Nationwide mortgage with free valuation & conveyancing. Do I need a solicitor?

caeler

toonarmyc365 wrote: »

The most worrying part of their service was their handling of the contracts. I was purchasing a new build, and on the contracts the address was completely wrong, even though TCS should have proof read the documentation, I was told this was fine and to amend it by hand!

They did this to me too! It was TCS I referred to back in March.

Incidentally nearly a year after purchase they are still causing me problems. A while ago I called to chase up some documentation I was still waiting on and they accused me of being a liar.

They may well be a great company at dealing with the standard stuff but new builds are more complex and usually are accompanied by very short timescales and unforgiving developers. I was assured at the start they could manage the new build purchase process but you know what? They lied.

Tumtitums

why does the government do nothing about shoddy practices by some of these conveyancing people ???

TBagpuss

You get what you pay for. Nationwide and other lenders offer 'free' conveyancing by making deals with conveyancing companies to do the work at ridiculously low fees. I don;t know the current payment but last time I looked into it Nationwide paid the conveyancer £126. Average cost of getting a proper solicitor would be around £650-£700, and even that means that the solicitor has to deal with high volumes of cases in order to be profitable.

The only way that anyone can break even let alone make a profit if they are only being paid £126 (or even £250) per case is by having very high volumes of work, and having most of it done by people who are unqualified - basically using standardised software and 'form' letters and responses.
For a dead straightforward transfer this may not mater much, but it does mean that where there is anything even slightly out of the ordinary things tend to grid to a halt as no-one knows how to deal with the problem.

Searches and LR fees are not part of the conveyancers fees, they will be much the same regardless of who does your conveyancing.

DDI_2

I narrowly avoided having to use TCS on a "free" legals mortgage deal. There was nothing free about it when you delve into the paperwork and see the extra costs involved with them, ie £130 + VAT p/h for them to deal with an independent solicitor on a related sale, having already appointed the selling solicitor many weeks ago this was not a route I was willing to take and told them thanks but no thanks, they also wanted £300 up front - but I thought it was free??? . They never return calls, were ambiguous on final cost. They did return emails but that was about it.

highguyuk

DDI wrote: »

I narrowly avoided having to use TCS on a "free" legals mortgage deal. There was nothing free about it when you delve into the paperwork and see the extra costs involved with them, ie £130 + VAT p/h for them to deal with an independent solicitor on a related sale, having already appointed the selling solicitor many weeks ago this was not a route I was willing to take and told them thanks but no thanks, they also wanted £300 up front - but I thought it was free??? . They never return calls, were ambiguous on final cost. They did return emails but that was about it.

Their time is "free", the items they have to pay for such as local searches, land registry etc. is not free.

albcs

Lauren at TCS has just dealt with a remortgage and transfer of equity for me and I want you to know how extremely impressed I have been with the high standard of service she has provided. She kept me up to date at all times and has been so helpful, professional and knowledgeable along the way, I couldn't have asked for better service during the whole process. I sent her quite a few questions at times, as I have no understanding of the whole thing, and she always replied promptly and fully answered all my queries in a clear and precise way which put my mind at ease, this was great as these transactions can be quite daunting ! Good customer service and knowledge is quite hard to come by, but very important, so please know that they did a great job and have one very satisfied customer here...and I would recommend.

BKelsey

lambo28 wrote: »

My daughter is in the process of buying a house and submitted a mortgage application with nationwide also.

Do not use the free conveyancer provided by Nationwide, in particular LMS, Total Conveyancing Services (TCS) in Cheshire. I repeat do not use TCS. They can't even reply to simple, preliminary questions! She sent them a few questions 2 weeks ago but they still have not replied. She went back to Nationwide and asked for the £250 instead.

In regards to the surveyor, Nationwide uses Countrywide Surveyors. They are ok. She went for a homebuyer survey (£235). Report came back but not very detailed.

Currently stuck using TCS to complete my current re-mortgage. I've bought and sold several houses and have never, in all my experience, dealt with such a frustrating and incompetent conveyancing firm. I've had to explain the documents I've sent to them (that they asked for) so that they understood it was in fact what they wanted. I've had straight up arguments on the phone with their staff trying to get my point across. I receive partial letters from them that don't appear to be anything to do with my re-mortgage and then get attitude from the (what sounds like) school leaver on the end of the phone for daring to phone them about it... I apologise for interrupting your iPlayer viewing!!!
My TCS 'experience' has been dragging on for nearly 2 months now, just to finalise a mortgage that was agreed a long long time ago.

Do yourself a big favour and avoid Total Conveyancing Services (TCS) in Cheshire if you possibly can.

cornwall1234

caeler wrote: »

I used took a nationwide mortgage with free valaution and free legal fees and I wish I hadn't! Don't touch the free legal fees with a barge pole! The company they use in Cheshire was a nightmare. It became the most stressful experience of my life and I'm not a first time buyer so have experience of the process. During the whole process I think I was called about 3 times and I had made dozen's of calls. They lost paperwork. I never got to speak to my case handler often getting others reading the notes made on my file which didn't make sense and were wrong most of the time. The online tracker was never updated so I had to call an 0845 number for updates. I wish I'd just paid the local firm of solicitors I'd used previously. In the end it would have worked out the same price as all of the other charges outside of what Nationwide paid for were much more expensive.

Well said caeler! We have had exactly the same problem with TCS, they are an absolute nightmare. What should have been resolved within a matter of a few weeks has now gone on for 4months! They loose paper work or haven't received it, there are no follow up calls to keep you in the loop and the 0845 numbers cost a fortune. I would beg anyone never ever ever to use this company, it has without doubt been one of the most streesful times of our lives. Even my financial advisor has said he has never come across a company such as this. BEWARE! Stay well clear!

MargaretRutherford

Hi, just wanted to add our experience of Total Conveyancing Services, to whom we were recommended by our local estate agent for purchasing and buying in the third quarter of last year (2014).

All the negative comments above and more applied to our experience, from late engagement at the start, through a three-times incorrectly spelt surname on one document (that was repeated on the morning of exchange on a separate document that TCS informed us on the preceding afternoon had to be signed and delivered before exchange could take place) to a phone call received during exchange to clarify the purchase price on the house we were buying!

In between we were subject to ignored emails, lack of returned phone calls, repeated rote answers from call handlers that we knew were out of date, late forwarding of enquiries and answers from solicitors on either side of our chain, and documents that “are in the post” that have yet to arrive weeks after the nightmare finally ended.

On top of that, the online tracker mentioned earlier in this thread appears to have been withdrawn, and the phone number we were given for weekend calls was seemingly permanently switched off. We did get a direct dial number to phone to mitigate the 0843 costs once our complaints had been escalated via our Estate Agents, but these were offset by the number of registered deliveries we needed to do as we played catch-up with the delays at the TCS end.

I hope these public complaints lead to an improved service from TCS –it can’t be nice for the staff there to be constantly battered by complaints from unnecessarily stressed clients – but if it doesn’t, it’s hard to see how they can remain in business because as it stands we have to agree that they should be avoided at all costs.

tafer2uk

We were allocated O'Neill Patient by LMS and it has been a nightmare. I really wish we had taken the £250 and chosen our own solicitors. The biggest problem we have found is that they ignore our instructions causing unnecessary delays and confusion.