Van Den Heuvel Law Office

TL;DR: I cannot recommend this law firm, at least for land deeds. This process took nearly 3 months (when it should only take a few days) and cost more than projected. I initially contacted them for help with a land deed transfer. They couldn’t give me an estimate over the phone but scheduled an in-person meeting. However, during that initial call he did mention title companies have an easier time with these (I didnt know that). I immediately started reaching out to some. I still went to the meeting the next day as I thought it was just to review my documents and give me a general quote. I was wrong. Of course I could have said no but Im bad at this so I found myself charging a $500 retainer. This was more than other lawyers quoted but they did say the money would likely be returned. (not really related to this review but just personally sucks for me but literally as soon as I got home from this meeting I saw an email from a title coming saying they looked into my case and would waive their fee, for some reason, lol - isn't that just life). I told myself a lawyer would do it right to keep taxes capped and if something goes wrong they have to fix it so its basically paying for an insurance policy. To their credit, they produced an initial deed the same day! However, it turned out to be unusable due to a misunderstanding about ownership, and a second deed was required. This led to additional fees. In call with the lawyer he estimated another $250 but promised to do his best to not go over $225. I was hesitant but ultimately agreed. I mean, I was already $500 in the whole. What was I going to do, just throw that away? This is where things turned bad. It took nearly 11 weeks to get the documents corrected and a second one made. I was constantly emailing them but was just told "we're working on it” despite knowing we're on a deadline. At around 6 weeks, I finally received an updated deed—but it contained errors I had already pointed out earlier. And on top of this, based on the first deed they sent me, I sent them the two deeds with all the correct details, hoping this would move things along. Obv, it didn't and obv they didn't use them (even though end product was the same). Maybe theres a reason they couldn't. Im sure this was a rough time for them but three months is excessive. Also, in the initial meeting, I was told there was an online portal to track progress and billing. This cant be a misunderstanding as he said he setup an account with credntials, while scanning my credit card but I never got said credentails and when I asked about it they never responded. I had billing issues to. I was paying bills as they were doing things until I realized this was going to be way more than estimated. That money wasn't counted in the final bill either but I did bring up the issue and they corrected it. During this process I found, when they send you a bill theres an option to press "download" and you can see exactly where that money went so I do really appreciate that. Although it still didn't really explain why my final bill was sooo much more than estimated. It was a little over double what the lawyer estimated (I would say promised). So the issues were compounding. I thought I should honestly have money taken off for poor treatment, not doubled. I understand you have to pay for peoples time but this whole thing was honestly a nightmare. And I may not get to build this year now. Overall, the experience felt disorganized, expensive , and far slower than it should have been. While Howard was nice and knowledgeable and I really appreciated that Peter would get back to me generally the same day, I still cannot recommend this firm based on my experience (at least for land transfers). I hate having to write this review. Obviously I wish this all went smoothly, it was the price promised and done same day or next day, as it should have been but it wasnt and I really want to save the next person both their time and money.

My daughter used this lawfirm to get a quitclaim deed for land we're selling her. The experience was not good so I do want to help the next family. We ended up doing research to find, Quitclaim deeds should be a quick and easy process, they generally take a few days, at most. However, in our case it took almost three months! On top of this, it was double the price estimated. I did some online searching and was able to fill out quitclaim deeds myself. However, my daughter requested we wait and do it right. In the end, I think we all regretted that decision. At least we finally got the documents and we're able to move on but we're very behind schedule so I still cannot recommend this lawfirm. Of course, we've never used a lawyer before so maybe this is normal (but I dont think so).

Very appreciative of Howard, and his team's time in an important matter to my family. Gave us confidence we would be taken care, immediate trust was built, and we know that if this proceeds, we will be in good hands.

I have been stuck in a situation for years and Howard was very knowledgeable and kind about what steps I should take to get my problem resolved. He is very personable and confident which are things that help keep someone who isn’t sure about their next step feel more confident about what to do next.

My experience over the past year with Justin Van Den Heuvel and his family’s law firm has been excellent! I cold-called Justin from Virginia about a legal matter in Michigan that turned into a lawsuit in New Mexico. Justin and team were so thorough and so very kind. I would absolutely recommend their legal services. I may need them again myself!!