Countrywide Reviews 

I would give it one star if possible. Countrywide valued my property on behalf of my buyer for their lender.

To give some context, my property had been valued by 2 registered valuers before putting it on the market.

They came and carried out the valuation survey on Saturday 12th of October and were at my property for approximately 20 minutes if that. They asked no questions about the property other than how much the service charge was. I asked if I needed to show them around and they said no and all they needed was some measurements and photos. ( they did not even measure the room I was sitting in at all). They said the report would be over to the lender by Monday which I can confirm it was.

Although the outcome was a devaluation of 10k. I paid 97.5k in 2022,(valued by countrywide too) since living here I have improved the property to a turn key standard. My buyers viewed my property the day after it went on the market and it was sold straight away… they even offered above asking price to secure the property there and then as they loved it.

For reference I had it on the market for £104,995, I accepted an offer for £107.5k and they valued it at £95k (I paid
£97.5k in 2022) The down valuation has then led to my buyer retracting their offer and having to renegotiate lower leaving me with less equity and having to pull out of my accepted offer on my next property…

My frustration lies with Countrywide on this one due to the fact I know there was no local knowledge from the ‘surveyor’ as well as they didn't factor in the condition of the property or the improvements made. I understand the point of a valuation for a lender is a whole different ball game but even looking at the comparable evidence myself it does not support their valuation. Most recently one sold for 97k in January 2024. This was a top floor in good condition but right at the entrance of the estate closer to the railway etc. Mine is a ground-floor apartment (more suited to a variety of buyers as there are no lifts) with modernised decor throughout, newer bathrooms, and new flooring, the boiler is 6 years old and has been serviced every year. The list could go on.

I have read horror stories online about these guys and I work in the industry myself. I'm currently due to be a charted surveyor, I work for a blue-chip company in their property department I have a RICS accredited degree and I can see both sides to these sorts of scenarios but not in this case. I would never like to bash another industry professional but this type of professional practice is wrong, the service goes against the RICS code of conduct entirely which are honesty, integrity, competence, service, respect, and responsibility. I'm not the first and will not be the last to have similar feedback.

Also, to add I have had covid I phoned ahead to let them know and they didn't even know what their company policy was they had to ring me back, the Val was supposed to be carried out on Sunday as I tested positive on the Wednesday prior (company policy 5 days from positive test) however they rang and asked due to being in the area can they come on Saturday I said it was fine by me and the surveyor did wear PPE… maybe that's why they didn't hang around or want to engage in asking questions. If that's the case do better, reschedule.

Going forward if my future lender/ buyer is using this company I won't be using that lender or proceeding with the buyer. The reviews are appalling and all of a similar nature. Even worse, my lender tried to sell me their service to upgrade my lender's val to a level 2 survey - I declined. If anyone Is reading this that has had a bad experience with these guys or thinking about using their service, from someone in the industry, go local and get someone who understands your property and knows the local area. You may pay more but your outcome will be far better.

Terrible letting experience, I wish I had read reviews first, I wrongly assumed that because they were a large established company that they would be efficient and fair.
As a landlord I paid them to find a suitable tenant, 9 months later I was £3500 in rent arrears, £1250 solicitors fees £500 Court fees, a wrecked House, including police forcing entry, harassment from tenants, complaints from neighbours, stress and hours of my time, leaving me appropriately £8000 out of pocket. No genuine references, no accurate credit searches etc. I thought they would have least refunded the fee as they had bot found suitable tenants.
After delays and stalling they refused to accept any responsibility and are refusing to refund fees. Don't risk it they don't care and they don't vet the tenants. Terrible experience.

Great experience with Julieann and Dale. Very quick and on the ball and we were never waiting on them. 12 weeks from start to finish and they were very open about the whole process. Would use again.

AVOID THIS BUNCH OF SCAMMERS

Just a group of people whose objective is to skim as much money as possible from people's deposits.

Their tried and tested method: The check in report will be much less detailed than the check out report. Coincidentally, they will start making claims for areas that weren't covered on the check in. In my case, the check out inventory had pictures of all the light bulbs of the house on and off. The check in had pics of all the light bulbs but seems like it missed a few pics with the lights being on. The very same light bulbs with missing pics were claimed as non functional. Suspicious?

Well, let's see with the next item. It seems like the carpet in some corners of the house that "unfortunately" weren't covered by the pictures in the check in report has now been extremely well documented in the check out report and, guess what, they claim that there are some small stains that weren't there before. Funny thing is that the house was full of stains throughout and that I requested several amends for these to be added to the check in report, no reply received after several emails.

They also tried to add a charge for cleaning the house because they claimed it wasn't "cleaned to professional standards". The house was so disgustingly dirty when we moved in that the landlord agreed to a rent deduction. We are talking lots of dead bugs in the carpet, skid marks and pee stains in the toilet and plenty of shower hair. The flat was deep-cleaned before we moved out yet they had the audacity to try charge us for cleaning it, when they clearly didn't even check cleanliness before we moved in.

The list goes on. Plus, whenever you contact them they will direct you to a different person to whom you will have to explain everything from scratch until you get tired of it. When you decide to dispute through their friends at the deposit scheme, the resolution will always be partial to them, no matter the amount of evidence you have. On top of this, they will keep your FULL DEPOSIT while you wait for resolution, a process that takes months, regardless of only disputing a small amount. This is a blatant breach of both the tenancy agreement and the terms of the deposit scheme but they know they can get away with it.

I'm sure landlords don't even know what these people put their tenants through. I'm a landlord myself and I would be ashamed if the management company did any of this to my tenants. After this experience we decided to rent directly in any case.

TLDR; Tenants, run away, fast. Landlords, don't work with these people. Their practices are borderline illegal (some blatantly illegal) and morally corrupt. You don't want to associate with these people. It's possible to do things in a legal and morally sustainable way. Find another agency.

Ridiculous company not amenable to purchasers of properties who provide no customer service. Their inability to grasp simple concepts is fascinating.

All estate agents are over priced and low quality but countrywide seem excel at this.

If your selling your home do not waste your money with this business.

Worst letting agency I ever came across. Hasn’t got my deposit yet. Saying silly reasons even though I left the property a month ago in an excellent conditon and also I paid 400£ for cleaning as well. Even my previous landlord is not happy with their service and he gave the same house to another letting agency bcoz of their performance . When people came for viewings and they asked us to show the house.

The reason to write this review is to help and prevent other colleagues to going through similar experiences
which I have had with the Countrywide Surveyors. I agree with most of reviews and can understand why they are getting poor reviews. I also have a very bad experience from the Countrywide Surveyors named Joseph Cliffe, who was rude and unprofessional and emotional status was also reflected in his valuation of my property. I paid to get my house re-valued and was surprised to see my house was devalued beyond anybody's imagination leaving me in a very difficult situation. The existing value from the lender, zoopla, rightmove and even the tenant who are happy to buy at a price which is £40000 above his value. The previous value few years ago was 20K higher than his valuation.

Worst company ever. My property manager Keegan has the worst response times, you have to keep calling and re-emailing just to get a response. They left us with a broken lock on the back door for a couple of days, we have had a fridge/freezer that doesn’t work properly for months which was clearly a problem before we moved in and no hot water for 20 days until we threatened to withhold rent!!! 3 months later…. Still not sorted the fridge-freezer. No point raising a complaint with them either, management are not much better than their untrained property managers. Terrible company, stay far away!

Can’t believe such company with soo many complaints from landlords and tenants and low rating still not being investigated.
When I moved out from my rented property they try to make unreasonable claims for ridiculous amount for something that don’t exist. I will fight with them till my last breath!
I have to give them a star because I don’t have a choice!

Absolutely shocking experience with Countrywide Mortgage Services.
Had a meeting with mortgage broker who promised the earth, 3 weeks later he still hadn't found us a mortgage.

Communication was extremely poor and constantly had to chase for updates and answers. No response to emails sent, would just get ignored. Had to give the same information numerous times and also had to do calculations for him as he made mistakes. All of this and the fee was almost £800 if a mortgage application was made!

Decided to speak to another broker from another company and had an Agreement in Principle withing a matter of hours! Her fee is half of what Countrywide would have charged.

Would not recommend Countrywide at all.

Very uninformative and not helpful. Katie is my property manager but reece has been dealing with it and the level of service isn't great at all.

I would like to thank Andy and Dave for doing such a high standard and professional job on my attic.
No smoking brakes, no teabreaks
every ten minutes, they just got on with the job in hand.
They left my house immaculate and everything back in its place.
I highly recommended country wide on their lovely
friendly and hard working team.
Thank you Andy and Dave.
Happy Days😇

I write this as someone who considered using Countrywide (Slater Hogg in Glasgow) as their letting agent. I ended up not wanting to work with them because they provided me with a £300 cleaning service that took four days to deliver a flat that was a little cleaner.
Countrywide would not side with me and claimed I had too high expectations. Dirt on the hob, dust in the window sills and on the shelves, dirt on the floor, dirt in the sink, stained sanitary ware. I expect more from a big agency and I expect more for a £300 clean.
The agent was pleasant enough to deal with hence two stars, not one.

AVOID RENTING WITH COUNTRYWIDE- a rat infestation underneath our house was not resolved for 4 months and was so bad we had to move out. Taylors still charged us rent and did not provide us with somewhere else to live for these 4 months of our tenancy.

Lived in a house Taylors (franchise of Countrywide) for 1.5 yrs. Throughout the entire tenancy their standards of communication with us were nowhere near at an acceptable level and totally unprofessional. This included threatening to take us to small claims court for the first 2 months of our tenancy after claiming we had not paid rent. In fact, we had paid rent (as explained and ignored many times) but an admin error on their end meant that it had not been assigned to our account correctly. They regularly misaddressed emails to us, got our names wrong in professional correspondence and were impossible to contact when trying to sort maintenance issues. The service we received was so bad we escalated a complaint to the Ombudsman, who recently found in our favour and forced them to pay us compensation.

This was then separate to a rat infestation underneath our house, leading to a smell of dead rats throughout our house and swarms of flies on the ground floor. We received almost no sympathy or help from Taylors/Countrywide about this issue, which we had not caused. (We subsequently learnt that the previous tenants had to move out due to the same issue which Taylors/Countrywide clearly hadn't resolved). We could not get into contact with Taylors or the Countrywide Team that manages the Taylors franchise, on one occasion when we had nowhere to live, we called the office every 5 minutes for up to 2hrs and received no response or return call - on attending the office shortly afterwards they said they missed our call because they 'were in the bathroom'. We then had to spend 4 months living elsewhere while still paying rent for a house that was not habitable. Taylors/Countrywide did not provide us with alternative accommodation or compensation except for a rent reduction for the first month of the issue. This issue has also been escalated to the Ombudsman and we are awaiting an outcome.

This was on-going for the last 4 months of our tenancy and I've never been happier to move out of a house I once loved living in. Also can't describe how happy I am to see the back of Taylors/Countrywide.

Avoid if you can at all costs.

Please please keep away from this company I have had on going issues with them since April they don't return your call I have spoken to numerous members of staff all the say is we will investigate I received my details of my pension addressed to me with another person's pension pay out to add insult to injury I have just received a letter my name on it but apparently I'm deceased spoke to them this morning I am 75 years old and find this very upsetting all I got was they must have been given that information my I only spoke to them last week .

We moved out of our flat roughly 2 months ago and are none the wiser as to if or how much of our deposit will be returned. Debra Coyle the “deposit specialist” has supposedly been waiting to check her emails every time we ask for an update, and her condescending tone and couldn’t care less attitude is shameful. They’re clearly trying to delay the process such that our deposit is no longer protected by the approved scheme. Email after email left unanswered, and I get a different answer for everything every time I call for an update. Disgusting company with pitiful employees, Debra Coyle is a waste of space.

No shower for 6months now and theyre now offering another 12 month with £50 increase. They probably think that our family have not suffered enough.

If I could give lower I would.

I was a tenant with BAIRSTOW EVES who are part of Countrywide - be careful!! I was a tenant, having left the property in immaculate condition even to the point that Countrywide said they recommend full refund I received my deposit back last week. (11 weeks).

For anyone having problems - I was using mydeposit use them, force the issue and DON'T give up.

Untrustworthy from Bairstow Eves to the landlord and most definately Countrywide who I had to deal with all year, goodbye I'kk never ever use you again!

Regretfully, I used Millers Countrywide in Plymouth.
Both their Lettings and Sales were useless. Never answering questions, constant changes of who to contact. So many names, who never talk to each other, so I ended up endlessly asking the same question over and over. They ignore and charge for items I never agreed to etc.
Avoid!

We booked a RICS Level 3 survey through. Countrywide. They outsourced it to a company called Home Surveying. The service we received thereafter was appalling. The survey was completed by a recently qualified surveyor who lacked the experience to handle the property in question. The report provided nothing but recommendations for further investigations and was inaccurate in many places. When asked to revisit the property to have another look at areas of concern which had been missed or poorly reported Home Surveying could not do so within an acceptable time scale. Not worth the money and best avoided in my opinion.