Countrywide conveyancing....

xxsarahjwxx

We are paying cash for our new house and the vendor is using countrywide conveyancing. We had an original completion date of 11th July because we were getting kicked out of our rented apartment on the 15th. A week before, our solicitor said we were ready to exchange and we transferred the money for the full house price. CC confirmed that they were ready to exchange and were aiming for the 11th as well. That was on the friday 5th and then on monday 8th CC suddenly refused to discuss completion dates and all of a sudden had 4 outstanding enquiries on the vendor's purchase.
Now we haven't heard from anyone for almost 2 weeks, no exchange, no completion dates and I start my new job on the 5th August. Having read all the other horror stories about CC, I'm worried I'm going to be homeless! What can I do to get a completion date? I have already threatened to pull out of the sale - they ignored that. I said that I'm going to get builders quotes for money off the asking price and the estate agent won't give me a date when I can get access for the builders. The money is sitting with the solicitor losing 70 quid a week in interest which I said we would want off the sale price and we got no response to that either.
My solicitor says there's nothing he can do until they have finished their enquiries and the estate agent won't return my emails or calls. The vendors are elderly and are obviously just letting CC do what they want (i.e. nothing).
I was asking for the 11th July as completion date over a month before and we were told that CC were waiting for a response to their email to the vendors to find out if that was ok....the vendors don't have email! It seems to be one idiotic thing after another with CC.
What the hell can I do to get this house on time? How long should it take CC to deal with four enquiries? And after all this is done, how do i make a complaint about this awful company?!

ValHaller

There is nothing you can do about this, particularly if you are kicking off with empty threats.

Why are you being kicked out of your rented apartment on the 15th (of August?)? Have you been given a S21 notice or did you give notice?

xxsarahjwxx

We were kicked out on 15th July, living with parents now in the wrong end of the country. We had a fixed contract that we had arranged a year before with basically an arbitrary end date but by the time we came round to buying a house, the apartment was already booked for the next tenants after our finish date.

The threats weren't empty - we were looking at another house with thoughts of ditching this sale and going with a different one but they weren't in a position to move quickly. And in terms of getting money off the asking price for interest and building work, they won't reply to my emails or calls (both CC and the EA) and so I can't even book the builders to come and get me a quote!

Our stuff is now all in storage where the new house is (so that's van hire and storage costs) and if we don't complete before i start work, we will have to live in a B&B at some ridiculous cost per night (have looked into short term lets but none of them take couples or they want fixed dates which ofc we can't give because no one will give us a completion date). And that's on top of the 70 quid a week interest we are losing on the money that the solicitor has! HELP!!!

Thrugelmir

xxsarahjwxx wrote: »

And after all this is done, how do i make a complaint about this awful company?!

Delay may well be down to the vendor. Conveyancer works for them. House moving is stressful enough without creating more for yourself.

Completion dates are a negotiated compromise. No one party has the power to dictate.

ValHaller

Academic now I know, but it may help someone about to go into similar.

Did you recieve a Section 21 notice of intent to seek an order for repossession? Because if you didn't, then you were entitle to stay.

The other thing to say is that after 1 bad experience with a seller, Mrs Haller and I decided we would never buy from anyone using Countrywide

xxsarahjwxx

Vendor wanted to move as quickly as we did because he has an operation at the end of this month.

It was universally agreed that we would aim for the 11th July and when that passed, the 15th. Vendor had removal company booked and everything. Their solicitor had other ideas though - they are the ones dictating everything now by just NOT working on the enquiries which mysteriously appeared over a weekend. Have heard nothing in 2 weeks.

With regard to notice from our landlord, we did receive the section 21 notice. And we also agreed that from now on, we would never ever buy or sell to someone using CC!

fawny

I feel your pain, our buyer is using Countrywide & what a set of idiots they really are:mad: Sounds like you are having the problems we had. CW told our solicitor that our buyer was ready to exchange a month ago, so when everyone was ready they rang to exchange & suddenly he was not in a position to exchange. They said he had a dependant sale - not true they had muddled his file up! Next thing was they had 30 outstanding enquiries not answered by our solicitor, they had not sent them & more or less admitted this. The issues just when on & on, completion dates of 27th June, 18th July were missed. The issue seems to be in that a team of people are looking after the case so it depends who you speak to & then the next person says something different.

We finally exchanged a week ago & are completing next Friday. Our estate agent was fab & has spent many hours chasing CW. Once we are moved i'm sending a letter to the Law Society about them.

Good luck & hope you get sorted soon.

xxsarahjwxx

Thanks for the support, although it's worrying how many people have had bad experiences with CC. How do they get away with it???
I have often got the impression that they have got the wrong case files or something, like when they "email" someone who doesn't exist! Losing the will to live now, is there anything I can do??

_Andy_

Countrywide are a total joke.
I made the mistake of using them for a sale last year and spent every day chasing them up.
Had to take complaint to director level before anyone pulled their finger out.
Chase them up, raise a complaint if you feel it's appropriate - sadly I found this was the only way they got anything done.

xxsarahjwxx

Can I complain about someone else's solicitor? I'm pretty sure they won't talk to me if I call them. How did you get your complaint to director level?

_Andy_

Sorry skimmed your post, didn't realise it was someone else's, my bad. I doubt they'll do anything then.

For my own complaint I just escalated from the bottom til I got things moving, and then got a partial refund as part of the complaint, post-completion