Don't use Hammonds Direct

Ilian2008

They have 'caseworkers' rather than Solicitors. They might have 24 case workers and one supervising solicitor. They work in teams. This volume conveyancing model was successful for a while in the boom and then bang when the crunch comes they make a lot of people redundant and maybe they become understaffed and cant keep control of them. Very cheap fees apparently.

pnsf

cc44 wrote: »

I was v nervous of Hammond’s being instructed by my remortage agents after reading this: however, I have to comment on my own experience, which was of an outstanding team member there.

Due to some anomalies in the process used, I was in a position this morning of not quite knowing if I was homeless, and had taken out a mortgage on the property I was leaving, not going to. Thanks to the tenacity of Gemma Butler this has now been sorted out, the estate agents are amending their paperwork to reflect exactly what we’d agreed was to happen, and I am now a little more relaxed. I’m hugely impressed by her.

I have to say I worked in Bradford and I would disagree with the above and it sounds just like her talking from my conversations with her on the phone!

Anyway, I would also say the senior management never had a clue, like stated previously it was like the blind leading the blind.

Not willing to invest in their staff or give any incentives just work hard for little pay and cutting costs with crap systtems that did not work. Not employing more staff until clients threatened to pull business. Constant crisis management no real planning. They were just crap.

dazza2309

I was given this company by the Halifax to sort my mortgage. They were totally inept. i had an offer from Halifax for a discounted mortgage, and due to their slowness and inability to answer the telephone I lost out on 2 months of my discounted mortgage and had to pay the SVR with my previous lender. In all it cost me over £1000 in extra payments and loss of discounted rate. I have been trying to get compensation from them but nobody will reply to my e-mails and nobody (when you finally get through on the phone 15 mins waiting will deal with it they say send an e-mail). The Halifax will have nothing to do with it either stating that it is Hammonds Directs fault. Anybody any ideas.

suz7

dazza2309 wrote: »

I was given this company by the Halifax to sort my mortgage. They were totally inept. i had an offer from Halifax for a discounted mortgage, and due to their slowness and inability to answer the telephone I lost out on 2 months of my discounted mortgage and had to pay the SVR with my previous lender. In all it cost me over £1000 in extra payments and loss of discounted rate. I have been trying to get compensation from them but nobody will reply to my e-mails and nobody (when you finally get through on the phone 15 mins waiting will deal with it they say send an e-mail). The Halifax will have nothing to do with it either stating that it is Hammonds Directs fault. Anybody any ideas.

Dazza that's bad. I've had a nosey on direct.gov and I think you need to write to Hammonds Direct to try and sort it out with them first before taking it any further. Had a look on legalcomplaints.org.uk (linked from direct.gov). You have to give Hammonds 28 days to reply to your complaint and if they don't then you can then get in touch with legalcomplaints.org. It does say you need to do it within 6 months of the end of the work the solicitor did for you. Hope this helps you a bit - don't let them get away with it.

I had a letter from Hammonds Direct on Saturday telling me as my house wasn't for sale anymore they were closing the file and sent me an invoice for £57. I'm not entertaining them on their 0870 number (tried alternatives through saynoto0870 but none work), so I've sent them another e-mail (even though they still haven't replied to the one I sent 2 weeks ago). I've sent them a letter as well.

I'm regretting contacting them in the first place - that bit was all nice and easy over the internet and it's gone downhill from there.

Edit - see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1433675

tim1972_2

Hi. I'm an independent whole of market mortgage broker & I placed one of my clients remortgage with Halifax & they allocated Hammonds Direct.

Today, my client received a letter saying that Enact have replaced Hammonds. I have investigated further with Halifax & it would appear that Hammonds Direct have gone in to administration (Halifax advised me of this no one else, so i cannot verify it 100%). I have had dealings with Enact before & they are VERY competent & fast. If you let me know who you have been passed to, i'll let you know if I have dealt with them before & if they are any good.

Sorry for the bad news, but the outcome is good I feel!!

Cheers,

Tim.

Joker76

Suz7 - Hammondsdirect have gone into administration but still trading at the moment so be quick. I have been given a number but dont know how reliable it is 01274764673. Contact name Simon Bromley. He is some kind of Customer Service Manager.
Good luck

hellyhb

Am not impressed with this lot at all.

Was recommended to them by the estate agent. Initially very prompt and the individual who dealt with our case (early 2008 - completed in Aug 2008) was fantastic and very helpful.

However ... we received a letter a week ago to say that the deeds to our house had been lost, and were asked to fill in another land registry form.

Not wanting to fill this in and get it wrong, I wanted to wait and make an appointment with someone who could help me and check it over and witness it.

I have received 2 calls from a man who says he's from Hammonds (I now know HammondsDirect are in administration) and the latest call was today. He was quite rude, abrupt, patronising and threatened me with the loss of my house if I didn't return the form 'YESTERDAY'. I did point out that it was themselves that had lost the deeds, not me, and that I had been advised in the last phone call that they could work from a copy I had, but in the call I had today I was told that they would 'rather not' with no other explaination. Can I just add that this call was on my work number - in front of my boss. I pointed out to the very rude person on the other end of the phone that I was at work and couldn't do anything about anything right at this moment and he would get his form by the weekend, and I got a very snappy "Well, what's wrong with dealing with it tonight".... I was left speechless. I'm still shaking now with anger at the way I was spoken to.

My fiance has called to speak to the individual in question to ask him not to contact me again and to deal solely with him, as he will not have me being spoken to in such a manner. Unfortunately (after getting both our names wrong) the man in question was that rude that my fiance hung up on him.

We will be returning the form, but only after we have sought alternative legal advice.