Countrywide Conveyancing Services

I was silly enough to use countrywide. I am a first time buyer and the property we are purchasing has no chain. I had warnings from the estate agents that we shouldn't use them but I just thought it was that the estate agents wanted us to use their solicitor. How wrong I was. We are still waiting to exchange and the seller has threatened to put the property back on the market if we don't exchange this week. It has so far taken 6 months ( we placed the offer in August) for something that was meant to be quick and simple. There was a muck up with the lease which according to the sellers solicitor is countrywide's fault as they had sent the correct paperwork to combat any issues and countrywide completely ignored it, but that only added a month onto the time so how long should a simple no chain take 3 months with the month for the error.<br>I'm so annoyed, the solicitor is polite and never rude I have no issues with the way he has treated us. The main issue is that when you do send them something it takes a week for them to get it and then they claim they take 48 hours to review it. How long does it take to read a document and see if it is ok. We were at the point where the last issue was meant to have been resolved but then another issue pops up out of no where. I have to phone and chase for updates of what's going on and I've had more updates from the estate agents regarding information from the solicitors rather then my own solicitors<br><br>If anyone is thinking of using them don't, learn from my mistake use a local firm. Countrywide cause nothing but headaches and even heartache where you could lose your property<br><br>10 year update as we are selling<br><br>we are experiencing issue after issue after issue, consent from an authority which should have been provided or queried at enquiries nope nothing, now having to sort that out, documents poorly scanned and provided as originals, we only received these "original" documents after completion, stuff like this should have been picked up if they were thorough we are now looking at least 2 months adding on to the process just sorting this out, luckily we went with a local firm who have been excellent so far, and are helping sort the shower of mess these "conveyancers" left us with.

Huw and the team were very helpful during the whole process, kept us informed and updated regularly. They also worked effortlessly chasing Clarion (which was not easy as they were not providing the information needed in timely manner) and managed to help with completion before the stamp duty ended.

PAYMENTS OUT AS FOLLOWS<br>Mortgage Redemption<br>£64,701.23<br>Estate Agent Fee<br>£3,178.80<br>Transfer of the legal ownership<br>£1,138.80<br>Redemption of mortgage and removal<br>from the<br>registered Title<br>£298.80<br>Preparation of Contract Package<br>£90.00<br>Archive fee<br>£48.00<br>Electronic Money Transfer Fee (inc. VAT) - funds to client<br>£48.00<br>Electronic Money Transfer Fee (Inc. VAT) - redeem mortgage<br>£48.00<br>Electronic<br>Validation<br>of<br>Identity<br>(per<br>person)<br>£30.00<br>Customer Online Portal (inc. VAT)<br>£18.00<br>Land Registry documents<br>Land Registry documents<br>TOTAL PAYMENTS OUT<br>£16.80<br>£16.80<br>£69,633.23<br>This is all the hidden cost they don’t tell you about double tapping money making supposed to be a regulated industry.<br>Not sure exactly where my refund is for the two lots of land registry I paid for the people buying my property they did not tell me about. I was just selling not buying but had a money laundering check done to which I got told it’s to check it’s me well surly the £30 identity check another money making sham does that !!!! The fact my name is on the deeds !!! Archive fee twice ? What to store a bit of paper work or 16mb on a pc !!!!

Worst decision you could ever make is believing choosing countrywide conveyancing will mean a smoother process when buying and selling. Bridgfords sold me the dream of convenience and I’ve been left 6 months on with incompetence and solicitors who have been caught lying about enquiries. The estate agent branch manager has admitted he has had issues with the firm they have lumbered me with and he had their complaints info readily at hand as he had used it so much…so why do they keep using them?? Avoid countrywide conveyancing and if they allocate you Gilson Gray run for the hills and pull the plug before you’re 6 months down the line with no end in sight and your solicitor blatantly lying to you on email and the phone.

So good

AVOID GILSON GREY. No issues with the advisors, but if they recommend Gilson Grey as your conveyancer, don't do it. I've never met a more useless bunch of "professionals". I've spent more than 2 weeks and 30 phonecalls trying to get someone to send in forms for my LISA deposit, a 5 minute task. Can't complete my purchase until then.

Incompetent, unprofessional and greedy . Nightmare to get them to do anything .<br>Utter shambles!! DO NOT TOUCH THIS BUNCH OF GREEDY BUFFOONS!!

Extremely unprofessional!!! They keep losing documents and information sent to them WEEKS AGO! Same emails every week asking for the same document over and over again. We started this buying process in March! Promised an exchange date at the end of May… it’s now August and no end in sight…<br><br>DO NOT USE THESE CONVEYANCERS! Incompetence is a better word to describe them!<br>Paying all that money for a service they clearly can’t even do their jobs properly!<br>Seriously considering just pulling out the purchase because of them! Disgusting service, you’re better off using a smaller company, at least then you won’t get passed to someone completely different every single time you call up!!!