61 reviews (1/5) and information for Countrywide Property Lawyers , Glasgow

30/01/18 - Reviewed by Anonymous

avoid avoid avoid. They have no idea what they are doing and will hold up your purchase for months and months. would give 0 starts if i could

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30/01/18 - Reviewed by Anonymous

avoid avoid avoid. They have no idea what they are doing and will old up your purchase for months and months. would give 0 starts if i could

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21/12/17 - Reviewed by Peter Squires

No chain, first time buyer, but still ongoing after 9 months because they can't be bothered. They should be ashamed. Avoid like the plague.

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28/06/17 - Reviewed by firsttimebuyer89

Terrible service, communication and incompetent from the start. After a long 4 month process, we finally had to withdraw from the purchase of our first house because we couldnt tolerate them any further. 4 months for first time buyers, with no chain at all, buying a vacant property. Generally lazy and unhelpful, that is when you can actually get a reply or speak to the person (I cant call them a solicitor) who is supposed to be dealing with your case. They just dont CARE.

Please do yourselves a favour and avoid them at all costs.

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23/05/17 - Reviewed by James S

This company has left both myself and my wife feeling undescribably stressed. They are so painfully slow to respond to queries. Despite being given a required completion date they have ignored all emails, phone calls and voicemails. The one email we did receive told us that our queries were being processed. A few simple queries took almost three weeks to yield a response dispite all other parts of the sale being completed. This has caused a tremendous number of issues with both myself and my partners work.

I seriously suggest you look elsewhere before even thinking about using this company.

I gave one star because I was unable to give 0.

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06/12/16 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Slow and very painful experience. Left me and my partner feeling stressed everyday. We made them aware that we needed to move in weeks before Christmas and they assured as that this wouldn't be an issue. For a while they literally did NOTHING! and the Cardiff contact stopped replying our emails or phone calls. Its been such a bad experience and I honestly want to pull out of the sale, but hubby keeps encouraging me not to. Unfortunately the vendor is also using the same company, so its pretty bad and it just seems like the two teams do not communicate. We may be homeless by Christmas as it is not looking good, and they say they cannot give any timescales.

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01/12/16 - Reviewed by Anonymous

The people my property used these guys they were 3 weeks ahead of us we ended up being 3 weeks ahead of them,
They have a centralised email address which takes days for them to allocate.
We were in a chain because these guys were snail slow we nearly lost our house.
Would not recommend even if HSBC do, dont

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24/10/16 - Reviewed by Anonymous

We did not use these 'Solicitors' as quite frankly any internet company is not worth chickens savings if any you get. However in a chain of 8, chickens weak leak is this company who does not return calls. Are still waiting for exchange, though they have been sitting on chickens pack everyone was waiting for, for days. We should be moving Friday, yeah right. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, you have been warned.

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03/10/16 - Reviewed by JS

As with many others, I have given 1 star as there's no option to give nothing.

Countrywide are appalling - as simple as that. They "work" 7 days a week, give you "a team, not just an individual", and supposedly use a computerized case management system. Oddly, however, it's often impossible to get hold of anyone at all, never mind someone in your team. When you do, the computerized system is frequently the cause of much hanging about "while it loads", and even when it does load it generally has no info of use on it at all (as with their online portal which supposedly keeps you fully informed and up to date). Any time I get to speak to someone, they always have to transfer the call to a specific person (as "she deals with your case" - ?), and she's invariably unavailable and will supposedly call me back - which, surprise, surprise, she doesn't.

They're the cause of every delay in the process, and the bane of the working lives of all the other professional's involved by the sound of things.

For your own peace of mind, avoid like the plague.

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21/01/16 - Reviewed by Anonymous

I used these without checking ANY references - what a terrible mistake. Emailing or calling was a total waste of time as no-one knew anything, and I rarely received replies in any case. My allocated solicitor was ok so we did limp to the finish line. Since moving in I have had huge problems with the way the vendors left the property and countrywide have been worse than useless. E.g. I told them a building had been removed and received a (rare) reply saying someone had checked the details and there was no mention of leaving garden furniture. You could not make up their utter incompetence.
They are expensive, and useless. I was told one could have 24/7 access to updates online but the system never worked for me despite many complaints
STRONGLY ADVISE TO AVOID THIS COMPANY


If you don't believe me read the reviews here:
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Countrywide_Property_Lawyers__5658256/Start/15

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31/07/15 - Reviewed by Dave

I completely agree they have just done the same to us. We sold our property with intention of buying a retirement apartment for my mum , we was told last week that completion on both would be today the 31st July only to be told this morning that they would complete the sale of ours today and have to vacate it but not complete on the purchase of the apartment for my mum after suddenly sending the other solicitor a page of 14 more questions to answer to wino chance of completing today , the best bit is they accused me of saying that I told them we did not want to complete today .w Who in there right mind wants to sell 1 house and not want to move in the new property the same day . My mum is 80 and they basically made her homeless till its sorted , luckily my sisters garage is empty to store her things and has a spare bed. 
As for star rating I wouldn't even give them a zero more like -5 as for recommending DO NOT USE I repeat DO NOT USE if you do I feel sorry because I know what will happen BE WARNED

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15/07/15 - Reviewed by Paul C

Just completed on a house sale with CWPL and it seemed to go without a hitch. Received all documentation on time, they seemed to just crack on with it. The case tracker was not always up to date but they did call me back when I left messages.

I was blissfully unaware of the reviews of this company until after they had been appointed and I was concerned that we had made a massive error.

Would I use them again? - probably not due to the huge volume of negative reviews I have read. It could be that I got off lightly or dealt with a particularly good member of staff.

Despite this it would be unfair for me to give less than 4 stars - I have the keys to my new house in a reasonable time scale without me having to do anything.

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06/02/15 - Reviewed by Anonymous

DO NOT USE this company! They are beyond terrible and seem to have no idea what they are doing. On the day we were supposed exchange on our sale/purchase they suddenly had pages of questions for the other solicitor (despite weeks of chasing them to make sure they had everything they needed and reassurance from them that they did). They have completely messed up the whole process, which was on a tight schedule as they were so slow back at the beginning. I have never written a review in my life, but I feel so strongly about this company and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to put up with them. I would like to score them 0 stars but unfortunately 1 star is the lowest rating you can give. DO NOT USE COUNTRYWIDE!

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19/01/15 - Reviewed by Ali

Have sold many houses over the years, but this lot were the worst ever. They never called when they were supposed to. Gave us incorrect information which nearly resulted in us losing the sale. They also paid the incorrect amount on our redemption. This took weeks to get back from the bank. We were told that we would get 200 cash back when property sold. We completed all the paperwork, but have still not received this despite frequent requests. Have taken complaint to the Ombudsman as this is the only way that complaints will be picked up by the regulator and maybe then something will be done if enough people complain.

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14/11/14 - Reviewed by PeteF

We are top in a chain of five couples and will move into rented upon Completion. We accepted an offer on our property in July 2014. Everything seemed to be proceeding very well, and we thought everyone was ready to Exchange 6 weeks ago, until....

....until we found out that the middle couple were using Countrywide Conveyancers. Then the problems started. Countrywide 'mislaid' documents that were originally sent in September. They repeatedly asked for them (it was the Property Information Form). The middle couple repeatedly sent them to Countrywide. Who promptly lost them again. And so it went on.

There was a bit of hope last week when Countrywide said that they had now got the forms, and that they had sent them to the purchaser's solicitor. Alas! Not to be. Whichever numpty sent the forms onward only sent ONE side of the long document, and when asked for the complete document - they lost them again.

Although Countrywide are not acting for us, their ineptitude and lack of professionalism is have a dire effect on all the couples involved in this chain. We've had to fork out two months rent on the property we want to move into in order to keep it for us.

If anyone that is reading this is considering using Countrywide Conveyancing - PLEASE DON'T.

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19/06/14 - Reviewed by Lisa

Awful - avoid at all cost. We lost our sale and purchase at the very last moment because of their inactivity incompetence. Cheap for a reason you get what you pay for

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30/12/13 - Reviewed by Anonymous

if you require a stress free conviance do not use countrywide even when purchaser and seller use them even though they are in the same building paperwork goes missing and the swear they have not received it , you get no sense from them avoid like the plague and get a local solicitor

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08/12/13 - Reviewed by James7

When I instructed a Countrywide property lawyers to do the conveyancing in November 2012 I asked them for an idea of when completion would be likely as there was no chain and this was a very simple straight forward property sale, they said they could complete before Christmas, knowing the reputation that Law firms have I told them that is great as I wanted to move in in February 2013, 3 months later than they suggested, By the end of March 2013 they where still messing things up, loosing messages and statements. I firmly believe this is done on purpose these days so that clients will do what there hearts tell them to do which is cancel the sale,as in this situation the solicitors still get paid and the process starts again, Watch out for the "Set fee - Set price" claim, another lie.

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12/10/12 - Reviewed by christine mitchell

Rubbish do not touch these with a barge pole.

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17/04/12 - Reviewed by Missfruiti

If i could give them less than one star rating I would!

I have a mortgage with Nationwide but unfortunately for me my buyer decided to go with HSBC.

The paperwork required for exchange between my local solicitor and his has been ready for over 3 weeks. Our exchange is now being held up solely by Countrywide who ignore all correspondance for weeks and then when they do wake up they send letters stating that they are missing documents (we have proof that they have been received) and asking pointless questions.
This has gone on for so long that the short chain is going to collapse because of the delay.

The fact is simply this, if countrywide were not involved we would have exchanged weeks ago.

Both our local solicitors refuse to accept new customers who have mortgages with HSBC (so avoid them like the plague).

I sent an email to BBC watchdog in the hope that they might be able to help because currently, none of the parties in our chain are having any luck with countywide.

AVOID AVOID AVOID (and if you are selling a property, insist that your buyer does not use HSBC to save yourself the trauma that I am going through!)

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16/04/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

A nightmare! I am a first time buyer and am about to loose my property due to countrywide's delays and incompetence. I can only echo the other reviews: DO NOT USE THEM!!!!
I will be lodging a formal complaint and seek compensation. If anyone else has done this I would be glad to hear from them.

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12/04/12 - Reviewed by Jane

Incompetent, unprofessional, lazy, understaffed, disinterested and currrently they are jeopardising a sale. If we ever manage to exchange on our property, we will be seeking compensation from Countrywide along with reporting them to The Law Society and also to HSBC. We are in a short chain of just three people (we are at the top and have nowhere to buy). Shockingly our buyer had to exchange on his property last Wednesday to prevent him loosing his buyer. Since last Wednesday his solicitor has been trying to make contact with Countrywide to get a simple 'Yes, you can exchange' on our property. It is unaccepetable and unfair. His solicitor waits in a queue and then after 20 minutes sometimes only gets through to an answerphone or sometimes just a general member of staff who takes a message. The solicitor has resorted to sending begging and emails and faxes. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Our buyer had the massive misfortune to obtain his mortgage through HSBC. Even though he had obtained his mortgage at the start of January (yes this has been going on since then), and the ruling from HSBC about having to use Countrywide only came in to effect weeks later, he has been forced in to using his own solicitor and Countrywide.

To leave somebody to exchange on their own property without exchanging on the one they are buying so has not to loose a sale and then not be able to give a simple 'yes' over the phone leaves us speechless.

I personally have the patience, time and tenacity to make sure Countrywide are investigated and closed down.

The Times had an interesting report on this saga last week and the man in charge of this farcical ruling at HSBC was on Radio 4 a few weeks back, naturally saying there were no issues.

I would strongly suggest that if you entering in to buying/selling a house that you advise your estage agent to double check anybody with an HSBC mortgage and tell them to go elsewhere.

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11/04/12 - Reviewed by Annoyed

Awful awful awful. Have jeoperdised the purchase of my property. Don't respond to calls, don't call back, take weeks and weeks to process the most basic documents. You'd be a fool to use these guys - beware if you take out an HSBC mortgage as you'll probably have to go through them.

Absolute criminals

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08/04/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Slow.
Inefficient.
Under-resourced
Frustrating.


We are forced by HSBC to use Countrywide in addition to our own firm of solictors.

HSBC should seriously reconsider this decision.

We had seen reviews saying how slow Countrywide are, and I can only agree that we have been waiting since 30 March for them to respond to our solicitors letters.

The worst part of the Countrywide service is their "call centre" approach meaning one only ever gets to speak to a telephone operator who passes on messages to the fee earners.

We are weeks and weeks late, and haven't even managed to exchange yet.

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03/04/12 - Reviewed by Catherine Badham

Please please AVOID. I am at the top of a chain of 3, the bottom of the chain ( first time buyers naturally because you would only ever make this mistake once ) and although this is a very simple chain, my buyers are good to go, we are good to go, the cwpl buyers are STILL raising (non) issues on a survey that was completed 10 weeks ago!!! No one can get hold of them. Incompetent, rude, slack minded and loathed by any other solicitor known to man. If you have started the process with cwpl then back out now. It will be cheaper in the long run and you will save your sanity and health. I will never ever enter into any chain where anyone is opting to use them. Not in a million years. Shocking. If this chain doesn't fold then I will be gob smacked and if it does fold it will be entirely down to the devastating incompetences of cwpl. GET OUT NOW.

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02/04/12 - Reviewed by Simon

We were forced to use them by HSBC to handle the mortgage side of our house purchase. They were slow (it took them 3 weeks before they even opened our file) and as soon as one query was answered they came up with fresh ones. They refused point blank to talk direct to the customer (me!). I have never known a house purchase hit so many hurdles and drag on so long (and we were "cash" buyers buying from a builder so no chain either side)

Please avoid at all costs if you value your health and your money.

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02/04/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

SHOCKING!! DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT USE THEM... lack of urgency, lack of contact, lack of courtesy... everything was going well on the purchase of my flat up until they got involved and one letter has taken 4 weeks to come back, which is now putting the whole chain in jeopardy. How they are allowed to still operate is beyond me and THEY ARE SERIOUSLY BAD!!!!

I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM

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23/03/12 - Reviewed by Thinking (now) about NOT using this firm!!

I have noticed comments saying that this firm is not on the Law Society. Actually, they appear under;
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor/view=lawfirmdetails.law?orgid=271504&searchType=S

I wonder if there have been complaints to the Law Society and what is being done to change their ways. Truly appalling stories. I feel genuine dismay to hear how others have been treated.

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21/03/12 - Reviewed by Richard

DON'T USE! Countrywide are a conveyancing warehouse...just a glorified call centre....they are NOT solicitors and most of their staff are not even licensed conveyancers yet we trust them with the biggest & most important capital investment most of us will ever make. I was recommended to Countrywide by my estate agent who later admitted this was only because his firm was paid referral fees by them. The only lesson I have learnt is to use my local solicitor instead. The charges might be slightly higher but their slow and inefficient service cost me the property I was trying to buy so what did I save?

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19/03/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

How any organisation can be as hopelessly incompetant as countrywide and still be in business is beyond me. They managed to get it wrong every single step of they way. When you ring up to find what's going on, you don't get to speak to a solicitor, you speak to what I can only assume is a first year law student with no clue what's going on and might or might not relay you instructions to the actual solicitor. They had to send the same forms out again and again because they kept getting them wrong. Frankly I wouldn't trust these people to tie their own shoelaces.

Avoid like the plague

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13/03/12 - Reviewed by S Allman/ S jones

the most appallingly incompetent group or individual i hav ever had the misfortune to have to pay for . how they can be allowed to operate by the law society is beyond belief. NO ONE should ever use them .
They actually accused our solicitors of lying about attempting to contact them and then asked us what they were supposed to do with the funds from our sale.
If you are unfortunate enough to come into contact with them do not believe a word they say .

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12/03/12 - Reviewed by Hairless

We were not using Countrywide ourselves thank goodness - our purchasers were at the suggestion of our Agents. (who were otherwise very good) The experience of dealing with Countrywide was no less than ghastly - totally inefficient, actually gave false information about progress of conveyancing. We had to go to our Agents and sit in their office until they were able to get some straight answers from Countrywide. If we hadn't done this then we would still be waiting and in fact the whole chain would have collapsed. If you value your sanity and actually want to move DO NOT USE COUNTRYWIDE CONVEYANCING SERVICES.

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08/02/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Im in a chain or 4 and Countrywide is holding things up to the point of it all collapsing. Im living in a house which has been packed up for the past 3 weeks with exchange deadlines passing weekly.
Ive moved 7 times and they have made this the worst experience for the whole chain.

How can they keep getting away with such bad practice?

Not recommended.

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08/02/12 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Im in a chain or 4 and Countrywide is holding things up to the point of it all collapsing. Im living in a house which has been packed up for the past 3 weeks with exchange deadlines passing weekly.
Ive moved 7 times and they have made this the worst experience for the whole chain.

How can they keep getting away with such bad practice?

Not recommended.

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21/11/11 - Reviewed by Suki

I left a comment about Countrywide on 05/10/11 and here we are on the 21st November and still waiting!!!!!!!!!

The slow, ineffective, inefficiency of Countrywide caused my buyer to pull out, to get him back on board I was forced to reduce the cost of my property by £10k! and this I passed on to my vendor (as it was his solicitors fault in the first place) and still we are waiting.

Never, ever, ever use Countrywide - this was a chain of just 3 properties and although not run of the mill conveyancing, this could still of been sorted months ago.

Started Mid June 2011 and ongoing at 21 November!

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10/11/11 - Reviewed by Richard

My fiance and I are currently buying a 1 bed flat. We instructed our solicitor (not Countrywide) on the 01/07/11. They raised enquiries on the property with the seller's solicitor (Countrywide). Countrywide did not respond to the enquiries until 27/10/11!!! Since signing and returning the contract to our solicitor, we have been trying to exchange since 08/11/11. It is now 10/11/11 (evening) and Countrywide have still not confirmed the completion date yet meaning we haven't exchanged. Even the estate agent has spoken to the seller and they are happy to complete ASAP, just like us but Countrywide are forever delaying things with their lack of efficiency. They have no sense of urgency, they do not return calls, they have too many people working on the same case so things get confusing. This sale was supposed to be straight forward with no chains, the flat has been empty since June! But it has been nothing but a nightmare for us. I would stay well away from Countrywide Solicitors. Unfortunately, I cannot give them a rating of 0 stars so I will have to give them a very generous 1 in stead! STAY AWAY!!!

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03/11/11 - Reviewed by Mr L Withers

Their charges were actually competitive and transparent. HOWEVER: I have moved eight times in 10 years and this is the worst experience I have had of a property lawyers! We were given excuses of staff being on leave/job share so at times someone could not answer our questions despite their USP allegedly being a team of staff handling your case to answer your query at any time. Another USP was that they scanned and held all documentation electronically but this proved ineffective as some staff could find documents on the system and the very next day other staff advised us they haven't been received. They provided Inaccurate information (such as advising us that searches were outstanding and we had to wait as there was a waiting time with the respective council of e.g 80 days yet ours had actually taken over e.g100 days and they did not notice this themselves until I pointed it out to them! We would sometimes call for an update and would have to them to act on our behalf; such as phoning various people to confirm things had been received rather than doing it off their own back. To top off a very bad experience on the day of completion we were made to pay more Stamp Duty than we believe we needed to (we bought a new property which was for sale for £239,000 and we purchased it for £210,000 and they insisted we pay the Stamp on the higher amount) despite being advised on two separate occassions by HMRC that we did not need to, which I told them but they would not accept and we are now in the process of claiming a rebate. We actually had to ask them for their invoice the day before completion as they had not sent it despite knowing the dates and had the audacity to charge us a fee of approximately £30 for late payment. When I phoned their accounts department to ask how much I needed to pay them they actually argued with me that I was their client as they confused themselves which of their branches was dealing with me or our purchaser (who also used Countrywide) as we were told by both us as the seller and him as the buyer would make things smoother-we might as well of used one layer in the North Pole and another company in the south pole and this would have been more productive! I honestly would not recommend this company to anyone. The staff are generally polite and friendly but clearly the operating model of this large company is ineffective to say the least.

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04/10/11 - Reviewed by Suki

I am only in a chain of 3, my solicitor is great, my buyers solicitor is great but the people I am buying from are using Countrywide and this is where all the problems/issues are.

- They don't return phone calls to anyone.
- They give the same excuses on a constant loop
- You can never get to speak to the actual conveyancing solicitor just the call handlers
- They are extremeley slow to respond to e-mails or correspondance from my solicitors, if at all
- Not interested in the fact that their in-action may cause the sale of their clients property to collapse.

I, like many people on here will never again get into a chain where one or more parties is using Countrywide.

12 and a half weeks in and still waiting to complete - if my buyer doesn't pull out first, like he's threatening to do and still this doesn't phase Countrywide.

Would give them no stars if it was an option - My advice is avoid like the plague.

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04/10/11 - Reviewed by Irate

I think everyone has said it all - so all I can say is AVOID!

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04/10/11 - Reviewed by Mr B

Countrywide - waste of space and extremley expensive, do not consider using them under any circumstances.

No call backs
No up-dates
Slow
Lose important documents

What more can I say, employ a rated conveyancing solicitor

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02/09/11 - Reviewed by M Huntington

Service was appalling. Do not recommend. Service was so bad that we are pursuing our complaint with the legal ombudsman due to their numerous failings. It is a shame the Star system does not allow 0 stars as a rating, as they deserve that and worse.

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05/06/11 - Reviewed by vasile florin stefan

They are very slow, liars, do not use their services.

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09/02/11 - Reviewed by Michal

I'm about to start crying. decided to buy a house for a first time, save some money, start legal processes on the property. They were recommended by Taylors - local estate agent. At first it was all going well - according to them, but it is 8 weeks now and they stuck missing one bit of paperwork.... estimated bill at the moment on 100k worth house is £2.330 !!!! and it will be more onece is completed. I don't have much experience with buying property, but for me and everyone I know is too much!!! is there any way to complain, anyone knows? Avoid if you can!!!!

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27/10/10 - Reviewed by mtr

ok so far, part way through the process and they have been chasing us for responding to some correspondence - which is great.

Normally only have to wait a couple of rings to speak to someone.

So far much better than the (small local) firm I used 8 yrs ago for my purchase - they were incompetent - I had to quote part of the CML documentation to them because they appeared to not quite get it.

I'll write a further review once its completed - if it all goes well - then it will be 5 stars - if it turns out like other peoples then 1 star :-)

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27/09/10 - Reviewed by Geri

If I could select no stars I would.
Terrible Terrible Terrible. Incompetent, slow, forgetful and unorganised.

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15/09/10 - Reviewed by Peter

By all means take them on, but just go in with your eyes open. Just be prepared to:

1. Check everything. Our correspondance address was mingled with the property address. Thank god for Royal Mail or we would never have got them.
2. Have the phone answered by Call staff monkeys who know nothing about conveyancing. I had to explain that I was not the property owner yet because of probate but I was the executor. She did not know what probate was.
3. send them every piece of documentation, and then ignore it when sending you questions about the property from the buyer's solicitor for which the answer is in the documentation....which you do not have 'cos you sent it to them
4. Be prepared for them to insist on indemnity insurance for the lack of planning permission for an extension, and then quote you an indemnity cost for the entire property, when you have already sent them the planning permission documents.
5. Be prepared for them to answer 'I don't know, I'll get back to you' to every question not on their computer screen...and then never do.
6. Be prepared send every piece of documentation twice. Apparently every delay to completion is caused by items you have sent being lost in the post.
7. Be prepared for them to suddenly require you to prove your ID 1 week before completion - and then reject it.
8. Be prepared to be passed onto someone who can deal with your question....who will pass you onto someone else....who will pass you onto someone else...who will pass you to the original person.

As long as you are prepared for that you should have no problems.

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06/09/10 - Reviewed by Luke

Our vendor is using Countrywide. They have consistently offered poor service. In nearly 6 weeks my solicitor informs me that they have answered one email & sent one incomplete response to numerous letters / reminders.
I will make sure I never deal with this firm in any future house sales.

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18/08/10 - Reviewed by Gary Kenward

£2000 for total disinterest.
I am using CWPL, as are the lovely people buyimng my property, you would think we were using 2 different solicitors in 2 different continents.

My sale is almost completed...but my purchase seems to have only just begun....same solicitor...purchase and sale....instructed at same time....reason? "i can not give a reason, but i applogise and assure you we are in a position to catch up with the sale" This is 25 days after instruction.

1 month later..Why have no searches been done? " I can not answer that, but I will instruct them immediately".

Todays question was to ask whether we were approaching a potential date for exchange...."we have recieved some queries from your buyers solicitor which we need you to answer" I asked when they were recieved...."10 days ago" as yet they have sent nothing out to me.....but they will email me them now.....Had i not rung, how long before they asked me the questions?

They are not incompetent, they are just completely disinterested, uncaring, slow and on top of that very expensive...

I was charged extra for a ' Fast Start' conveyancing.....completely laughable. They didnt even start fast and as for the finish, well it still is not in sight.

Everything i have written is factual, I would never use CWPL again and very much regret letting the Bairstow Eves Estate Agent talk me into using them.

This far down the line I have no alternative but to tollerate further neglect and hope we get there in the end before my buyer loses patience.

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09/07/10 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Why is it that all the good reviews on this company sound like they've been written by someone who works for them?

I'm using them for my first purchase and they seem ok so far, but I'm getting scared now!

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by coolchanty

When moving home there is so much to consider. You have to deal with so many people and the process can be very stressful, especially when people do not pull their weight or keep in contact throughout the chain. We moved home about a month ago and although it was not as stressful as some moves for various reasons it was still stressful, well for me it was. Anyway onto the review.

When moving home you are required to get a solicitor/ lawyer to carry out all the legal work known as Conveyancing. This applies to selling and purchasing. We did so much research in to finding a solicitor. We compared prices, read reviews, looked at company’s websites, asked friends and family members for advice on who to go with and who to avoid. As the solicitor is one of the most important parts of the sale and purchase process it is very important to me to have someone who works

hard for you and does get all the work done on time. Now most of the reviews on this company were extremely positive and their website seemed very reliable and up to date compared to others when doing our research so we decided to trust the opinions of others and go for them. Another good thing about them is they have offices located throughout the UK so you will never be that far from one of them if you ever needed to visit them and they work on a no sale/purchase no fee basis. So if it all collapses near the end through no fault of your own you don’t pay them a single penny. I liked the idea of this very much. Considering house buying is such a dodgy business and something that you as a person are unable to control I’d rather prepare my self and protect myself for the worst, because had it all fallen through and I lost my money, it would of taken me another 6 months to save up the money again, by which time house prices probably would of gone up and knocked me out of the chance of making my 1st ever purchase and I would have had to wait until they dropped again. If they ever did and that could be ages away.Anyway we got off to a flying start in that as soon as I instructed them to go ahead and do the work for us on the sale and purchase they were straight on the ball and straight to work. My fee was debited from my bank account in two days and I received all the documentation to sign within 2 days so they could carry out the legal work.

The slight problem we had was my partner was selling his property with the Manchester branch and we were purchasing through the Northampton branch and I said would it not make sense to have both our files together so the work can get done faster and they said ‘no no it’s fine like this. Two weeks later they decided to move our purchase file up to the Manchester office to keep it together with the sale stuff so we had two weeks wasted and had to start again. But never mind. After this little hiccup everything was done within 4 weeks and we were all set to exchange and complete and they caught up on themselves.
Then the problem came when the person who was purchasing my partners house, his solicitor was being extremely lazy and not returning any of our solicitor’s calls or messages. Nor was he in his office very much. He kept stating he would deal with the file tomorrow and tomorrow never came.

Anyway about two weeks went on like this, which was the stressful part but I can honestly say that I believe Countrywide Property Lawyers could not have done much more for us really.
They regularly contacted us and kept us up to date and they also harassed the purchaser’s solicitor to get it all to complete. When ever I was promised a call back I always received one and I was told everything that was happening.

I recommend CWPL because they were efficient, reliable and hard working and because they work on a no sale/purchase no fee basis they work harder than these ones who get their dosh anyway. They have to, to allow them to make money.
They started out in 1997, so still quite a young company. In 2003 they carried out over 86,000 transactions so they are obviously quite popular within the market place.

I also found their prices to be extremely reasonable and fair compared to most of the quotes I was getting from other Solicitors firms.
Go to www.cwpl.com for more information and bare them in mind for when you want to purchase or sell your next property.

I would definitely recommend them to people because of the service that I received. Although they cocked up slightly they turned it around and sorted the problems out and allowed me to move into my new home. I thank them very much.
Thanks for reading and have a nice evening

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by JeffFromPoole

I will do my best to review this company without resorting to bad language, breaking anything or throttling any cats.
When we put our house on the market the estate agent persuaded us to use their 'in house' solicitors, who turned out to be Countrywide property Lawyers. THere have been great mistakes in history, let me list a few:

King Harold, 1066 : "What Arrows?"
Captain Smith of the Titanic 1912 : "What Iceberg?"

Captain Cook 1740: "Don't worry, the natives are friendly"
JeffFromPoole 2006: "OK, that sounds like a good idea, let's go for it."

We were promised weekly updates, by letter and email, swift response to all our queries, efficient service and dedication, we got none of these, instead we got lies, evasion, delays, excuses and incompetance.
Here are some examples:

As you will know, these days you have to have an environmental survey of a new property, as a result of this CWPL decided that there was a problem with naturally occuring Radon gas. - for those of you not au fait with this, Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally around areas based on Granite, i.e. Devon and Cornwall.
It does not occur in Dorset and the survey showed this. we took two days of phone calls to get through to CWPL to persuade them of the wording of the report, obviously they raised the objection either as a delaying tactic or out of malice. THe wording on the survey was completely unambiguous:

"Is the area affected by Radon Gas?" reply "No"
We have a lodger who will be moving with us. he was required to sign an affidavit to the effect that he would agree to vacate our home on competion, which he willingly did. FIVE TIMES!!!!

When the Radon issue was resolved, they again asked for his written agreement to move out. we screamed!
Whenever there was a simple question to be asked did they lift the phone and dial one of the seven phone numbers available to them to contact us at any time of the day or night? No. they stopped work until somebody got hold of them to ask what the delay was.

THey lied when they said that they had posted the contract to us for signing.
They claimed that they had posted them on the Monday for signing Tuesday, on Tuesday for Wednesday, - you get the idea. Eventually the post office delivered the ones posted on Friday (I wonder what happened to all the others?) and we got them back to them for handling by 9am monday morning by special delivery.
At two O'Clock they apparently hadn't had them, until we supplied the tracking number and the name of the person who had signed for them at 08.47 am. - It was the person we were talking to!!!!

- AS yet none of the other copies that they swear they posted has appeared. in all my experience of using the Royal Mail they have never lost anything I posted. -Apparently they only lose mail from CWPL.
When we spoke to our buyer's solicitors he asked who our solicitors were. when we told him his words were:

"Oh F**cking hell! not them!"
we got a similar response from our vendor's estate agent, although, being a very posh rural practice they didn't swear, although the tone of voice was the same.

CWPL are known in the trade as the worst, I am very dissapointed that our estate agents recomended them. I would strongly advise anyone not to use CWPL, you would make fewer msitakes if you did it yourself.
I got the impression that, far from being specialists in property law, they had never done conveyancing before.

Very dissapointing.

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by Tiger Dave

After being passed from pillar to post and council for licensed conveyancers (governing body) were unable to help. They passed me to the legal services ombudsman who were unable to help too!
I sent several emails to Terry Marris who is the Chairman of CPL. He kept fobbing me off and eventually said in a letter that he has closed the file and will ignore any future corredpondance from me.

I called their bluff and on 30th April 2007 issued a County Court claim. They had 14 days to respond. Suprisingly enough on the very last day I received a telephone call from CPL admitting liability and that they will settle my claim.
I have received a cheque for the amount claimd plus interest plus court costs.

If anybody else is considering doing this then do. It is very easy to do and can be done online.
I find it astonishing that this particular case took almost 2 years to resolve. What is the point of having governing bodies who can't help? The phrase toothless tiger comes to mind there.

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by House Buyer

Everything that everyone here says is true -AVOID THEM. They are the least professional people I have ever had the displeasure of coming across.
Examples of incompetence:

• Things they have 'sent out' in the post frequently never arrive (often because they have never actually sent them)
• Things you send them never seem to get there (ask them to check and double check as often they will find under their noses)
• They NEVER keep you informed
• They like 'sending' lots of letters to all parties (you, buyers/sellers lawyers) that no one seems to receive time and time again. They rarely seem to chase the other solicitors but instead send further letters
• You have to do all the chasing - and your calls are rarely returned
• Solicitor is never available to speak to you
• The juniors you speak to are useless (and haven't got a clue what is going on -solicitor tells me one thing and they tell me another)
• They came up with a problem on the day of exchange (which they could have told me 2 weeks previously)
• When I eventually spoke to the lawyer, she took an address to send correspondence to and still sent it to the wrong address!
• Lawyer called me accidentally, told me we were in a position to exchange (on the day we WERE supposed to exchange), laughed for 5 minutes because of the mistake she'd made, ensured she'd call back and did she? No. No surprises there. Useless.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE AVOID.
These guys are worse then very poor. Absolutely atrocious.

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by BelindaBee

Unfortunately we are on the receiving end of CPL. They are acting for the couple whose house we are trying to buy.
Our solictor is extremely helpful, prompt and professional. She has kept us to date on each and every aspect of our sale and purchase.

CPL on the other hand seems to be doing its level best to ensure we can never buy the house we spent a long time finding. Of course this is very frustrating for us and I assume for the vendors.
Our solictor has been asking for information since the middle of February and spends hours in a queue on the phone system CPL employs. You can never speak to the team concerned and simply gets a junior customer service (and I use that term loosely) advisor who fails to assist. The result has been many letters, none of which CPL replies to.

We simply do not have answers to the crucial questions my solictor has raised and are doubtful that we will ever get them, which means we can not proceed with the purchase.
The result has been much frustration and has led us to threaten to withdraw our offer, which of course puts our sale at risk too.

Mann and Co, who I understand are targeted to send a proportion of their clients to CPL (they are all part of Countrywide Plc), could not care less either and told me when I called to say that I would be withdrawing my offer if CPL did not revert to my solictor by noon on Monday (16th April 2007), that that was my perogative. They are obviously not concerned about their clients or the loss of income. Amazing.
I am certain that their clients, the people we are buying from, would be delighted to hear of their response. Especially as these people have already had one sale collapse and are now in danger of losing us.

I simply can not belive that CPL can continue to operate.
I have learnt that there is increasing concern in the industry about CPL; their reputation is dreadful and many professional coneyancing companies and estate agents are now refusing to do business with CPL or anyone using CPL.

Please do take notice of this warning, refuse to consider using CPL and do not buy a house from anyone who is. It will save you a great deal of uspet and expense.

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by jakeystorm

they were great, my self and my family have used them in total about 5 times in 6 years, i could not fault them, so much quicker than a high street conveyancer or law firm, if you think they deal with about 30,000 people each year thet are going to get a few complaint the ones on her span 3 years so the other 25950 are all happy customers

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15/08/09 - Reviewed by derilium

Lets start this off right, i myself are not using Countrywide property lawyers, but both the lady buying my house and also the gentleman selling his house are/were, the lady buying out house is buying through taylors estate agents and letting them do eveything, taylors are suing countrywide property lawyers and it has take at present 7 weeks and there my solicitor hasn't recieved any paperwork from the above lawyers, now you'd think in a massive chain this might be a reason, but no... this purchase is to let my house, even the survey took 3 weeks...
Anyhow thats the one side now onto the house i'm buying, again the legal work being done by the above lawyers, i put an offer in around 7 weeks ago and never received a contract from the above lawyers, in the end the seller changed solicitors and then the paperwork apeared within a week and a half.......
All i can say is that i will never deal with Countrywide Property Lawyers again, i will never buy a house being sold that has dealings with them and will never allow someone to buy a house i'm selling whilst using them as a solicitor...

I'm afraid there is not a score low enough for that company...

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