Countrywide Property Lawyers - are they as bad as I've read?

lower_3 · 22 January 2010 at 11:43PM

Had house valued last Sat, paperwork turned up from CPL yesterday, twice the fees that the agent had quoted........rapidly filled in the cancelation form, emailed it to them and now sit and wait for our refund..........

Jellyjazz · 4 February 2010 at 1:46PM

I used CPL for the sale and purchase of properties in Autumn 2009, our estate agent recommended them (blatantly because they get commision).

They were absolutely awful. They made blatant errors, forgot to send key documents, lied about what they had done, took an extroadinarily long time to turn around simple tasks, cost us a small fortune in phone calls (the tune that goes round and round when your on hold is still driving me mad!), and were rude when I got irate about their complete lack of competence.

In the end they were more expensive than local firms because they have hidden costs everywhere. My advice is dont touch them with a barge pole, they will raise your stress levels to danger point. The best advice I can give for finding a good solicitor is talk to people locally and find a reputable local firm and go meet them in person and if you feel confident use them, the advantages are that you can call at local rates and usually they will call you back within a couple of hours, you can hand deliver important documents which will save you a small fortune (£10 signed for next day delivery and we had postal strikes etc which add loads more stress), and their business is based on reputation so they wil generally bend over backwards for you (there are of course exceptions). I'm not convinced that its any cheaper going to these large national centres in the long run, and believe me for the stress its not worth it at all.

Happy house buying/selling.

DaveW007 · 4 February 2010 at 11:46PM

Just found these reviews of CPL.

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Countrywide_Property_Lawyers__5658256/SortOrder/2

mr_broke · 12 February 2010 at 1:55PM

just used them and will never use them again, we did most of the work when selling a house and same with buying we got an invoice then 3 more calls for money on the grounds if it was not payed things will be held up? it seems no one knows what they are doing and i will be putting in a claim against them as they cost me money by their delays. in short don't use .

mr_broke · 12 February 2010 at 2:04PM

DaveW007 wrote: »

Just found these reviews of CPL.

thank you gave the info i need i will also report this company

smudger1946 · 22 February 2010 at 5:42PM

Iv'e used them 3 times now and am very happy with with the service.
Smudger

Gazing_On_Sunsets · 22 February 2010 at 9:38PM

I have used them. Last month in fact, for buying a repo. the EA were upfront and said that they were linked, but also recommended a conyenancer next door if I didn't want to go with CPL. I still chose CPL because they said "oh we have a dedicated repo team" and I liked the fact I could contact them up to 8pm and at weekends.

It didn't go very smoothly but I kind of didn't expect it to. They did always answer the phone. I had to fax my id over about four times though. They kept saying it hadn;t arrived. It must have as they got parts of it; they just weren't checking the fax machine or whatever. That annoyed me.

But the costs were upfront. The only surprise was being told the attic conversion had no record of building regs; I could take out an indemnity policy but I was given the option of refusing.

So they were ok with me, not wonderful in regards to their general file keeping (which actually should be pretty important in a solicitors} but adequate, stuff got done on time, and it cost what they and the EA advised me it would.

wyldeflower · 4 August 2010 at 5:04PM

I wont sleep tonight as they are dealing with our house sale and dragging it on for ever with loads of shoddy excuses.

lizzak · 4 August 2010 at 11:29PM

Im a ftb, and am using CWPL for buying my house, I think the seller is using a solicitor linked to your move. I got my offer accepted on 19th July, and am now just signing the mortgage deed and will post tomorrow recorded delivery. The only thing that has bugged me is that as the HIP was over 6 months old Ive had to pay an extra £232 for drainage searches etc.... - so now have to find this money! Yes all the costs are quite expensive - I was told this by my mortgage advisor, but thought id still use them as i can ring them up until 8pm, track their progress on the internet and theyre linked with my mortgage advisor.
I must say Im a little worried reading these reviews, but have every confidence in my Mortgage Advisor who is linked with the countrywide chain. I know someone who worked with his wife and he's received awards etc and worked for 25yrs as a MA. So if he cant get it sorted then I have no hope!!!

I havent really chased anything as things seem to be going quick anyway! But Ive spoke to a couple of people at CWPL and they seem to be ok to me.

DaveW007 · 10 August 2010 at 9:46AM

CWPL told me that I needed various searches etc and I had to pay up front by credit card. When details of one of the searches didn't come through I took matters into my own hands to chase it up only to be told by the company who were supposed to do the search that it wasn't needed and they had informed CWPL of this. When I contacted CWPL about this they were insistent that the search was needed even when I quoted the name of the person that told me it wasn't needed. Eventually they did admit there had been a mix-up but not by them!! BEWARE.

I must admit, I'm very surprised that they are still trading. Pity Watchdog can't get involved.

Countrywide Property Lawyers - are they as bad as I've read?

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