacted them two weeks to request a copy. You get put through to voicemail every single time, nobody responds to emails which is very unprofessional especially when it’s regarding mortgages. I would highly recommend not to use this company, legal ombudsman are aware.

Update: 27/12/22
Once again the company has not stuck to any deadlines, due to the complacency of Direction Law not making an application to the land registry on time; I won’t be able to renew my mortgage on time even though I started the renewal process with more than enough time on my end. I will be taking legal action and updating the legal ombudsman.