Orchard Law Reviews 

Buying our first home was supposed to be one of the most exciting times of our lives. Unfortunately, dealing with Orchard Law has turned a huge part of that experience into months of stress, frustration and uncertainty.

The communication has been extremely poor. Emails would go unanswered for long periods, leaving us wondering what was happening with our own house purchase. I would call because I couldn’t get a response, be promised a call back, and then the call simply wouldn’t come. Having to constantly chase your own solicitors when you’re trusting them with such an important purchase is exhausting.

What made it even more frustrating was repeatedly being asked for the same documents and information that I had already sent several times. At points it genuinely felt like I was going around in circles.

The most stressful moment was being told that they were not on our mortgage lender’s panel, despite this having already been confirmed. Even after being told they weren’t, it was confirmed again that they were. By this point we were already well into the purchase. Being given conflicting information about something so fundamental left us seriously worried about what was happening to our home purchase and whether everything we had spent months working towards was suddenly at risk.

The emotional impact of the whole experience shouldn’t be underestimated. There have been times when I’ve been constantly checking my emails, making calls and worrying about what the next problem is going to be. Instead of feeling excited about buying our first home, we’ve been left anxious, frustrated and drained.

I understand that delays happen in conveyancing and that solicitors cannot control everything. That isn’t what I’m complaining about. I’m talking about unanswered emails, promised calls that never happened, repeatedly requesting information already provided and giving us conflicting information on something as important as our lender.

You hire a solicitor because you expect them to guide you through what can already be a stressful process. I feel like I’ve spent far too much of this process chasing them and trying to work things out myself.

This should have been an exciting milestone for us. Instead, the way our case has been handled has taken a significant amount of the enjoyment out of it.

Extremely disappointing, emotionally draining and not an experience I would want another first-time buyer to go through.

I had a very poor experience with Orchard Law and would not use them again.

My conveyancing matter was passed to Orchard Law at a very late stage of my purchase. Despite the urgency of the transaction, communication was extremely poor and I repeatedly had to chase for information and answers.

Most concerning was the handling of my revised instruction dated 8 August 2026. I had given clear instructions regarding the purchase and registration of the property, but Orchard Law did not action the revised instruction. Instead of dealing with the matter properly and explaining the position to me, my case was subsequently passed to DF Legal, another law firm, at a very late stage. I was left trying to find out why this had happened and who was actually responsible for completing the work.

The manner in which I was subsequently dealt with was also extremely disappointing. I found the communication from Karen Dodd rude and unhelpful when I was simply trying to understand what was happening with my own property transaction and why my instructions had not been followed.

The purchase completed on 2 September 2026, but even after completion I was left with uncertainty over matters relating to the transfer documentation and had to ask where I should send the signed transfer form and whether it should go to Orchard Law or DF Legal. This is not the level of communication or continuity I expected from a conveyancing firm.

I paid for a professional conveyancing service. I should not have had to spend so much time chasing different people and different firms, trying to establish who was dealing with my case, why my instructions had not been actioned, and what I was supposed to do next.

The most frustrating aspects of my experience were the very late takeover of my case, failure to action my revised instruction, lack of clear responses, passing the matter to another firm at a crucial stage, and the rude and unhelpful communication I experienced when trying to obtain answers.

Overall, this was an extremely stressful and disappointing conveyancing experience. Based on the service I personally received, I would not use Orchard Law again and could not recommend them.

They took ages to process our house purchase. It seems to be a one-conveyancer outfit with a couple of assistants. During our transaction one assistant went off sick and the principal went on holiday, leaving no one able to progress our file or even give useful answers to enquiries.

By the 12‑week point the vendor was driven to threatening to put the property back on the market in order to get a response from Orchard Law. The vendor’s solicitors were similarly frustrated. The sale nearly fell through because there is no backup plan at Orchard Law if anything goes wrong.

Eventually they brought someone else in and the purchase completed, but only after a lot of stress and bad feeling; the vendor now won’t speak to us. Orchard Law are probably fine if everything goes to plan, but if there is any hiccup you should expect it to become a real problem.