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

Kau

We bought our first home in 2006, with Bairstow Eves sorting out everything for us. He pushed us into using Countrywide Property Lawyers, not knowing any better we agreed to everything. We ended up sorting everything through him including life/house insurance. Was a shock when we got the first bill, in the end we scrapped them off and went with a cheaper firm. In hindsight we should have shopped around ourselves rather than getting sucked in by the guys sales charm.

My advice, shop around

charlie2517

Hi there,

The law society website link below can help to find a solicitor. As a lawyer I still couldnt find an efficient conveyancing one but they do exist - so legend has it! Just prepare yourself to be the one pushing things and chasing then it's fine. Most conveyancing solicitors have to do volume work to make money, but as someone else has said try to get a feel when you get quotes. Although most of the time you'll get as far as a receptionist rather than a lawyer themselves. They're all much of a muchness really. I certainly agree with the not going to the ones pushed on you by agents.

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law#helpcountry

I dont know what area you are in and I havent heard of the firms you refer to - where are you based (apologies if I missed that!)?

Best of luck! Exciting times for you!

Charlie

charliechin

charlie2517 wrote: »

I dont know what area you are in and I havent heard of the firms you refer to - where are you based (apologies if I missed that!)?

Best of luck! Exciting times for you!

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the advice - just for info, we're based in Preston, up in Lancashire.

Russ

Cazza

Hi charliechin.

I'm an ex Countrywide Mortgage advser myself. Neither the esate Angent or the mortgage adviser will be getting a kick back for you using Countrywide Property Lawyers. What will happen if you don't though, is that they will get one hell of an ear bending from Head Office! (Or at least that was the way it worked when I was with them!)

Personally, I wouldn't use CPL if they were paying me! They're inefficient, a nightmare to get through to on the phone and cost a fortune compared to lots of other firms.

The Law Society are a good place to start looking for other firms, but ask around friends and family too, to see if they have heard of anyone that's good or bad. Even if they haven't moved recently themselves they may have firends who have. Once you have a few names, ring them up and ask for quotes. Local firms are useful, but if it's someone a little further away then that shouldn't casue any problems as it's perfectly possible for you to do everything by post and phone. In making your decision, go with your gut instinct from how they were on the phone and the feedback you've had from other people. A good solicitor (and there are lots out there!) is worth their weight in gold. You will be able to find out from your Esate Agnet who your vendor is using as their solicitor and you could always try calling them. As Incisor says, they're unlikely to reccomend other firms to you, but if they have more than one partner in the firm, you might be able to use them too, if you think they're any good.

Good luck!

Incisor

Cazza wrote: »

... I'm an ex Countrywide Mortgage advser myself. Neither the esate Angent or the mortgage adviser will be getting a kick back for you using Countrywide Property Lawyers. What will happen if you don't though, is that they will get one hell of an ear bending from Head Office! (Or at least that was the way it worked when I was with them!)

Disappointed! No kickbacks, just coercion! Thanks for clarifying.

fireboy_3125

Do not for the sake of all that you love and hold dear to you use CPL. The person we are buying from have and they are a total nightmare lost documentation, the amazing ability to lie about what they have done Please dont do it, use a local solicitor it will be much easier!

E_Fen

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE avoid! For everyone involved. We decided not to use them, but the poor people who were trying to sell the house did. 6 months, hundreds of agonising phone calls (they refused to do anything and the estate agent was stuck making a majority of the follow up calls), and THREE contracts that were 'sent' but never arrived later, and we still haven't exchanged. Our mortgage has expired and we now have to pay the arrangement fee for it plus apply for a new mortgage. Needless to say, we've had to find another house and have made the estate agent promise CPL isn't involved. Avoid!

LiGhTfasT

I would also like to say avoid CPL. Very expensive, teams that ignore your requests and long queues on 0844 number!!

Stay local.

Richard_Webster

Preparation of Stamp Duty Land Transaction Return - £85 + £15 VAT
Fees in respect of carrying out money laundering check - £30 + £5 VAT
Fee to maintain archive of documents - £25 + £4 VAT
Total = £811

Additional Costs
Legal fees for acting as your lender - £125 + £22 VAT

I do not know the price of the property being bought - but all the above are unreasonably high for what they are. The SDLT Form and acting for the lender ought to be part of the basic fee so as not to confuse the average person who might think the £549 + VAT was all they had to pay. Money laundering checks cost £5-£10 per name so that's high. The archive fee is another interesting extra.

r3dg3cko_rob

We are currently in a chain sandwiched between a buyer and vendor both using Countrywide.

They were recommended to us by our estate agents who seem to be linked to the company but I decided to go with another company after reading mixed reviews online.

So far we have had a dreadful experience mainly due to the lack of communication from the top of the chain, even to the point where we were waiting to exchange only to find out that our sellers had lost the property they wanted (we were told that their offer had been accepted from the start) and had started procuring a different property. We are now at the exchange point again but our solicitors are struggling to get responses from Countrywide. It's the second day in a row we are trying to exchange and they have now said they can't exchange until tomorrow!

Really poor communication throughout and far too much stalling with no explanation.

We are now into our 19th week and praying that nothing else happens.