Countrywide Property Lawyers - eeek! Can I cancel?

FTB2009

I am buying my first house, the offer was accepted on Friday and I was pursuaded to use the above solicitors by the EA as the vendor is using them. I thought it would be simplier if we were both using the same company. I decided to google them in a quiet moment today and found many awful reviews. Cue lots of panic!
I paid the EA £200 and signed an instruction form on Saturday, he only photocopied it, he didn't give me the original with all the terms on the back.

Am I entitled to call up the EA tomorrow and cancel with a refund as they can't have done any work yet. The reviews were so awful I really don't want to use them. Do solicitors have a cooling off period or anything similar?

Sphynx

Oh joy both my buyer and vendor are using these :mad:

I can't help with your situation OP. I think you will just have to phone first thing and explain, but maybe someone on here has experience of countrywide that isn't so bad?

DVardysShadow

Your best get out - and it is not sure fire is that Agent signed you up knowing that vendor was using the same, but did not explain the conflicts of interest issue to you.

Welsh_Totster

Get out now! CWPL are the biggest load of uneducated rogues I know of. Our buyer used them and it took 5 months to complete due to their ineptitude and stalling tactics. We were ready to complete in the first week of December and actually completed mid February, and they stalled so much on that, that we ended up exchanging and completing at 3.30pm on the same day which was too late for our removals people to move us which cost us an extra £500 in storage overnight and because we completed after 31 December 2009 we also had an extra £1600 in stamp duty to pay even though they promised we would complete before christmas and the stamp duty deadline. The week before christmas they hadnt even sent off for local searches!

My rant could go on for pages, but Ill stop there. Avoid them like the plague, oh and my buyer ended up paying £1800 plus £500 for searches in the end, we paid £950 for a proper solicitor who did a marvellous job, so not only are Countrywide the biggest pile of pants ever they also charge well over the odds for a sh!te service.

Running_Horse

Sphynx wrote: »

but maybe someone on here has experience of countrywide that isn't so bad?

That would be us.

We signed up for them on the basis of what the EA said, and found them to be OK. You speak to the office junior on the phone, and they don't update the online progress report, but we found they were OK when given something to work with.

Our problems came from the vendor's local solicitor losing documents, taking time off sick, and not answering queries. However, having now read contrary reviews I can understand people being wary, and would think long and hard about using them again.

dubsey

The dreaded CPL again. The only good thing I can say is that they are the only solicitor I can actually call before 9.30am without a stroppy response. That's it. When you ask for updates, they will literally tell you which boxes are ticked on their screens. I can speak to one girl in the morning, another at lunchtime and a different one in the afternoon and each will tell me something different that's outstanding. Believe me, there are many occasions when I need to call that many times in one day.

I have had both vendors and buyers say they have returned paperwork by recorded delivery that then takes two weeks to materialise - nightmare. Wait until the day of completion when you have a buyer on the phone at 3pm saying CPL still haven't sent their funds across to the vendors solicitor!

They also farm work out to O'Neill Patient, RTL and Premier Property Lawyers, who I must say, although dreadful, are miles better than CPL. Check first if you have been 'panelled out' as you may find you actually have one of these other firms instead.

DVardysShadow

timmyt wrote: »

What do the following outfits have in common:

1. Shoosmiths
2. Countrywide Property Lawyers
3. Premier Property Lawyers
4. Eversheds
5. Any internet trading conveyancers
6. Enact
7. Optima
8. Cooperative Legal services

timmyt is pimping them?

jockosjungle

I was given the hard sell by them, apparently you get some sort of reward points for using them!

I guess with such a large company some people will have problems, other transactions will go through unscathed. If you've agreed now, I wouldn't say necessarily cancel.

My main issue with CW anything is the hard sell of products, you get the feeling that the EA would much rather sell you a mortgage, valuation and lawyer services than a house! If you've agreed to use them, I imagine they will be OK.

Remember each transaction is different, people might be blaming CW for things out their control. I do note that other peoples solicitors seem to go off sick, not answer queries, go on holiday, are slow, but never your own

R

garbaldisham

I used CPL when selling my mother's house and buying her a new flat (they were pushed heavily by the estate agents.)

As my mum was convalescing after a serious illness, hence the move, I had power of attorney to sort everything out for her. From start to finish, CPL made the whole process about 20x more complicated than it should have been. My mum's house had been sold in principle already (cash, for close to market price) to a developer, so no chain. Likewise my mum could afford her flat outright, which was new build, so also no chain.

I won't bore you with the full story, but I was constantly told CPL were awaiting:

Mortgage details (none involved)

Survey details (new build in one case and survey declined by the developer as he was himself a builder and was going to turn it into student flats)

Designated case-solicitor was successively out, at lunch, off sick, in a meeting, and then "unavailable", and finally had left, and every time a colleague offered to return calls it never once happened. Then we were given a new one, and she followed much the same pattern...

..and the usual parade of A4 envelopes full of bumf telling us how well CPL were dealing with everything.

Perhaps fortunately, my mum was in hospital throughout, as the stress of what should technically been a five-day-long process at most took seven weeks. The buyer had viewed mum's house on Saturday a.m., and had his own property lawyer, who was good to go by the following Wednesday. That the deal only went through nearly two months later was all entirely due to the incompetence of CPL. They were hopeless.

Barge-pole, I'd say.

PocketVenus_2

We were pushed to do this when my son was buying a flat, but refused. However, the solicitor we chose, despite being recommended by a friend & Lexmark accredited, was equally dire. Between the two of them they strung things out for four long months, despite him being a FTB & it being chain free. The EA were virtually the only source of info, & I'd regularly ring up our solicitor & find out she knew less than I did. They got a blistering feedback form & the promise of no recommendations or further business from us.

I think its all a bit of a lottery tbh.

betmunch

To answer your original queery regarding the refund:

If the transaction has not already been processed you can stop it. It is keyed in branch so could be done the second you have agreed, or if there is a lot of stuff on for the Neg he may have waited.

If the transaction has been keyed you can cancel now and will recieve £150 of your £200 back.

See if you can find a Solicitor that is willing to do the work for less then CPL has agreed and you will still be in pocket.