Criminals of the legal world (Countrywide Property Lawyers)

Member Name: liz3yy

Product:	Countrywide Property Lawyers
Date:	15/05/09 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None!

Disadvantages: Crooks, idiots

Countrywide Property Lawyers, the mere mention of their name brings me out in a cold sweat and here's why...

I used to own a flat near Southend in Essex, I bought it in my early 20's thinking it would be an ideal place to escape from my parents and give me some longed for freedom and peace and quiet. It turned out to be perfect and I spent 4 very happy years there by myself enjoying my own company.

In late 2005 I met my partner, fast forward to Easter 2007 and things had progressed enough to prompt me to want to sell the flat and move in with him. This was before the credit crunch bit and I thought selling the flat would be a doddle even though it was only a small studio flat with a kitchen that you couldnt swing a flea in let alone a cat....how wrong I was....

I chose a local estate agent to promote my home for sale and then looked into finding a solicitor to handle the legal side of things, initially I thought I may as well use the company that I instructed when I was buying the flat seeing as there service had been pretty good and hassle free, well after I called them to ask for their help they wrote to me....."Dear Ms. Liz3yy, regarding the purchase of your property in Romford".......err......excuse me I'm selling not buying, and the flat is no-where sodding Romford! sod em I thought, if they cant get the basics right then what else could go wrong?

I turned to my estate agent for advise and they recommended their own conveyancing company - Countrywide Property Lawyers or CWPL for short. They seemed perfect at the time as their charges were reasonable being a flat rate dependant on the size and value of the property being dealt with and you could check progress on their website. I gave the OK and sat back to await a speedy sale.

Well in the end I had to wait over 13 months for the flat to sell after 1 buyer pulled out then I discovered a problem, cracking in one corner of the building caused by dodgy construction methods which werent covered by buildings insurance. I would have to pay up and at the time I didnt know how much as the management company of the building kept dragging their heels.

At the start CWPL seemed competent and professional but as time went on I found it increasingly difficult to deal with them. They have a central call centre/office where all calls and mail are directed to, I had a right job trying to extract direct dial numbers for anyone and often had to wait on the phone for several minutes before getting the chance to speak to someone only to find that they couldnt help me.

There was more than one solicitor dealing with my case and they often wouldnt pass information on to each other or to my estate agent so I would have to chase things up. I certainly wasnt getting the service I was going to have to pay for.

About a week before the eventual completion I had a call from the estate agent to say they had been contacted by the buyers lawyers, they were complaining that there wasnt allocated parking spaces outside the building. I was furious as I made that very clear from the start. I discovered from my estate agent after some digging around that the buyer didnt care one jot about this and was surprised when it was mentioned to her. Did CWPL help me at all with this, no of course they didnt. By now I was almost ready to throw in the towel and I made an ultimatum...either you want the flat or you dont, make up your mind NOW.

A week later I completed! but not before having to agree to hold back £1,500 from the sale for any works that needed doing. At last I thought it's over.....er no actually it wasnt.....

I was told that the money would have to be held back for at least 18 months so I didnt expect to hear anything until Xmas this year so I was surprised to receive a letter from CWPL in Jan 09 enclosing a cheque for £1,500. Here is the full retention amount that you held back they said. I was thrilled thinking that the money was mine to keep.

A full two months later I received another letter from CWPL asking me to send the cheque to the buyer as she needed the cash to pay for the remedial works, erm hold on a second you didnt mention this back in January I thought, what is going on? I was (quite rightly I think) furious for the lack of information and wrote them a stinking letter asking why they sent me the cheque in the first place. They were expecting me to cash the cheque then send the buyer a personal one which I wasnt prepared to do. Idiots.

I received a grovelling reply not long after apologising saying that the cheque should not have been sent to me and that the person responsible would be "dealt with" hmmmmm....... I was told to wait to hear from them regarding how much of the money I had to pay back.

They wrote to me again (so many letters, argh!) asking for half of the money, ok fair enough I thought, here you go and dont darken my door again. I wrote out a cheque wishing I had some poisoned ink and sent it off to them recorded delivery.

That was the end of the matter right? wrong. The letter containing my cheque came back to me as undelivered then the next day I had ANOTHER letter from CWPL threatening legal action for not paying up!

ARGHHHHHHH! my partner called them and made them wish they had never been born.

The situation has finally been cleared I'm pleased to say and CWPL know exactly how I feel about them, the words that spring to mind arent ones I can type here as I'll probably be banned for it.

Take my advise and steer well clear of them, they dont know their arse from their elbow and seriously lack any sense of pride in customer service.

I hate them with a passion.

Summary: AVOID!