Countrywide Conveyancing Services Avaliações 287

Don't Use Them -You Have Now Been Warned!
Is a Zero Star available? If so I would award zero. After reading other reviews - I wish that I had checked before using them in April 2021. If I had checked I would not have engaged CCS. I now firmly believe that I could have navigated this process and completed it myself far sooner.

My estate agents Bairstow Eves (M...field) recommended using them so I hold them responsible. There appears to be no way of finding out anything unless they actually contact you by phone (usually to chase up something, that you have already supplied to them). Bairstow Eves (M...field) have even said that they have the same problems contacting them and receiving any accurate information.

I have repeatedly informed them that my house sale and purchase of another empty house (a chain of one) should be linked together, but it appears that this is impossible.

My buyer is now threatening to pull out due to the continued delays caused by this company.

I agree with other reviewers who state "If I could find a way of not paying them, I would". I genuinely believe it would have gone through quicker doing it myself.

Absolute joke. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. If it wasn't for Countrywide being the seller's solicitors the sale of my house could have been completed weeks ago. The Manchester number sometimes does not work at all and other times you can be sat on hold endlessly. Slow, useless and completely incapable of doing what they are seemingly paid to do. Unless the whole company is a scam.

After viewing on 5th November I did put an offer on this house. At the time I was clear that I needed to move in before 17. January. Seller and MANN estate agent were aware of that. My solicitor sent draft pack request to the seller's solicitor, Countrywide Conveyancing Services, on 15th November. But now 3 weeks later my solicitor still has not received any response from them.
I dont know how many times I have contacted Estate agent and my solicitor to chase the seller's solicitor. I also tried to get a direct email address and number for the seller's solicitor, so I could make them communicate, but without luck. In desperation I also went to the seller's house, even though I shouldn't, just to make it clear that her solicitor is not responding, and she should chase the solicitor herself.  
It's clear that sellers solicitor dont understand urgency of the situation. It's frustrating to not even get a reason for why they are taking so long to respond. Sellers solicitors can't just give a S**T about their customer, although its them they are living of. Since the seller's solicitor is recommended by MANN, MANN should take their responsibility seriously and provide me at least a reason for delay. If you can't even do that, Countrywide Conveyancing Services shouldn't be on MANNs recommendation list.

Shame there is not a NO star option.
The worst experience of moving house. Unfortunately we have been recommended Countrywide by our estate agent, I honestly can't understand how could anyone recommend them. The communication is absolutely disgusting.
We have been in process of buying new house and selling our property since February 2021. Finally after 9 months of waiting for legalities to tick through, we have been given a completion date, which have been cancelled 2 days before the actual moving day. Second completion date we have been given was also canceled, one day before the actual completion date. At the moment we are living in a house full of packed up boxes, using just the bare minimum still hoping to move eventually. Really disappointed and frustrated with the incompetence and carelessness of this company.
I WOULD STRONGLY ADVISE TO AVOID COUNTRYWIDE CONVEYANCING.

I was referred to this joke of a company via an estate agents who said they were a great company to deal with.

They took ages to allocate a solicitor & when they did, the solicitor was slow to act on anything.

The sale fell through, due to no fault of my own & I was told I'd be able to use the 'SEARCHES PLEDGE' via Countrywide & wouldn't have to pay again for the searches. So I found another property & applied for the searches pledge, only to be told that I don't qualify as the searches were more than 6 months apart??? The searches were well within 6 months of each other, so I can only assume they're trying it on & don't want to pay out for the new set of seaches

Our case was started on 23rd August but we waited until October to have our a conveyancer allocated to take our case/purchase forward. Long wait. Poor communication. Countrywide relies on a portal -instead of discussion with a conveyancer-but portal not uploaded and not used as a tool but used instead of staff! Hard to contact via phone. Too many clients and not enough staff. No one person is familiar with our case. Hard to get anyone to talk on the phone. We are still in a queue at end of November-we should have completed by now. No response back to our complaint to South East Head Office. No overall Head Office manager response to phone calls. Never again!!

I have my head in my hands right now after reading all of the reviews - they are all versions of my experience. I have never been driven to write a review on any company before, and I'm annoyed that I didn't see the reviews earlier. If you haven't engaged CCS yet then dont, find a small dog, a child or a nearby tree to do it instead. It would be quicker, and less hassle, to start studying for your legal qualifications in a language that you dont speak, and becoming a conveyancer yourself.

My estate agents Bairstow Eves spend more time chasing them up than anything else, even my buyers lawyers are asking what is happening. The only way I am finding out that I need to do something is by Bairstow Eves ringing the buyers lawyer up and asking them what they’ve asked my lawyers about. Today I’ve answered 2 queries directly to the buyers lawyer, via Bairstow Eves, that they sent to CCS that I haven’t even received yet.

Accepted offer on house in June 2021, it is now almost December 2021 and no sign of it going through, with barely any communication. Only me and the person buying from me in the chain. Taking 2+ weeks to turn around simple questions from buyers solicitors. Works via a dashboard system, until they decide to send an email with no warning, which goes into my junk folder, only realising a week later when I send message asking for an update. If I could find a way of not paying them, I would. I genuinely believe it would have gone through quicker doing it myself.
Watson Shawcroft

This company is just an epitome of terrible! I could never imagine how irresponsible a company of lawyers can be. I wish their operational licence could be withdrawn. Very very unprofessional.

The service we have received so far from this company is absolutely disgusting. Our solicitor went on holiday after we proposed a completion date and we were not informed. No communication and we had to ring and wait at least 45minutes on the phone only to be answered by someone who has no clue of what they are saying. If we had read these reviews, we would have avoided them at all cost. Please stay away from this company for the sake of your sanity

Absolutely awful company. Was recommended by my estate agent. They are rude and have no care for the people they are dealing with. They caused a 2 week delay due to their incompetence and lack of care. I spoke to several people and no one picked up their own error- Luckily one good member of staff, Jerome, did and he helped me sortie matter. But by then we had been delayed by weeks. My solicitor was rude.
During the sale I looked this company up and horrified to see the reviews both here and on their Facebook page. They should be seriously investigated by trading standards. Not everyone on here can be wrong.
I will never use this company again nor will I ever recommend them.

I have had to put 1 Star it does not give you an option for minus stars or a Punch symbol.
We are in the exact same boat as all the other reviewers below and i am gutted i didnt see these reviews earlier. I would have avoided them like the plague.
We are about to lose a sale due to there incompetence.
I have put in a complaint with The Council for Licensed Conveyors (CLC) to see if they can help and also made them aware of the Trust Pilot reviews but they are completely aware so hopefully something will be done to help people in our position. I have been assured by the CLC that action is going to be taken and it will not be soon enough .

It's been very difficult to come up with an aspect of Countrywide's atrocious service that hasn't been covered by previous reviewers. And they weren't even our solicitors! They represented (I use that term very loosely) the gentleman who was buying our house.
The problem from his point of view, and subsequently ours, was that our sale was administered by estate agents Palmer Snell, who are a part of the Countrywide set up, so when he made his offer on the property, they pointed him in the direction of their associated solicitors.
The offer was accepted on June 1st. We eventually completed mid-November, 6 months later, as near as makes no difference. No chains were involved at any time. From our experience and from the comments made by other reviewers I can only assume that Countrywide's filing system consists of shelves of carrier bags or shoe boxes stacked at the back of their garden shed, because to describe it as ramshackle would be something of an understatement.
They were constantly making enquiries that had already been answered and requesting documents that had already been sent by our solicitors months before. On the week that was scheduled for exchange we had to experience a day's delay because their staff was out of the office. What, ALL of them?
And so it went on, and on, and on....
It even got to the point where Palmer Snell were so hacked off with Countrywide that they began copying their MD on their e-mails in the hope that he/she could get this woeful bunch of so-called professionals to pull their collective finger out.
No idea if that worked, but as we have finally completed, the answer could be yes. But, seriously, that's what it came down to..?

So my advice, along with the other 93% of CW reviewers on this site: avoid them like the plague.

UPDATE: 6 days after completion, by which time the sale funds (minus agent and solicitor fees) were in my account, I got a personal email from CW (I wasn't their client, remember?) asking for progress of Palmer Snell's agency commission. I forwarded the message to my solicitor who told me they had been chasing CW for their invoice for the past five days and she was appalled they had contacted me personally. That tells you everything you need to know about them....

I cannot believe the lack of communication from this company. They are ridiculous. Highly unprofessional. We have lost so much energy and health while dealing with them. We received our contract pack over three months from the date when our offer was accepted. We're trying to buy a house with them. After 6 months we still have no completion. They don't pick up the phone. They ignore the estates agents. They ignore our solicitors. Stay away from this company for your own good!!!

I am helping my mother with the purchase of her bungalow. I cannot believe the lack of response from this company. My mother is due to move out of her property and she and her vendors are being held up because of the lack of response to queries from this company. They don't seem to care. Previous personal experience of this company does not surprise me. Despite the estate agents on both sides trying to find out what is happening it is stalemate. I would never use this company.

Terrible experience. It's taken 5 months of no communication to fail to exchange meaning the vendors of the property I'm trying to buy have had their plot pulled as new build developers require exchange 6 weeks after deposit. They were fully aware of this and even after complaining to them regarding the lack of communication they still had the confidence to tell me all was fine. It was clearly not as month later I've lost my house.

Just awful. Our completion date now abandoned due to these jokers. Who knows if the next one can be met. A whole chain of transactions thrown into chaos by CCS's total incompetence. No communication, zero professionalism. This organisation is getting paid to ruin people's lives. Their license to operate should be revoked. Please avoid them at all costs

I'd highly suggest avoiding this firm. I instructed them based on the estate agents recommendation. After several weeks, I contacted them to find out what was going on as I hadn't heard anything. They said they hadn't received a draft contract yet.
I call back less than a week later and get told by a bewildered man that my case had been closed. Apparently, they were always planning on outsourcing the case but when they tried, none of their usual firms were available. So, they closed the case. No phone call, no email, nothing to tell me what was going to happen with the £400 I'd paid upfront for searches. There was no sign on Conveyancing Connect (the online tracking system they use) that they were closing my case.
I've now received my refund, and according to the date on my bank account, they sent it the day I rang them to find out what was going on. So clearly their way of telling you they aren't proceeding with your case is just to silently refund your money.
On the bright side, the client care team were friendly and helpful, and very sympathetic. Just seems the conveyancing side are awful and won't reach out to keep you informed, unless it's a tick box on the online tracker.

This firm is absolutely appalling. Its been nearly 6months and still no exchange date planned,they were recommended by my estate agents (abbotts) part of the same umbrella company,i can only reiterate what others have said here which is avoid them like the plague,they are unresponsive,you have to constantly chase them up to find out what's going on, that's if they bother to answer the phone, they dont update the the online portal you are just left in the dark all the time they just have no sense of urgency about them. All the bad reviews on here are spot on about this company DO NOT USE THEM YOU WILL REGRET IT. I had a right go at the estate agents about them and told them to sort it out as I'm sick and tired of trying to chse them up all the time,ive given them 3 more weeks to get this whole mess sorted out or else iam pulling out.trust me when i say dont use them, they couldn't run a bath.they say moving house is a stressful time i can guarantee it will be if you use this company. Hindsight is 20/20 wish i had read these reviews before i instructed them to deal with my house purchase, never ever would i use them again.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Although we didn't use conveyancing connect they were suggested to us by the estate agents... after getting a quote of £3k (first time buyers) we got a quote from another company who for the same services quoted 1.5k. We refused to continue with them, however £400 was taken out of our account without agreeing to this or prior notice!!!!! it has now been 3 months trying to get this back and still no further movement. Do not even consider this company!

Terrible. Used for my sale and purchase. Was poor on both sides. Surveyor was at my house for 6 mins, from knocking on the door and leaving again. Didn't go in all the rooms. Can't get hold of them by phone or email. Rubbish