“My buyer is using this firm. We agreed sale on 16th March and sent draft contracts on 30th. All enquiries done by 18th May. Since then they have been utterly incompetent since then, particularly with the sale of her leasehold flat (hardly an unusual property type) and the only communication we have received says 'our client is not in a position to discuss dates ' and we are at the end of August!! My own conveyancer is baffled, she does leaseholds every day.
I've now asked my agent to put my house back on the market. I don't like having to do this, but my onward purchase and job offer in new area is now at risk.
I CAN'T SAY CLEARLY ENOUGH - DO NOT TOUCH THIS COMPANY WITH A BARGE POLE, especially if you want to retain your sanity. They ruin lives. I feel so sorry for my poor buyer, who must be at her wits end too, but I don't know what else to do to get out from under this insane situation where I am at the mercy of incompetent idiots. Sequence and all the other agents who recommend DC Law should consider their position. This firm is nothing short of a cowboy outfit.”
“Atrocious - I'd echo everything else written - we are higher up in a chain everyone is ready but this total shower are holding up the bottom property which was instructed in early April and not explaining what is going on nor answering emails. They should be referred to the Property Ombudsman they are a disgrace and give conveyancing an appalling name.”
“We are in a chain where everyone involved has been ready to exchange MONTHS ago!! DC Law are handling one of the homeowners cases and they are not communicating with anyone! Absolutely horrific experience for us all now and we are now EIGHT MONTHS since the sale was agreed. If we had known where we would be at this stage the whole chain would have collapsed! Now, we are all too far along to pull out. AVOID AVOID AVOID!”
“As with all the other reviews, poor service and kept in the dark about everything. They never answer the phones, can't even put a complaint in as there is no response! What should have been a simple purchase in a month or so, has turned into 7 months of hell and back and forth between DC and another equally useless firm. I ask for more clarity of what we are missing/waiting for etc and I am not given any detail, told we just need one document before we can complete, then DC send another 5 enquiries without updating me. Seller is just as frustrated as I am. Save your money and go to a local independent solicitor who will do it in half the time and not take 5 days to reply to you.”
“I have given one star as this is only option I would rather give none. I wish I had read these reviews before we used DC Law. Our experience exactly like others, do not answer their phones, emails or return messages left. Say they have spoke to other solicitor or having trouble making contact when they have done neither. Only way was to make personal contact with our seller and keep each other informed what was being said. It was DC Law who was not doing what they should have been. I believe the staff here are given more work than they can cope with which results in extremely poor service. Our purchase went through after 6 months with only 3 in chain and we were cash buyers. We have just received another form to sign and witness as original not accepted by Land Registry. Over 6 months since we moved in! DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY. Use your local solicitor someone you can actually talk to. I was going to say you may pay a little more, but by the time DC Law have added all their little extras that you were not aware of you probably will not.”
“I’m currently using DC Law to sell and buy a house. Please do not use this company. I only did because they were recommended by the estate agent. I’m now at a stage where I do not even want to move, they have drained all the excitement out of me. They never answer phones and rarely reply to emails. If your solicitor goes away do not expect anyone else to deal with the file, you will just have to wait. They will pretend they haven’t had responses from other solicitors when you have evidence that they do. I ended up getting responses from our sellers via the sellers estate agents. I’ve never worked with such an unprofessional company. Please avoid it’s not worth your stress.”
“Don't know where to start, last night cried, woke upset this morning and cried. I really don't know where to go to get the sale of our property completed. Phone calls not answered, actually getting to speak to the named conveyer is nigh impossible. Is it a power game they like to play to wreck peoples lives. Our estate agents and buyer have been brilliant, but DC Law are seriously affecting my life and well being. .”
“Currently trying to sell a house as part of a deceased estate. Sale agreed in March with the completion date due yesterday after much faffing. Completion fell through as buyers still waiting for paperwork from this outfit. May lose the sale through their incompetence and winding up of the estate delayed as a result.”
“Awful service, avoid at all costs, I have left at least 6 messages for a call back and still nothing, we were told can't stay on hold while a reposentive becomes free as we stopping new business calls coming through, given they are too busy to answer current clientele the last thing they need are more customers to let down, simply just want an update that's all. It shouldn't be this difficult.”
“Offer accepted 30th March 2021.
Now, some 4 months later, I still haven't exchanged with my buyers. There is no onward chain and they are 1st time buyers. The property sold is on a sub 5 years old estate; the transaction here should have been remarkably simple and straight forward but it has been anything but.
At this point in time (3rd August 2021) DC Law have just stopped communicating entirely - not even Purple Bricks can get hold of them on their special hotline; it's like they've gone bust, perhaps they have? My help 2 buy valuation that has already been extended will now expire before completion which means I will now have to pay for it to be re-done and wait even longer. Now they're actually costing me money too as well as causing untold stress.
I can honestly, hand-on-heart say, that I have never experienced such terrible communication and bad service in my 40+ years, and I feel almost 100% powerless to do anything about it, and that is why I am writing this review here as it is about all I can do.
The root cause of the issue is, I believe, that I decided to let Purple Bricks suggest I use their recommended conveyancers. This firm (DC Law) is doing the Purple Bricks brand no good whatsoever. I should have paid the ~£300 that Purple Bricks's Ts & Cs said I would have to if I wanted to instruct a different conveyancer upon offer acceptance (because I deferred my fee rather than paying it up-front) – not that I was told this at the time of course, the agent conveniently left that critical piece of information out!
My advice for anyone who has used, or is using, Purple Bricks to sell is to steer WELL CLEAR of their recommended conveyancing firms, instead pay the £300 to get out of it if you've deferred your fee and instruct a conveyancer that actually communicates with their clients and will work with you on your transaction rather than what appears to be against you.
Finally, there is a lot of stock put into their eWay online transaction progress tracking system. This system does not really tell you anything; it is an elaborate document upload portal more than anything else. You cannot use it to contact your solicitor directly as you might expect. You can send an email from it, sure, and you will receive the standard response and then you'll never hear back from them again.”
“DC law are costing us money as they do not reply to us or even our solicitors. We have been waiting since 27th May for them to answer simple questions raised by Land Registry. We have a buyer waiting and are having to pay Council Tax and power service charges whilst the property is empty.
I will ask the Law society on the best way to proceed because DC Law are rubbish and uncaring.”
“We are using this joke of a firm . We was recommended buy our estate agent as well . They all blame each other . There playing with peoples lives and money . A government body should investigate them .”
“My buyers are using DC Law and they are completely incompetent. The biggest purchase of my life which is supposed to be an exciting new chapter. DC Law have made it the most stressful experience ever. 4 months down the line and still no sign of exchange”
“Don’t use these conveyancers- absolutely useless!! They don’t answer calls or respond to emails. My son is currently buying a house where the vendor has used D C Law and even she can’t get any response from them so chain may collapse due to their total lack of service”
“This is on behalf of my wife. Trying to buy a flat for her ageing mother so she can be closer to us both. Mother took the sale price out of her savings, thus losing interest, in August 2020 expecting quick sale. No chain etc.
Nearly 12 months on and the seller's conveyancing, DC Law, is STILL faffing around. Allegedly the DC Law solicitor in charge of this went into hospital and no one at DC Law apparently took over this sale nor I presume any other sale of property that the solicitor was handling!!!! My MiL has lost nearly £4k revenue from her savings due to this.
My wife is stressed to hell, my MiL is stressed and worried about dying before she gets into the flat and this is primarily due to the DC Law solicitors.
Nearly 12 months to purchase a no chain, cash buyer etc is ridiculous.”
“DO NOT USE been waiting 16 months absolutely fuming we’ve lost a buyer and because of their incompetence or should I say laziness they don’t seem to do anything joke of a company”
“Awful slow experience!!! I cannot see that our sale or purchase will complete !!!! Thanks guys…. Passed from a slow person to an even slower person who literally does NOTHING GRRRRRRR”
“They are extremely slow at dealing with the sale of a house, we are currently into our 5th month and still no talk of exchange/completion date. Avoid at all costs. The biggest purchase in my life and these have made it so stressful I no longer feel excited about my new chapter ahead. AVOID at all costs”
“Avoid at all cost. No communication. No calls returned or emails responded to.
My solicitor tried and tried for a week to no avail. Nearly lost us our buyer.”
