Countrywide Property Lawyers - eeek! Can I cancel?

Lexis200

DanielJack wrote: »

I have used both high street lawyers and cpl

and i have to say, yes cpl do take longer, and it did annoy me, but they do a much better job than local law firms, and the reason cpl take longer, they do a real job, they dont over look things.

i purchased a house 5 years ago via a high street lawyer, and it took 4 weeks.... i sold it 2 years ago, and it took 12 weeks, because of all the problems my old lawyer missed! i had to pay for insurance policys and all manner of things.. i have just purchased with CPL, and it took 11 weeks but they pulled every little issue apart and fixed it...

Yes their call centre staff are poor, but i just demanded to speak to the lawyer.

if it took 15 weeks + to get the house i would rather that than it is rushed and mistakes happen like with local lawyers.

remember CPL are bulk convayancors, and for them to make money they need to turn things around as quick as they can, so they wont "stall" as this means they make less money..

yes it took longer than i wanted, but i was not buying a tshirt, i was buying a house!

stop ya moaning and think yaself lucky they are doing a good job! most lawyers dont

This is an almost exact copy of an answer by the same poster (affiliated to Countrywide by any chance??) to the question 'after reading the reviews why are they still in business' on ciao, and imo it's still utter tosh. I have to ask, why on earth does them taking an eternity to answer simple questions mean that they are doing a good or thorough job??? Surely to any one else this would mean they are just not doing their job properly!

Your assertion that local lawyers don't do a good job is also utter rubbish. Yes there may be some that don't, but unlike a 'bulk' company like Countrywide, local lawyers have to keep a good reputation up otherwise no one will employ them - they have far more at stake if they behave like, well like Countrywide!

We are moving from a rental property which we could cover rent on for a month or so whilst moving, and our very small mortgage is arranged and ready to be transferred, so absolutely nothing to cause us to delay, and our sellers are moving to a vacant property and have their mortgage arranged. That is our full 'chain'.

We bought mid/end of Sept and both us and the sellers want to move asap. We initially put in a completion date at the beginning of Nov for the end of Nov. As of this Tuesday Countrywide had still not responded with any dates/information whatsover despite being chased. They did not even bother to say that it wouldn't be possible. As our sol is a personal friend of ours and knows what our situation is, I know full well he is doing his utmost to get us moved.

In addition, our rental contract runs out at the beginning of January. If we roll into another contract we have to sign for another year. They are aware of this.

I have in fact just had a phone call two minutes ago (whilst writing this!) from our EA who I decided to phone today to see if I could get them to push. They have contacted Countrywide who have sent the stuff to our sols on Weds - what a coincidence, after waiting for weeks to hear, suddenly the moment I throw my toys out the pram they've gone and done it...funny that, considering on Tuesday when our sol phoned them they still couldn't give any answers.

Based solely on our experience so far, I have to agree with the majority and say don't touch them with a bargepole.

mummyfrugal

humph! well I still would not even view a house which uses the estate agents that kind of strongly persuade you to use CPL. Ive been on a buyers and a sellers front with CPL and they dont even get a 1 out of 10 from me. Ive moved house quite a lot and they in my experience have been the worst.

So if your home was up with CPL we (serious buyers who just bought) wouldnt have even looked at your property details. Our numbers are growing......

That is because we think they are soooooooooo ***p that we would rather limit what we look at, in the knowledge that our own solicitor (who has a reputation for being excellent locally and has been recommended by many, many friends) can sort out any little problem without taking many many weeks and having useless drones on the phone. At our solicitors we ring and its him or one of his 2 assistants that speak to you (and actually can help you AND are pleased to do so)

Stick to a local solicitors with a good reputation. Its the best thing u will ever do.

shrekk23ldn

I'm about to start crying. decided to buy a house for a first time, save some money, start legal processes on the property. They were recommended by Taylors - local estate agent.
At first it was all going well - according to them. Every Monday they were saying its just one more week. It is 8 weeks now and they stuck. They are missing one bit of paperwork....apparently seller did not present it and they waiting for reply. Estimated bill at the moment on 2 years old £100k worth house is £2.330 !!!! and it will be more once is completed.
I don't have much experience with buying property, but for me and everyone I know is too much!!! is there any way to complain to someone, anyone knows? If I cancel this now I still have to pay for this job 'done', do I?
Avoid if you can!!!!

80schild

My vendors are using Countrywide-what a nightmare! They are the slowest vendors ever already at passing stuff on-add to that Countrywide as their Lawyers and OMG awful!
This has been going on since the end of October and us too are waiting for one last piece of paperwork from the vendor. I am so fed up of this. We let our house go for 80% of the value as we were told the vendor wanted a quick sale and there was no time to waste trying to get more for our house!

80schild

True but it doesn't matter how good your conveyancer if, like us, someone else in the chain is using Countrywide or similar!

kazire

ok so i have now made the same mistake caught up in getting the offer accepted was advised to go with countrywide property laywers my mortgage broker took a payment to instruct them £400 over the phone cought up in the excitment i forgot to ask for a quote and these are rediculous prices i have seen i dont have the money for it i have now read soo many bad things can i cancel its not even 24 hours and i havent signed anything ?? please help and can i get my £400 back??

betmunch

I think you can get that back, less 50 quid. I would take it as an expensive lesson!

I stopped recommending Countrywide about 6 months ago, if I see someone who wants to use them on the recommendation of one of my colleagues I make the colleague put it through so my name is not attached to the invevitable F up!!!

Also, did you all know they changed their name to Countrywide Conveyancing Services as there was so much bad press about Countrywide Property Lawyers? Keep your eye out for that little trick!

80schild

Our vendors used them-have finally exchanged nearly 7 months on. They caused us to lose our first buyer who got fed up of waiting for completion to happen -nearly caused the chain to collapse again right on exchange as they got our vendor mixed up with another client and were insisting to our solicitor that they could exchange as their client was waiting on confirmation of their own purchase (house we are buying is empty and no upward chain)! It was only through sheer persistance of our solicitor that exchange finally went through (at 4pm on Friday!)...
Not only that but our bill is now sky high as our solicitor has had so much extra work to do chasing up documents from the vendor solicitor. If I ever bought or sold a house again I would make sure no one in the chain was using these and will be telling any house buying friends I have to beware too!