HSBC and Countrywide - nightmare!!!

jonty1001

I appreciate that many have posted on this unhappy combination - this is my sorry tale that confirms that nothing has changed:mad:

I have a buyer who unfortunatly selected HSBC as his lender, what should have been a straight forward transaction taking a conservative 4 weeks (no chain just a simple house purchase that has vacant possesion) and we are currently into our 10th week with still no dates for exchange or completion.

When will HSBC wake up and ditch this bunch of incompetant and totally useless individuals and work with professionals. HSBC themselves are pretty useless, they took weeks to organise the valuation survey, something that other lenders execute in a matter of days of receiving a correctly completed mortgage application. I have heard that HSBC are planning to drop Countrywide, it does not help us unfortunately.

A very simple message - avoid both HSBC and Countrywide like the plague unless of course you like stress and want a transaction to take months rather than weeks.

BigAlC

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3840017

HTH's.

jonty1001

I saw that thanks, just wanted to add my bitter experience:mad:

I will add this to my list of questions (who is your lender and conveyancer?) to prospective buyers in the future.

jerrymd

I would just like to add to previous comments, that if you are looking to buy any property or sell your property to anyone using HSBC/Countrywide, then think again.
My daughter is just at the point of losing the property that she is looking to purchase, due to the young couple (first time buyers) being unable to exchange contracts on her property because of the totally unreasonable delays and incompetency's of Countrywide. This whole process has been going on for 6 months without any form of apologises from Countrywide/solicitor.
The poor young couple who gave notice on the flat that they were previously renting, expecting for everything to have been settled by March/April are currently homeless and living friends waiting for this process to finalise. But they may be forced to restart the whole process again if my daughters purchase fall through due to her vendor not prepared to wait any more or finds another buyer who is able to exchange and complete before my daughter.
I think HSBC should feel ashamed of themselves, for using this useless company, and causing uncertainness and distress.

Cowboy58

jerrymd wrote: »

I would just like to add to previous comments, that if you are looking to buy any property or sell your property to anyone using HSBC/Countrywide, then think again.
My daughter is just at the point of losing the property that she is looking to purchase, due to the young couple (first time buyers) being unable to exchange contracts on her property because of the totally unreasonable delays and incompetency's of Countrywide. This whole process has been going on for 6 months without any form of apologises from Countrywide/solicitor.
The poor young couple who gave notice on the flat that they were previously renting, expecting for everything to have been settled by March/April are currently homeless and living friends waiting for this process to finalise. But they may be forced to restart the whole process again if my daughters purchase fall through due to her vendor not prepared to wait any more or finds another buyer who is able to exchange and complete before my daughter.
I think HSBC should feel ashamed of themselves, for using this useless company, and causing uncertainness and distress.

I am so sorry to read about this disgraceful conduct from HSBC Countrywide Solicitors and it beggars belief that they have managed to get away with so many !!!! ups for this long.
I am really horrified and now worried sick to read of your daughter's very unfortunate experience with yet another of the HSBC conveyancing fiascos. We accepted an offer on our house on March 17th after a year of being on the market. We immediately instructed our solicitor to do the conveyancing. I have bought and sold houses for the last 20 years and on average the whole process from offer to completion took 8 - 10 weeks. As we are moving into a vacant possession property and our buyers are in rented with nothing to sell.. we naively assumed that this would be an easy and quick move. WRONG! Our buyers are using HSBC Countrywide Conveyancers as well as their own solicitor and 11 weeks into the process we were presented with a list of enquiries that we had already answered back in April. Whilst one solicitor blamed another it dawned on me that our delays are all thanks to our buyers mortgage lender HSBC and their band of incompetents. Our buyers have phoned and spoken to someone at HSBC today to tell them the chain will fall apart this week if they don't pull their finger out and agree to exchange of contracts as we were all ready to go 3 weeks ago. Has anyone managed to exchange and complete with an HSBC mortgage using Countrywide Cretins within a reasonable time scale? If we do manage to exchange contracts this week.. I still won't be able to relax until we have completed and is that likely to happen given their track record?

silverminx

Hi guys - in response to Cowboy 58's question about anyone with a good HSBC experience then I can say yes. We were FTB's and used HSBC/Countrywide as our lender/surveyor. Their part in the process happened quickly and efficiently - within 2 weeks ..... Our delays were due to an argumentative vendor - but once the arguing was done everything fell into place immediately. I have now a slight issue with the survey but thats a separate problem and it remains to be seen how they deal with it.

Cowboy58

silverminx wrote: »

Hi guys - in response to Cowboy 58's question about anyone with a good HSBC experience then I can say yes. We were FTB's and used HSBC/Countrywide as our lender/surveyor. Their part in the process happened quickly and efficiently - within 2 weeks ..... Our delays were due to an argumentative vendor - but once the arguing was done everything fell into place immediately. I have now a slight issue with the survey but thats a separate problem and it remains to be seen how they deal with it.

Hi Silverminx
Many thanks for your response. It is encouraging to know that not all HSBC/Countrywide experiences are as horrendous as some have posted on this site. To my astonishment we have exchanged contracts this morning after our buyers had a monumental tantrum with Countrywide yesterday. It still remains to be seen if we manage to complete on the day we hope to move next week. Good luck with your survey and the whole journey to buying a new home!