Countrywide Conveyancing/HSBC - avoid like the plague if you want to complete

storyofmylife

WE are ten weeks into the farce that is countrywide - ours buyers are going with them and it seems that we (and our buyers) are having all the problems detailed above. The latest ruse is that they now want a personal undertaking from our solicitor - not the firm - the actual solicitor, to cover the transfer of money on the sale. Our solicitor refuses to do it. Our buyers also have a local solicitor working for them and he also agrees that it is an unreasonable request, and as a result; deadlock. It looks like the whole thing is going to fall apart, our buyers are threatening to pull out and yet nothing anyone does makes any difference to countrywide. I cannot understand why HSBC want to be connected to this firm.
Our mortgage lender is First Direct obviously another arm of HSBC and perfectly happy to let a local firm do all the conveyencing without all the nonsense.

Apparently the problem with the undertaking is slowing down or halting loads of sales, anyone in the same position?

steevo_h

I just completed a few days ago after a very stressful 10 weeks. I used my own solicitor and I have to say, unless you use one of the panel solicitors your solicitor will be treated with contempt and a complete lack of respect from countrywide despite the fact your solicitor will more than likely be doing an infinitely more accurate and efficient and reliable job. How a company like countrywide is being trusted by HSBC to check the work of a qualified solicitor beggars belief. We also had to get an undertaking agreed which fortunately the sellers solicitor agreed to. Apparently it is because of a paranoia that because my solicitor is not one of the chosen few on the panel, he might do a runner with that money. If this is a legitimate risk, I'd be interested to hear how often this happens - a solicitor throwing his whole career away and risking jail to steal what is probably only a years salary for him (I'm a first time buyer so my mortgage wasn't that big).

seagull-kev

storyofmylife wrote: »

WE are ten weeks into the farce that is countrywide - ours buyers are going with them and it seems that we (and our buyers) are having all the problems detailed above. The latest ruse is that they now want a personal undertaking from our solicitor - not the firm - the actual solicitor, to cover the transfer of money on the sale. Our solicitor refuses to do it. Our buyers also have a local solicitor working for them and he also agrees that it is an unreasonable request, and as a result; deadlock. It looks like the whole thing is going to fall apart, our buyers are threatening to pull out and yet nothing anyone does makes any difference to countrywide. I cannot understand why HSBC want to be connected to this firm.
Our mortgage lender is First Direct obviously another arm of HSBC and perfectly happy to let a local firm do all the conveyencing without all the nonsense.

Apparently the problem with the undertaking is slowing down or halting loads of sales, anyone in the same position?

Wow, yours is another post that could have been taken from the very situation I am in. We are going through EXACTLY the same situation as you, except I am the buyer with the HSBC mortgage and the vendor's solicitors are refusing to sign an undertaking that HSBC/CW are requesting. I was told by our HSBC Complaints rep that this is something that HSBC request, and not Countrywide?

Our only option is to ditch the HSBC mortgage and go elsewhere, or try to get the sellers to change their solicitor to someone who WOULD be willing to sign their life away.

If I had to change my mortgage provider it would cost me THOUSANDS, so as you can understand I'm incredibly reluctant to do so ( & why should I? This isn't my fault). So it looks like the only chance of the sale going through is if we can find another solicitor to act on behalf of the vendor. The vendor says that if the sale doesnt go through he will have to put the house back on the market. I will have lost 4 months of my life and thousands of pounds because of an incompetent bunch of corporate cowboys. Furious...& powerless to do anything.

Incidentally, I called First Direct to see whether we could go with them for a mortgage instead (as they're the next most competitive after HSBC) and I was told that although they're their own bank, they are also governed by HSBC 's people when it comes down to the finer legal points, and that if we went with First Direct we would probably find ourselves in the same situation. Its as if different customers are getting fobbed off with different excuses.

Richard_Webster

It would be interesting to see exactly what the solicitors are being asked to undertake to do.

SuzieSue

seagull-kev wrote: »

We are going through EXACTLY the same situation as you, except I am the buyer with the HSBC mortgage and the vendor's solicitors are refusing to sign an undertaking that HSBC/CW are requesting.

Do you know if this requirement to sign the undertaking is a new requirement or has it been in place for serveral months/years?

seagull-kev

SuzieSue wrote: »

Do you know if this requirement to sign the undertaking is a new requirement or has it been in place for serveral months/years?

I'm not too sure. There's no transparency about it. It would seem that in January, just as I applied for the mortgage, Countrywide were put in charge of HSBCs mortgage soliciting - and perhaps this particular undertaking is a part of those new changes.

The fact that the vendor's solicitor has apparently never seen anything like this before suggests that it's something new - (surely the vendor's solicitors would have dealt with other HSBC mortgages in the past?).

& Richard, in response to you - It would be very interesting to find out what's causing the problem, yeah!

The HSBC complaints person (Ive spoken to about 4 different ones) are sending me a letter this week that explains whats going on from their point of view, and what it is that they want from the vendors' solicitor.
What I need is the same sort of thing from the solicitor - saying What it is they disagree with and why they won't sign it - only then can I attempt to mediate it. What's annoying is that I shouldn't have to be doing any of this - I'm not a solicitor or legally minded at all yet I feel like I'm constantly nursing the attempted sale of this house.

I don't know who to believe - HSBC/CW are telling me one thing and the vendors' solicitors are telling me something else!
What's more, all of this stupid arguing should have happened back in February/March before the stamp duty deadline - but they only decided to raise it as an issue once the deadline had passed - once I was nearly £2k out of pocket.

Pierredelarue

Hi,
Just to update you all that after all the trials and tribulations associated with a HSBC mortgage with Premier Property Lawyers being involved, we did eventually move on the 22nd March and my buyers did not have to pay the stamp duty. You may recall that my solicitor refused to continue acting for me unless I paid £600.00 immediately over and above the original reasonable quotation of £592.00 for selling and £592.00 for buying when they realised it was HSBC lending me the money. Well..........I had the final bill and to buy and sell inclusive of the £600.00 and the £192.00 I paid HSBC for PPL acting on their behalf, A whopping £6,310.00 inclusive of VAT is what I have been charged. Just so there is no confusion here, thats not including the £2,925.00 estate agents fees and the 1% stamp duty. £6,310.00 is solely been paid to the solicitors for their time, disbursements and a couple of indemnities. Obviously this has been taken from the proceeds of the sale so im stuffed. I approached them last week about the size of the bill and have been told that the extra work and emails sent on behalf getting this sale over the line etc etc..... Now, let me just say at this point that the solicitors firm I used were very attentive and very much on the ball sending emails and constantly communicating with me. There I have no complaints. But......It has come at a heavy cost. Am I being unreasonable or would somewhere nearer £4,500.00 be nearer the mark for all that attention?

Richard_Webster

The fact that the vendor's solicitor has apparently never seen anything like this before suggests that it's something new - (surely the vendor's solicitors would have dealt with other HSBC mortgages in the past?).

Pre 6th January 2012 a buyer's solicitor would send a form to HSBC certifying they had checked the title etc and HSBC would send them the money which the solicitors would package together with money from the client or from a related sale and send on to the seller's solicitor who would send them the deeds. There would be some undertakings involved as between solicitors to the effect that if one sent the money the other would send the deeds etc, but these have never caused a problem in practice.

It must be something new that Countrywide/HSBC have devised that is causing the problem.

swanny47

We have bought and sold 6 houses over 20 years using our family firm of solicitors who have been established 50 years. They are not on the 70 or so list of HSBC panel solititors out of about 12,000 nationwide and thus they appointed Countrywide to do their legal work (which we must pay for in addition to our own solicitor). So far, Countrywide have delayed exchange by over 4 weeks even though they have been informed that our buyers will pull out. This isn't a small sale - over £400,000 and our loan to value on the new property is less than 20%. Simple case ! Not so since the HSBC-Countrwide scam is likely to lead to our buyers pulling out and we shall be liable for several thousand in costs to date. Countrywide are poorly paid and understaffed. Their tactic is to send useless and pointless questions to your solicitor simply to delay matters until their overworked conveyancer can deal with the case. We are not stupid though - even though they act for HSBC, because you are charged for the service, they are also your agents. I shall be suing the !!!! of Countrywide and HSBC (who are actually are current lenders by the way) if this all falls through. My advice would be simply not to use any lender that does not accept your own established solicitor. Solicitors have professional indemnity cover and so the only reason for this is financial gain by the likes of HSBC. The Law Society has complained calling them 'arrogant' and are trying to purchase sufficient shares in HSBC to influence change. Had we known of this scam, we would have rather have used any other lender. Simply avoid like the plague.

seagull-kev

I sent a letter of complaint to HSBC a few weeks ago about this whole debacle (having started the sale process in January we still havent been able to complete because of Countrywide's delay tactics), and also another one to Countrywide. I demanded a response to both within 7 working days.

To be fair, HSBC were in touch regarding it immediately.
As for Countrywide, well they haven't even acknowledged our letter of complaint (I sent it recorded & signed for so I know they got it) despite having allowed 14 days to pass instead of 7.

Our next step is to take them to the Legal Ombudsman, and HSBC to the Financial Ombudsman. Apparently we can't bring in the Legal Ombudsman until 8 weeks after the date of the letter though.

Every solicitor I speak to says that I have a very strong case for compensation from HSBC and/or Countrywide because of the unnecessary delays they have caused and the financial loss they have caused me.

Trouble is, if it comes to it I don't think I'll be able to afford legal representation to fight my case against them - & by the time its all done with my legal fees would probably be more than the money I'd be due in compensation!

I'm so angry at this whole situation that I really don't want to let it drop until I have a grovelling apology from the bank and Countrywide and a cheque of compensation - but it's got to the point where the costs out-weigh the benefits - and that's so frustrating because it means HSBC have got away with it again.

It's clear that Countrywide simply have far too much on their plate and they're doing everything they can to put off work as long as possible while they try to deal with the latest wave of unsatisfied customers. HSBC are being fed a pack of lies by Countrywide to keep the wolves away from the door whilst someone at the top of Countrywide is probably getting very rich through all of this!