Countrywide Reviews 

Avoid avoid avoid

My experience with countrywide wasn’t great, I met with Laura at the Maidstone branch, we had a meeting which I thought went well but after that day I did not hear from her, I called and sent emails for an update but no response. For this reason I would not recommend.

However, Rupert was very professional and extremely helpful 5 star to him.

Nationwide requested a valuation with this company and I wish I had read the reviews and tried insisting they use someone else. They must be in cahoots to undervalue houses so Nationwide can use a lower LTV and charge more money. We recently had the house valued at £425k pre doing a loft conversion to add a double bedroom and en suite. We live in a desirable area. This man said he’d estimate the house with the loft included and valued it at £380k! How can it be worth £55k less with an additional bedroom and bathroom?! It cant can it. Unfortunately the appeal process would take too long so we’ve had to swallow it for now and get it re valued later but I’m not impressed with Nationwide or Countrywide. It’s damaged Natiowide’s reputation in my eyes and I say they as a customer of 30 years. AVOID!

Terrible service from Countrywide so not surprised to see these reviews. Appt took over 2 weeks and Chris came in (grumpy and unfriendly) stayed in for less than 10min and went off.
Undervalued the property by over 200k as don't think He took into account the new built 45 Sqm Annex as as per current lender value of main house is higher than what the surveyor mentioned.
Apparently we cannot appeal so have to look for another lender I guess delaying the whole process. They are being paid to do a job, then do so properly and listen to people whose homes you are visiting to see what has been done improvement wise. if they cant do their job properly then shouldn't misuse their so called qualifications of surveying by ruining time , money and effort people have put in to build homes.

No wonder so many people have had bad reviews, dont think they feel ashamed at all.

A mortgage valuation by Countrywide undervalued my property by £50k. (Independent valuation was in line with the asking price and offer)
According to their valuation, the property (in Richmond, London) had decreased £10k in value since I bought it in 2021 four years ago, and is £30k less than the neighbouring property sold for last year, which has a smaller footprint and garden. The surveyor spent less than four minutes in the property after waiting three weeks for an appointment. Valuation is not in line with recent sold prices on comparable properties. I might end up losing the sale now, for no reason!

What ever you do - do not got to Rebecca the mortgage advisor!! We went to her last year to renew our mortgage. She kept pushing for us to pay £600 for this scheme where we don’t pay any fees for future mortgages. We paid. A week later she’s telling us she can’t get us a mortgage! She would ignore all our calls and emails. So we decided to go independently and got our mortgage straight away! We continued to contact her for our £600 back as we received NO SERVICE from her to which she kept ignoring us! My partner has been going backwards and forwards with someone her office for around a year now ,who also agreed this was wrong, has now told us they’re not giving us our money back! Might I add we are two grieving parents that had not long lost our child at that time and she knew and met them the last time we’d met her. Praying on the vulnerable and conning them out of their hard earned money! Absolutely disgusting you should be ashamed!

The worst company in the world to deal with never answer emails fobs you off to other departments always somebody will deal with this , no communication poor tents go with out repairs for months and months i am currently starting court action again them do deal with them if possible

Awful communication and feedback

Absolutely hopeless company.

Zero stars if I had that option!
Absolute terrible treatment of paying customers!
Terrible communication.
No respect for the customer.
Repairs for rental property did not get resolved.
The house I rented was in a terrible state.
Caused nothing but stress! All they seem to care about is money!
Avoid at all costs!!

Countrywide, well what can I say, absolutely dreadful company to be dealing with. A single star is far too high a mark, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, its taken them 4 years and 9 phone calls so far and they still haven't made any headway.

Two years ago, I purchased a property, and the estate agents recommended Countrywide to me. Initially, their service was excellent—they were very confident, assuring me they could secure a great offer. However, once I paid them, their attitude completely changed, and they became unresponsive. Many people around me told me that this was typical of service standards in the UK, so I reluctantly endured the experience. After much effort, the purchase was finally completed.

Two years later, I needed to remortgage. The same broker from Countrywide enthusiastically reached out to me, promising to keep a close eye on mortgage rates and ensure I secured the best possible deal. After I paid their fees, the interest rates continued to drop, and I emailed the broker to inquire about it to make sure my interest rate is updated, but I never received a response. I even contacted the bank directly, only to be told that, as I had used a broker, the broker would need to handle it. This time, it truly felt like they took my money, ignored me, and couldn’t care less about providing any service.

After all the negative Reviews, I was dreading my valuation by countrywide. However, I found there service very professional. On the day they arrived on time. No fuss and were out within 10 minutes and the valuation was spot on.
Thank you!

They are nice to you in the start. Once when they have your money everything changes. You have to ask for everything. Nobody give you updates. They act like dead bugs.

Ethan Wilkins, based in Warwick, is truly a godsend. His dedication and professionalism have made my journey way easier. When it comes to anything maintenance-related, I can’t recommend him highly enough. He’s an absolute gem. reliable, efficient, and genuinely invested in helping others. I sincerely hope he receives the recognition he so rightly deserves. I don’t give reviews but I just had to this one

The mortgage broker claims that he has more than 10 years experience but showed no solid knowledge or previous examples of applying mortgage for non-standard construction.
All mortgage brokers seem use the same database or software to get the mortgage illustrations.

When lender asked for anything, most mortgage brokers seem do not have any negotiating power. So it is okay with me to hire a mortgage broker stations in a branch.

Sadly, the one I am hiring is holding information from me, rewrote the lender's request but the meaning was wrong and cut short.
It surprised me that the mortgage broker does not know the differences between a structural engineer report and a level 3 structural survey. And confirm me by email to proceed level 3 survey. Instantly refer me to their sister survey company. I got phone calls everyday from that survey company. The survey fee they quoted was more than £900.

Fortunately, I asked for the original texts from the lender and googled it . Actually the lender requested a structural engineer report conducted by Chartered engineer, which costs £500 to £600 incl. VAT. Even though I intended to have a level 3 survey after the mortgage is agreed, but it was NOT what lender want at the moment. I saved myself money and time but not the broker.

Right after passed along the structural engineer report to lender, the mortgage broker instantly vanished for 10 days without notice after Easter holiday. I had already asked if he has any holiday plan before assigned him on March.
So that is ironic that he said if I changed lender will spend another month for the mortgage application.

The structural engineer concluded that the house does not have structural movement through visual inspection.
Since there is a 1 metre long, 2mm wide crack of the render near the front door. Lender took all the recommendations in the structural engineer report. And asked for further reports, a full CCTV drainage report and a tree report, which the only tree is more or less 10m far from the house. I have no comment because it is professional point of view. It is only my decision to make to pay for more and more potential inspections. And seeing no hope to get a mortgage agreed.

This time the mortgage broker did not recap that the lender request an structural engineer to make conclusions upon the drainage report and the tree report. I have to ask again the broker to forward the lender's original words. I am speechless but the broker does not know what is wrong.

A lot of times was spent to sell their company's insurance. Life insurance, building insurance(3 times higher than quote in the market), content insurance, income insurance, on and on...sugar-coated them that they are for my own good. I only said I will consider.

So far I don't get much useful advice nor guidance during the mortgage application.

It seems that mortgage application is the second priority. He asked for my GP contact several times secured his interest of buying their insurance.
And blame me that I said to agree to buy their over-priced building insurance. I never said so but only to take it into consideration. Which I guess the claim will be long and painful like I feel now. Also blame me not to opposed the document summary sent by an stranger's email several weeks ago.

Is it all about commission or company sales target? I don't know but make me feel very uncomfortable. I am a first time buyer, I am still not sure when I can have a mortgage agreed.
It is a stupid decision to trust and pay the broker fees in one time payment.

I think as a foreigner from far east, a new immigrant in UK. Local people I met are reasonable, nice and sincere.
Though foreign customer in property business is probably more easily mislead and cash cow to exploit.

Professional? I cannot tell. I thought it is about reputation and solid knowledge. Working in a field for decades can be merely an email forwarder playing blaming games.

Recent dealings with Countrywide/Taylor’s has been a positive turnaround in service led by Niki, a very supportive member of the Milton Keynes team.

Please do not rent through this company. We have been waiting since the 8th April for the return of our bond. Landlord confirmed on the 9th they were happy with the inspection report to release the bond. We were told it was released that day. Rang everyday since to be told all okay should be in our account. Today told us it was My Deposit Scheme who was responsible for releasing the money. Rang them to be told they didn't hold the money. After 5 more phone calls to various people finally found out Countrywide held the money and was releasing it today by BACS. Never dealt with such incompetency or been so lied to !!

They survived my house they said it was only worth 265,000 the going rate in my area for my house is 425,000 when the surveyor come in it was all this could happen and that could happen there was no signs of anything what he said and now I have lost my buyers my advice is stay well away from countrywide I do not know how they are still operating