Countrywide Property Lawyers - eeek! Can I cancel?

mclaren2005

I would say that CPL are Licensed Conveyancers, not Solicitors. They get you through the door being cheap but I have had experience when the quote ends up being double or even treble what it was initially quoted at!! Stay away, use a local firm it may be slightly dearer but at least you can pop in and deal with matters rather than some junior over the phone. The Estate Agents get paid for sending you there.

wyldeflower

Well its finally being exchanged this friday allthough we have had to pay a extra £200 for the insurance for the extension husband told them their was no planning permission it wasnt large enough and also its a very well built extension .Think its worth a extra £200 to see the back of them.So we have also told them we want it completing asap..fed up we are feel very stressed and quite ill .would never ever use them again..wait till they send the what do we think form about them !!!!!!!!The air will turn blue..

wyldeflower

Still hasnt been exchanged at the last minute our cash buyer wanted a c certificate so we had to get council out to look at extension and pay to get a electric test and one plug needed fixing.and we still have no date..A lot of the problem has been Dixons Estate agents who are part of countrywide and they seemed to forget to tell us cash buyer had gone away for 3 weeks then they forgot to tell us we needed the certificate.They are a real bad estate agent we are going to complain as the pictures they took of our house were with a kids plastic camera and they were mega poor.then they made a derogatory comment about one viewer they sent round as she wasnt white then they have kept cancelling our mortgage interview till we sorted one out ourselves...And now they waited till it was to be exchanged and then told us we needed to get the council in grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrHell we shall be complaining big style.Husband is on holiday and his days off slipping away and i am still stuck at daughters living out of bags i am now so fed up i could hang myself !!!:eek:

Straightforward_Sam

I've just googled Countrywide :mad: to see if I was unlucky, it appears I'm the norm so I've joined the forum to add my story.
Agreed a no chain sale in early July. We have already moved so the house we're selling is vacant, buyers will be letting out their existing property so no problems there. Originally agreed exchange of contracts for 13th August.
Estate Agents recommended CPL "as our buyers were going to use them as well" - they're not as it happens and I wish we weren't.
Buyers solicitors have raised standard queries via CPL which we answered by return of post (recorded delivery) on 4th August.
Following many 'phone calls and excuses (lawyers on holiday, off sick, etc etc) and being told several times that our sale had been "escalated" to a senior property lawyer I have finally had confirmation that CPL sent our response onto the buyers solicitors yesterday, 1st September. It apparently took them 4 weeks to put 3 documents in an envelope and send it off with a covering letter.
Its all ok though because this morning a very nice young lady from CPL told me that they were working towards the completion date I had agreed. When I asked what that was she confirmed it was 13th August. There was me thinking they meant 2010!
They've sent me their bill of course, presumably that's the bit that was "escalated".
I wish I could "escalate" them. :mad:
ps. My father in law is a contracting electrician, he now has two re-wiring jobs that have been delayed by several weeks for customers who are moving house. Guess what, both using CPL.

mummyfrugal

wyldeflower, i had a problem with an estate agent many years back in a different town when i tried to buy a bungalow, it was a right nightmare (long long story so wont bore all with the gritty details), i wrote to the head office and complained and outlined short and to the point all the things the estate agent had done / not done, and that i wanted to know why my offer was not accepted.

Turns out the lady who worked in the said estate agents had bought the bungalow. They sent a letter with the usual blah blah etc but found out (while having a little chat with an different estate agents) that the said lady had been sacked.

I would have felt sorry for her but she was being dishonest and got what she deserved.

As for CPL..... ah.... unless every singe dissatisfied customer complains (so they are virtually swamped with letters at their head office) things wont change. So in the meantime peeps in the know like me just avoid them like the plague.

completelyspent

I sold last year using them and I had no problems. The only thing I noticed was that you don't get to speak to the same person and you're ringing a call centre. It sounds like I may have been lucky though.

geoffky

I got my money back after 2 weeks of instruction minus £40 i dodged the bullet...i later on had problems with deeds and access and i dread to think what would of happened if i continued to use them.

wyldeflower

I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole again ever..We are supposed to be completing by the 17th september well our removals are booked and so are our utilitys so they had better get fingers out ..I just feel stressed beyond all belief.10 weeks i have stayed at my daughters now as our house is all packed up and it was the end of may when it all began about 15 weeks ago...what a perishing nightmare they are ..They dont deserve any customers at all and their local estate agents Dixons are just as bad ..We had to arrange our own mortgage as they couldnt keep an appointment and they used to clear off home early so when you rang no one answered the phone..i have a mega long list of complaints..

LisaLou1982

Actually Timmyt, i dont know why you think CPL are cheap!! Theyre definately not!!!

theartfullodger

PocketVenus wrote: »

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.

Surely Lexmark make printers... see
www.lexmark.co.uk/
.
or am I missing something (again!)
.
Cheers!

Artful