HSBC - use Countrywide for a re-mortgage, or not?

pinkteapot

We're going to move our mortgage from Santander to HSBC.

I've heard the horror stories about Countrywide and wouldn't dream of using them during a house purchase. However, is it safe to use them for a remortgage?

Does the quality of the solicitor matter that much for remortgaging? We already know the house is sound - we don't need the solicitor to check out planning issues, etc, as we would when purchasing. If Countrywide are a bit slow we're not particularly fussed.

Any views?

jonas123

If you can avoid them, I would. I had them allocated to me back in 2012 when they had the bulk of their problems and they seemed to fundamentally be a dodgy firm. They asked for things that they didn't need which delayed my application, and to top it off, they almost missed my completion date because they kept faxing a document to themselves rather than my solicitor. Having said that, 2012 was when HSBC changed their rules regarding conveyancing, resulting in every application going through Countrywide, so they would have been swamped at the time.

I just remortgaged with HSBC and was allocated QCAS in Leeds who were excellent (although HSBC themselves were totally useless). The whole process took 18days from when they were appointed, and most of that was waiting for HSBC to do simple tasks.

aniahill

I don't know of any specific problem with them, though I may have the wrong end of the stick; presuming you are talking about surveying?

I used them when purchasing in 2008 and the guy I had for my 2 surveys was brilliant - I just had the basic as I was buying a flat, but with the first one he went back in the evening to talk to other residents in the block to see if they were owners or renters and saw it was the local meeting place for the yoof of the area...

The flat I bought he was able to tell me about how busy the road was etc. but also that there was a fella across the road who raised money for charity by dressing up as Santa so there was a massive amount of traffic for all of December as people slowed to look (why he thought I wouldn't want to live on the same road as Father Christmas is beyond me...)

Obviously this is one man in a huge company, but I'd recommend them. If we're talking about something else, ignore me...

kingstreet

aniahill wrote: »

I don't know of any specific problem with them, though I may have the wrong end of the stick; presuming you are talking about surveying?

No, it's conveyancing for a remortgage.