Countrywide Property Lawyers - are they as bad as I've read?

SummerD

dontlinewindows wrote: »

We are having a nightmare experience, I was so stupid enough not to read this forum.. Please please please do not use these people (countrywide lawyers) and if your buyer / seller is using them, refuse to take the property off for sale until contracts are exchanged... or even better refuse to sell or buy off anyone who are using these monkeys.

In short - they are incompetent, dont do anything until called, have a really bad and slow process, you speak to 15 different people all who tell you different things. They probably pay their staff rubbish and you will not get a decent service at the price you are paying. Please don't be lazy and find a decent solicitor your self to deal with the sale or purchase. We are 3 weeks in and the searches have just been initiated, despite sending a cheque 15 days ago.

I have read your comments with interest and quite frankly I am quite disgusted with what you are saying.
I am an ex-employee ( I hasten to add, recent, and the decision to leave was mine) of CWPL and I find your comments about the staff there despicable, they are not "incompetent", they have to go through a comprehensive training course and pass a foundation course exam before they are allocated to a team. You do NOT talk to 15 different people at all, your sale/purchase is allocated to a conveyancor and to a dedicated team, these so called "call centre people" are in fact case progressors who work along side the conveyancor, their responsibility is to deal with the phone side of the process while the legals are dealt with by the case handler.
With regards to your comments on the searches, when dealing with a purchase, we are reliant on the selling solicitor to provide the office copies and the title plan (aka the contract pack) in order to get the searches underway, with out the title plan, what are we supposed to search against and for?
Every sale and purchase is unique, there is no specific time scale that can be given as each case is treated on its individual merit, and until the review of the title has been done to see if there are any covenants or restrictions contained within the title .
It is a very true saying that "ignorance is bliss" but if you could see the amount of work that is put into every sale and purchase maybe your views would not be so bigoted in future.

kwmlondon

SummerD wrote: »

I have read your comments with interest and quite frankly I am quite disgusted with what you are saying.
I am an ex-employee ( I hasten to add, recent, and the decision to leave was mine) of CWPL and I find your comments about the staff there despicable, they are not "incompetent", they have to go through a comprehensive training course and pass a foundation course exam before they are allocated to a team. You do NOT talk to 15 different people at all, your sale/purchase is allocated to a conveyancor and to a dedicated team, these so called "call centre people" are in fact case progressors who work along side the conveyancor, their responsibility is to deal with the phone side of the process while the legals are dealt with by the case handler.
With regards to your comments on the searches, when dealing with a purchase, we are reliant on the selling solicitor to provide the office copies and the title plan (aka the contract pack) in order to get the searches underway, with out the title plan, what are we supposed to search against and for?
Every sale and purchase is unique, there is no specific time scale that can be given as each case is treated on its individual merit, and until the review of the title has been done to see if there are any covenants or restrictions contained within the title .
It is a very true saying that "ignorance is bliss" but if you could see the amount of work that is put into every sale and purchase maybe your views would not be so bigoted in future.

I used a company called action conveyancing and they provided such a poor service that I had to appoint another firm of solicitors. Easer2move found a company called Gordon Brown Law Firm and they did a great job. The task was the same in both cases - dealing with the sale of my flat and the purchase of my house - yet the experience with both could not have been more different. Action were near impossible to get hold of, and did nothing, GBLF were spot-on and helped me through a very difficult purchase and did their job very well. Same task, very different approaches.

For you to dismiss the experiences of the people here as being unfair because it's hard work arranging the sale or purchase of a property is not appropriate. There ARE companies out there who provide a poor service and it seems that many people have very poor experiences with Countrywide, time and again.

Richer Sounds, for example, have people who scour the web searching for anyone who posts a complaint about their service so they can put it right. One of the executive directors puts his name to every response, they take complaints very seriously - that's how you do it. If you are a representative of Countrywide then I hope that more searches show this thread up so they lose more business.

kingstreet

SummerD wrote: »

I have read your comments with interest and quite frankly I am quite disgusted with what you are saying.
I am an ex-employee ( I hasten to add, recent, and the decision to leave was mine) of CWPL and I find your comments about the staff there despicable, they are not "incompetent", they have to go through a comprehensive training course and pass a foundation course exam before they are allocated to a team. You do NOT talk to 15 different people at all, your sale/purchase is allocated to a conveyancor and to a dedicated team, these so called "call centre people" are in fact case progressors who work along side the conveyancor, their responsibility is to deal with the phone side of the process while the legals are dealt with by the case handler.
With regards to your comments on the searches, when dealing with a purchase, we are reliant on the selling solicitor to provide the office copies and the title plan (aka the contract pack) in order to get the searches underway, with out the title plan, what are we supposed to search against and for?
Every sale and purchase is unique, there is no specific time scale that can be given as each case is treated on its individual merit, and until the review of the title has been done to see if there are any covenants or restrictions contained within the title .
It is a very true saying that "ignorance is bliss" but if you could see the amount of work that is put into every sale and purchase maybe your views would not be so bigoted in future.

No comment on the 124 posts which preceded the one you decided to register and comment on?

You do realise that outside the mighty Countrywide near-monopoly, the rest of us have been managing property transactions for years and no-one has the kind of vitriol for anyone else in the industry reserved for your former paymasters?

londonlydia

SummerD wrote: »

... the staff ...they have to go through a comprehensive training course and pass a foundation course exam before they are allocated to a team. ".

Wow, they actually get trained how to be that awful!

jimmynrg

Hello all,

I'm trying to obtain a mortgage through HSBC and naturally they have put CountryWide forward for Conveyancing. I have a flat being reserved for me but I only have 28 days to exchange contracts (its a new development, shared ownership etc) so even though CountryWide are directly connected with HSBC (i would have assumed this would save time), am i better off paying what seems to be twice as much elsewhere and hoping they can be quick and efficient??

Any opinions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

SenoraJojo

I went with Countrywide (suggested by the EA of course!) and they panelled it out to another solicitor, they really seemed to have no sense of urgency about my completion, and didn't like the fact that I called them *frequently* so I could stay on top of what was happening.


A big irritation for me was, despite telling them I couldn't take phone calls in the day (and so email me, which I was much more likely to be able to deal with quickly) they would call me, get no reply, and seemingly tick 'contacted client' on their to do list and then do nothing until I got back in touch and nagged.


All in all a very stressful experience, avoid!

SenoraJojo

jimmynrg wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm trying to obtain a mortgage through HSBC and naturally they have put CountryWide forward for Conveyancing. I have a flat being reserved for me but I only have 28 days to exchange contracts (its a new development, shared ownership etc) so even though CountryWide are directly connected with HSBC (i would have assumed this would save time), am i better off paying what seems to be twice as much elsewhere and hoping they can be quick and efficient??

Any opinions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

I would find a local solicitor and go with them. Even my EA was getting annoyed with my sols and they were part of the same group!


Local people have a reputation to maintain and need good word of mouth to get cases, much better in my experience.

BAZZA

I wish I had read these comments before I was conned into using them. Absolute rubbish. Avoid at all cost. After 5 months what should have been a simple sale is still not complete. I am so fed up I have pulled out of the purchase. So If your looking to move and you want your case messed up these are the people to choose. It takes ages to get through on the phone, when you do you get through you wish you hadn't !!! I'm struggling to find a good review about them anywhere on the web. DON'T DO IT !!!!!!

BAZZA

The vast majority of these say the same. DON'T USE COUNTRYWIDE DON'T USE COUNTRYWIDE DON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDEDON'T USE COUNTRYWIDE

BAZZA

kwmlondon wrote: »

I used a company called action conveyancing and they provided such a poor service that I had to appoint another firm of solicitors. Easer2move found a company called Gordon Brown Law Firm and they did a great job. The task was the same in both cases - dealing with the sale of my flat and the purchase of my house - yet the experience with both could not have been more different. Action were near impossible to get hold of, and did nothing, GBLF were spot-on and helped me through a very difficult purchase and did their job very well. Same task, very different approaches.

For you to dismiss the experiences of the people here as being unfair because it's hard work arranging the sale or purchase of a property is not appropriate. There ARE companies out there who provide a poor service and it seems that many people have very poor experiences with Countrywide, time and again.

Richer Sounds, for example, have people who scour the web searching for anyone who posts a complaint about their service so they can put it right. One of the executive directors puts his name to every response, they take complaints very seriously - that's how you do it. If you are a representative of Countrywide then I hope that more searches show this thread up so they lose more business.

Don't think I have laughed so much in ages SummerD. Have you thought about a career a a comedian. Read the comments the vast majority think this company is RUBBISH!