Sellers using CountryWide Property Services who have messed up, how can we help?

Wolfsbane2k

Hi.

As per the title. Our vendors have gone with Countrywide property conveyancing services, which i understand are less use than a chocolate teapot, and unfortunately our experience to date supports this:
1) Offer accepted 5 weeks ago
2) Vendors filled in forms and posted same day
3) Vendors posted title deeds to solicitors
4) Nothing for 4 weeks (we were busy with a structural problem on the house, so I took my eye of the ball.
5) 5th week: Estate agents ring to be told "Oh yes, well, er, we forgot to tell you we are on hold, awaiting a small (~£70) payment
Vendor instantlty pays, solictors confirm everything is a go.
6) 6th week, (Today) - Told by vendors - We've just had a phone call, nothing's happened, they have lost our original title deeds and our memorandum of sale...
7) All hell breaks loose, worried we are going to lose our buyers, chain will collapse ( we had said we want an 8 week completion timetable, which we added 2 weeks to for structural work to be complete)

Thoughout this time I have been in contact with my solicitors weekly checking statuses etc, who have always said "we are waiting for the draft contract from vendors". The Estate Agents have also always said "we check weekly, and are being told everything is going forward".


The vendors have now suffered stress related health issues due to this, to compound their existing health issues.

So, given whoever else had had the misfortune of dealing with these ineffective, useless people, what can we or our vendors now do to speed things up, specifically, what questions, who should we be asking for in their executive team, what's a very fast track process in their eyes, and how do we get it?


We are now petrified that our buyers will pull out on the basis of them currently living with friends waiting for us to complete.
Thanks very much in advance.

TBagpuss

Unfortunately there is not a lot you can do, as you don't have a contract with Countrywide. You can ask your solicitors to keep the pressure on them and to chase up outstanding documents etc rather than waiting for the m to come back.

The vendors can of course make a formal complaint and could chose to transfer to a different solicitor, but they may be unwilling to do so as they will have to pay those solicitors and may or may not succeed in getting a refund or waiver of fees from countrywide

Wolfsbane2k

TBagpuss wrote: »

Unfortunately there is not a lot you can do, as you don't have a contract with Countrywide. You can ask your solicitors to keep the pressure on them and to chase up outstanding documents etc rather than waiting for the m to come back.

The vendors can of course make a formal complaint and could chose to transfer to a different solicitor, but they may be unwilling to do so as they will have to pay those solicitors and may or may not succeed in getting a refund or waiver of fees from countrywide

Thanks for the confirmation. My understanding is the vendors have made a formal complaint against them this morning, but are indeed unwilling to transfer out since they are using CWPL for their purchase as well, which is at the ready to exchange state.

Is there any guidance we can give our vendors ( we are now quite close due to a common enemy of CWPL) that they should be doing with the formal complaint?

Thanks!