This review is not intended as a reflection on the performance of any particular individual but more on the ethos / work ethic of DC Law as an organisation. Never having previously heard of DC Law, we utilised their services as part of the overall probate service offered by Co-op Legal. I wish I had taken the time to check other customer reviews before agreeing to this, had I done so I would have chosen to use the services of a local conveyancing specialist. The problems experienced have undoubtedly been made worse due to the buyer being encouraged to use the services of DC Law too! The conveyancing experience with DC Law has been unforgettable – for all the wrong reasons! The sale of my deceased sister’s property should have been simple and straightforward being a “no chain, vacant possession, cash sale” transaction. Unbelievably, the conveyancers at DC Law managed to drag the process out to 13 months. How much of this is due to both conveyancers working for the same organisation I can’t be sure but I remain convinced that this transaction would have been finalised many months ago had two unrelated local companies been involved. The problems started virtually from day one as DC Law initially refused to accept my personal identification evidence. It was only after several emails informing them that “photo ID was not a legal requirement in the UK” and that my identification evidence had been sufficient for Co-op Legal to obtain probate on my behalf that they finally accepted that I was who I said I was. From that point on, things went from bad to worse. On occasions that I attempted to make contact by phone, the phone normally remained unanswered or was picked up by a “call monitor”. I don’t remember any of the promised call backs ever materialising. Email communication was almost equally ineffective. In the event that very specific direct queries were raised by myself, they never received a direct answer – if they received an answer at all! In desperation, I wrote to Co-op Legal and they in turn made contact with DC Law. I was advised that the issues I had raised had been elevated through the DC Law hierarchy – unfortunately the only offer of assistance I received from DC Law was basically “here’s a link to our complaints procedure”. The buyer’s conveyancer continually raised “enquiries” about the property for sale but rather than raising them all at the start, additional queries were added as time progressed. Some of the more trivial points raised, that the buyer advised he was entirely happy with, his conveyancer appeared not to accept. At one point the buyer’s conveyancer suggested his client should be advised not to proceed with the purchase because of the high cost of ground rent. This error on the part of the conveyancer was due to the fact that he hadn’t taken into account that the total ground rent was for a block of eight maisonettes – despite being advised of the fact on at least three occasions to my knowledge. Even-though the property was a maisonette in a block of eight, many of which have previously sold without issue and without reference to the “problems” raised by the buyer’s conveyancer, it seemed almost impossible to resolve certain points. In some respects I was fortunate in having a “fixed fee” service, although a number of “extras” have been generated on my bill, but I have great sympathy for the buyer whose total bill was approximately three times what he was told to expect! However, even with the “fixed fee”, DC Law’s snail pace performance has still cost my sister’s estate over £1000 in unnecessary Council Tax payments and in the order of £380 for utility bill standing charge payments. At first I thought it was just me that was having a bad experience but checking customer experiences on independent review sites it appears I’m not alone – so many people have experienced / are experiencing identical issues that I did and unsurprisingly and deservedly, DC Law only manage a pitiable score of 1.2 stars out of 5! As stated at the start of this review, I am not prepared to criticise individuals because it is the overall company work ethic that is at fault. I have been advised that trainees and newly qualified staff members are regularly used, I don’t have a problem with this as everybody has to learn but if they are using inexperienced staff they must ensure that these members of staff are appropriately supported and supervised in order to meet customer expectations. This sadly is not the case as my experience showed that I was dealing with people clearly out of their depth. In summary, the overall DC Law experience has been awful from the start. Their performance has been totally abysmal. They were barely reactive to any problems that were raised and were certainly never proactive, being prepared to let things drift along in the hope that they would sort themselves out! On a number of occasions I made suggestions on how to advance the sale process and provided information that I felt sure was needed that hadn’t been requested but there was a definite reluctance to make use of it. At one point, I even telephoned the Land Registry in an attempt to resolve an issue that hadn’t apparently been resolved only to be told that DC Law had been sent the required information four weeks previously. It was like being in a time warp with things that should have been sorted in a couple of days taking several weeks to resolve. The appalling level of efficiency displayed by the company borders on ineptitude and incompetence and is almost unbelievable. I could NEVER, under any circumstances, recommend this company. If you find yourself in need of a conveyancing service and value your sanity and peace of mind, run a mile if you hear the name DC Law.