Countrywide Tax & Trust Avis 

Following the sad death of my brother I reached out to Countrywide to assist with the probate. Through the process we unfortunately experienced some difficult and unforeseen circumstances. George Mathison's prompt responses on email and his availability to talk to the executors and myself on the phone was invaluable at solving these challenges. If George was not in the office Chad Nagra and the rest of the probate team helped us with equal efficiency. The estate has now been settled and my family and I are very grateful for the 5 star service we received and have to give particular credit to George, he could not have helped us any better.

Please please, if you care about your menal health, do NOT use this company.

It took just under 10 months for Countrywide to prepare, sign and post 2 documents. Mistakes, delays and excuses......their communication is terrible and they are completely unprofessional.

Their Will and Trust services have been APPALLING and 2 independent Will and Trust Specialist Solicitors both confirmed that documents were poorly constructed and pointless.

It took us just under 10 months to get away from them, and it's all cost thousands of pounds.

All on top of grieving a much loved family member.

I personally had a brilliant experience resolving a family trust issue through Countrywide- very good communication from the outset and helpful advice for someone unfamiliar with the required procedures. Sophie and Aidan were very pro-active in resolving and expediting the entire process - from start to finish this was just a couple of weeks. I couldn’t recommend Countrywide highly enough in terms of professionalism and efficiency and I’m similarly impressed with their association with CTT-law.

I want to make it known to everyone to steer clear of this company that have wronged me and what I’ve read, many others too.

Sadly, my beloved partner died of terminal cancer 18 months ago and prior to her passing, she instructed Countrywide Tax Corporation Limited to act accordingly regarding her last wishes as stated in her Will.

The beneficiaries of my partner’s Will clearly stated that myself and her two sons are to receive an equal share of her estate. It was on the understanding that once I sold the property the final amount would be equally shared 3-ways with myself and her two sons. This does not seem to be the case as I’ve now been battling with Countrywide for a year to gain what is rightfully mine, according to my partner’s wishes, and they have taken it upon themselves, to what I believe, acted against the last wishes of my partner by fobbing me off with many excuses so I don’t receive what I’m entitled to, surely this is unethical?

Countrywide Tax Corporation Limited is a ‘Trust’ company, and so far, I absolutely do not trust them. My experience with them has been horrendous and I’ve been treated appallingly by them. They’ve failed to cooperate with me on numerous occasions and NOT follow the instructions of my partner’s last wishes, which I believe is unethical.

In the meantime, I will continue to battle on, in the hope of a speedy, satisfactory resolution to this matter.

On 25th June, I contacted CTT Group's Client Care via their publicly listed email address (clientcare at ctt-group.co.uk), which they often use to respond to negative feedback. My enquiry was regarding a legacy trust product they sold to my parents.

Unfortunately, despite the passage of time, they have not responded to my request or provided any of the information I sought. Their lack of engagement is concerning and falls short of the transparency and professionalism one would expect, especially in matters involving legal and financial arrangements of this nature.

Edit. My error, I emailed pcadmin at ctt-group.co.uk. I shall forward to client care

Communication is poor. 7-9 days for an email reply to simple question. If you call they ask you to email. Speaking to someone is impossible.
I would avoid.

The staff were all impeccable in what they did and very professional. Knowledge of Law and the advice they gave was spot on.
They helped us achieve what we required.
Paperwork was all dealt with securely.
Thankyou to all. And Daniil for his assistance.
Only one slight drawback was I needed to a little chasing around between us and FA. But some Of that was the way the Law works with is etc… all in all a good experience. Thank you

If I could go minus five stars I would. Paid them for a tennents in common policy seven years ago, yes seven years ago. For the last seven years we assumed it had been done but just lately have found it never was. Contacted them and they ignored me. Please please please stay well away from them there as much use as an ash tray on a motorbike. The review date will only let me go back a year so hence the different date.
That reply is a load of bollox, they haven't contacted me at all. Bog standard reply.

I would give this company 0 stars if this was an option. Countrywide Tax & Trust Corporation has withheld my families estate and inheritance for 4 years. They refuse to communicate, case handlers are always unavailable or have left company and have made this whole process unbearable. We have even had to appoint our own solicitors to deal with them and they also refuse to communicate with them in a timely manner. To date we still have not received a penny of my fathers estate and we are waiting for a response from them. This company is an absolute disgrace !

This organisation does not meet any of their communication SLA's or respond to telephone calls.

I would strongly advise against using this firm, especially the Tax and Trust department. Other parts of the firm (Probate and Conveyancing) are much better.

I have just received a letter and invoice for £180 for a trust I apparently want registered?? No information about what the trust is for or why I've been sent the bill?? I have sent an email to to company today asking them why they have sent me
this information and more important an invoice for something I do not need or have requested

Update 18.6.25
Countrywide contacted me regarding this issue. I have updated my review due to their swift response. The trust relates to one I opened several years ago with a different company. I would advise, on all future correspondence, you highlight the name of the company the client opened the trust with, not just send a vague letter with an invoice.

Thank you for clarification

Based on my family’s experience, go elsewhere if you possibly can. The one star is because zero isn’t an available option. My dead family member thought he was doing a good thing when he chose Countrywide and he would be appalled by the poor service we have received at every turn. A not exhaustive list of flaws and errors includes:
1. Documents with (repeatedly) incorrect personal details.
2. Documents sent to wrong addresses.
3. Staff who don’t take responsibility, make themselves available, or care about doing a good job, because the flawed business model seems to encourage that.
4. Waiting weeks for emails to be acknowledged, only to find questions aren’t fully answered anyway, replying to say that and having to start waiting for a reply all over again.
5. Insensitivity from staff who had absolutely no regard for the feelings of recently bereaved people.
6. Processes that are inaccessible to many disabled, and older, people with no effort to make any reasonable adjustments.
7. Endless, often fruitless, chasing by us to try to confirm things that we should have been contacted about.
8. Having to start complaints to get anyone’s attention.
9. Email automated reply that tells people not to phone or email as this could result in them receiving even slower service (this creates extra stress as it makes it almost impossible to know what to do for the best when you’ve heard nothing for weeks).
10. Endless extra admin because of
1-9.
This has added up to months of unnecessary misery. Had Countrywide attempted to do an efficient and compassionate job, things could have been very different. Thankfully we are at the end of their labyrinthine, impersonal, processes, have been able to cut ties and to go elsewhere. It will be a relief not to have to wake up each day and try to make a plan to get Countrywide to complete what should have been straightforward. During the last year, I have encountered a few Countrywide staff members who want to do a good job; it must truly be a terrible place to work for them. They have my sympathy.

Hi
Abbie was really friendly knowledgeable and explained everything really clearly. We were really impressed with how things went.

This review applies solely to Craig Lachlan, a director of Countrywide Wills and Trusts, previously The will Expert. I paid £375 on 23rd May 2023 as to set up a POA. This didn't happen. At every point his main concern was to provide an increasingly expensive service, that I declined as I began to suspect he was dishonest. He did call me about 10 days ago to say he would send me the completed documents, but they have not arrived. Another delaying tactic? I have given up hope of any positive outcome, but please ignore all the positive reviews and focus on the many negative ones. save your money..h

I have dealt with three of the Countrywide divisions, so I will review all in order
1) Probate – after my mother died the probate case handler took charge of dealing with all aspects of my mothers’ estate. She was efficient, communicated clearly and kept us up to date with what was happening to the estate. 5 stars
2) Conveyancing – As is often the case when selling a property problems arose. Again, we had clear prompt communication, recommendations as to what to do / not do to ensure that the sale went through as quickly as was possible. 5 Stars
3) Trust – What a disaster
a. Three weeks from probate finished to having a case handler assigned, and then only after several calls to complain
b. Told several times response time to email enquiries FIVE to SEVEN working days, which is just ridiculously slow.
c. The first set of documents eventually sent out after more phone calls. The purpose of the documents is to detail who gets what from the remining estate. These are a set of off-the-shelf documents with the trust name, beneficiaries and the amount. The amount was wrong despite the correct information being provided by the probate team.
d. A week after the signed documents had been returned to the trust team nothing happened.
e. You can try ringing your case handler, but they will always be “in a meeting”, “not on the floor” or “out to lunch”. You can try asking to talk to the team leader, but they are never available or can make an appointment in 5 days’ time.
I suspect that the trust team deliberately goes slowly because they have your money and don’t want to release it, they claim they are not making interest on it but I find that hard to believe.

I cannot recommend this company at a time of sad loss the trust team just add more stress by their behaviour.

Edit additional information
To get the funds paid you have to open a bank account but it isn't a bank account it is a ctt account which only ctt can access.
If you are told you need one refuse save some money

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.

EDIT: To add insult to injury, CTT's bot posts a standard response to any negative review saying they are "sorry" and that their client care team can't wait to help. For clarity IT WAS their "client care" team I was dealing with for 6 weeks and they were obstructive and completely useless!!!! CTT's automated response sums up how little they actually care - cannot even be bothered to look at the facts before posting a reply.
*****

Even one star is a gift they don’t deserve! We needed to provide notarized identification from overseas in order to register trusts and wills. I completely understand this requirement, since obviously verifying identity is important. So, my brother and I went to the considerable time and expense of finding a local notary and having them validate our identity documents to create notarised copies. We couriered them to the UK at considerable additional cost, only to be told they had been rejected because the notary was “non-practising”.

What followed was the most bizarre and absurd round of conversations I have witnessed from a supposedly “professional” organization. Our notary was a non-practising lawyer and had indicated this on the copies but this is completely normal - notaries are often retired lawyers and do not have to be active lawyers, something that is clear in the Law Society rules of both the UK and Canada. The “client care” team made a mistake but rather than admit it, went to extraordinary lengths to double down - even going as far as trying to drag up dirt on the notary we used, all of which they later had to admit was nonsense!

We ended up giving up on these people and found another company - who were more than happy to confirm our notarized documents were completely fine as provided! I think that sums this up rather well.

Please stay away from this company - your experience will be frustration and significant wasted time and money.

Extremely professional service always from the team at Countrywide, My dealings have mostly been with Chad Nagra who has been particularly helpful courteous and efficient. All members of Chads team have always provided that same level of friendly helpful professional
Service. Highly recommend

I'm not quite sure how this company is still in business. Four months to get a meeting (that they charge for but it isn't clear what 'service' is provided) and now still waiting for them to sign and send paperwork three weeks after a meeting. If anyone is considering using this company to put a property in trust please, please, please, read these reviews. You would not accept this lack of service from any other company. They respond to reviews on these sites to say complaints are being processed etc or direct you to their customer care team but they don't deal with the complaints. In addition to the fees they charge for a service which doesn't exist, they also cost you thousands in delays and chasing for the sale of a property.