Countrywide Reviews 931

I am writing to share my experience as a tenant in a property managed by Frank Innes in Leicester, under the landlord Shilpa.

From the outset, my experience was extremely unsatisfactory. On the day I moved in, I was given the wrong keys by Lottie at the office, which left me waiting outside the property for several hours before I could gain access. When I finally entered the property, the cleanliness was far below an acceptable standard, and I had to clean it myself. While moving the sofa, I discovered a dead rat, which was very concerning. Despite this, it took over two weeks for pest control to be arranged.

Additionally, although the landlord later provided a mattress, this came with an unexpected increase of £30 to my monthly rent. After living in the property for 12 months, I was informed by the landlord of planned heating installation works that would cause significant disruption. I was also told that any damage to my personal belongings during these works would not be her responsibility, which I formally disputed. Shortly after raising this concern, I was served a Section 21 notice and required to vacate the property within two months, despite asking for consideration as I had made the apartment my home.

The landlord stated that the property would be uninhabitable during the works and would require cleaning afterwards. Despite this, I still made the effort to leave the property clean and tidy upon exiting.

Overall, the way this situation was handled left me feeling that I was treated unfairly and without consideration. In my opinion, this experience reflects poorly on both Frank Innes and the landlord. This is a clear path of exploitation by Shilpa.

I have now moved on, but I feel it is important for others to be aware of what they may encounter when dealing with this agency and landlord.

3 months into our tenancy we've experience the following with Bridgfords/Countrywide/Entwistle Green (no, I have no idea why they all take turns to email me or why they have different names if they're basically all the same company):

* being told I had incorrectly logged repair reports online, despite following the printed handout we were given upon arrival to the letter. when I explained this, all I was met with was "the name of the person who gave you this information". I didn't really care about that, I just wanted the repairs done. This employee then ghosted us and never messaged back.

*several issues we reported in our first week STILL have not been addressed, it's a joke.

*it took around a month of emails and phone calls with various other employees just to get somebody to sort our broken boiler and thermostat out; we had no heating all that time and this was when it was still freezing every day.

*we were instructed to order a bin from the local council and pay for the bin ourselves, then minus that fee from our next rent payment. despite being told to do this, Countrywide/Bridgfords sent us a threatening email saying we were in arrears. I replied back saying this was rubbish, only to be ignored for two days. I only got a reply when I sent a follow up saying I would message literally every day until they backed off and apologised. Funnily enough, 5 minutes later, they finally replied.

*it for some reason took a month for them to remove the 'for rent' sign outside. again, as soon as I complained, it magically disappeared shortly after.

*I had to fix a broken kitchen drawer myself within the first month myself because they refused to acknowledge the issue which had been present since day 1.

*customer service is woefully slow. if you want to communicate via email, you get whinged at and pushed towards phone calls, which you then get dumped onto hold for and have patchy reception anyway.

*during those phone calls, I'd be told 'this will happen, the landlord is sorting this', but nothing ever happens.

*we've had 3 - soon to be 4 - visits from a contractor with regards to our bath/shower. how it takes this many call outs to repair one tap is beyond me.

*this latest instance of the contractor coming around has now broken the bath tap, no hot water, the seal is leaking, he's caused some damage to the kitchen and even our front door doesn't shut properly due to some equipment he'd had resting against the door for an hour. What does Bridgfords/Countrywide have to say about this? 'You should have pointed it out due avoid another unnecessary visit to the property'. Yeah okay, i'm so sorry for beinga dumb tenant who refused to let the contractor leave until i'd magically detected various issues around the house and bullied him into fixing them. if we'd arranged for this to take place when out of the house anyway, what would this 'Emily' have said to me then, "you should have stayed at home and not gone to work to prevent another home visit". what nonsense. this woman is on another planet. I have filed a formal report against her because she shouldn't be offering her own opinions. for a supposed professional, her entire email was nasty and sneering.

all in all, incredibly useless company. but I will be happy to update my review with positives if they actually prove they can deliver from now on. We shall see...

Water damage from home above, Lack of communication, was told by a customer service rep "I don't know what else you expect me to do" and "I can give you the number to contact them yourself". No urgency to resolve the matter, vague information on resolution had to really push for a full spec of work to be completed.
Ended up doing their job for them and finding a solution to a problem not of my making.
Awful level of customer service..avoid if possible.

Do not use. As a previous landlord this company transfered energy providers without notifying me when my tenants left. They get comission for doing so and months later I got a bill from the energy provider that I wasn't even aware of. Despite numerous emails back and forth country wide refused to acknowledge their errors despite the property being empty and on sale with their sister company. Aweful agents cowboys who will use underhand tactics to get money of landlords and customers. Landlords be aware of this company

I moved out of the property on 24 April 2026 and contacted Anderson Residential on 25 April 2026 requesting the return of my tenancy deposit.
The landlord subsequently provided written confirmation on 5 May 2026 that the deposit should be fully returned. Despite this, I have still not received my deposit, nor have I received any meaningful update regarding the delay.

What is particularly concerning is that there is no dispute regarding deductions from the deposit. Given that the landlord has already confirmed in writing that the deposit should be returned in full, I do not understand why Anderson Residential has continued to delay or refuse to process the repayment, especially while also failing to provide any meaningful communication or explanation.

Since my initial request, Anderson Residential has provided only one reply and has otherwise failed to respond to repeated follow-ups, including a recent email in which I requested an urgent response and advised that I would escalate the matter if no action was taken.

I consider the continued lack of communication and failure to process the deposit return within a reasonable timeframe to be unacceptable.

I should zero star. Poor management and no proper support during our stay. At the end they have demanded a big money even for th reasonable wear and tear. Avoid at any cost. Don't choose the letting agency who dealt with countrywide for property management

Pushy, would never recommend or use again, want £600 for a lifetime fee

My son as a first time buyer was advised to speak to this company linked to Entwistle Green. Was advised to take up the lifetime broker mortgage cover. When we checked the figures, it worked out an extra £1100 fees just for them. After reading the reviews, I advised my son to refuse any further dealings and we would do the paperwork ourselves... vote with your feet...... shocking 😲

I am new to Glasgow and this is one of the worst experiences I had. I booked a viewing for a flat with countrywide and they sent me a confirmation. I called them in the morning to be "sure" that my viewing is still taking place. I went to the property in time and noone showed up. I tried to call them but they kept dodging the issue and it was already close to 5 PM. The whole letting system here is a joke but this agency is something else.

Amazing experience - an actual person answers the phone - no long phone trees and Anna is exceptionally helpful. Have used them for years.

Would give Zero if I could. My landlord/letting agency screwed me over massively, and palmed me off onto Countrywide to deal with my issues.

These people broke the law by breaking the rental contract, and invalidated it from day one. They promised to clean a property before moving in - upon moving in there was blood on the walls, and key appliances were broken. They lied about this, despite seeing pictures, then were caught out, and admitted it. They then still insisted that the contract was still valid (it wasn't), and that I therefore owed them money, taking £1400 in rent that I didn't owe, because they had debt collectors chasing me immediately, including on Xmas Eve. As a tenant, avoid at all costs. They are rude, incompetent, fraudulent and dishonest. They never even apologised. They are lucky I didn't sue them - and I still might. I have been navigating the renter's hellscape for 14 years, and Blundells are up against some strong competition, but this is the worst experience I have ever had as a renter - and it isn't even close.

No words to say about this company - During the hardest times in my life this company almost push me to the end with their unreasonable behaviour, I am surprised these guys are still in business.

I nearly lost everything because of these guys and It wasnt through my own fault, they are relentless and put charges on my mortgage, running up a bill of over 10,000. They will not give you time to find solutions, straight to solicitors with a massive bill. I believe this company to be complete scam, unfair, don't care about people.

Infact, missing only two payments of my maintanence due to loosing my job and both parents all in one go, they put pressure on me without finding the right solution and on top, they took money from my mortgage company, with their fees added, over £10,000, infact more! I nearly lost my home, and its due to TLT solicitors, greedy sods and Countrywide, who have changed their names many times...., I would never touch these guys - Terrible at servicing and if you dont watch it, they will try to take your home...

In a sea of negative reviews I was sceptical with an upcoming valuation by Countrywide, arranged by my mortgage provider, but Rebecca arrived as planned, was professional and the valuation was submitted to my mortgage provider same day, as well as matched my RICS valuation.

Overall very happy with the service, I had a simple task versus some other reviewers maybe, but I did not need to worry like I did following reading the reviews.

Absolutely terrible company. Never use them. Most definitely conned my grandparents. Awful.

I instructed Countrywide to carry out a Level 2 survey before purchasing my house. After moving in I discovered remains and damage from a cannabis grow in the loft, including cannabis plants, soil and mould-contaminated roof felt and wooden batons, which has affected my asthma and they didn't report any of this in the survey.

I’ve been quoted £5,300 for the repairs but Countrywide have refused to take any responsibility or assist with the costs.

BBC News did a article on the issue, you can find this by googling 'BBC News Bellway'

I would strongly recommend avoiding using Countrywide as they don’t care about putting people in unsafe living conditions.

Appallingly bad. Avoid at all costs unless you are happy to involve lawyers to get CountryWide to meet minimum legal requirements.

Would prefer a zero. AVOID AT ALL COSTS
Absolutely appalling customer service.
Rude, unhelpful staff and no real process for complaint.
AVOID
LOOK AT RATINGS BEFORE PROCEEDING.

Very disappointing experience with Countrywide.

The entire deposit return process felt extremely one-sided, with little to no support provided to us as tenants. It often felt like the agents were working alongside the landlord to justify inflated contractor quotes for damages that were highlight prior to moving in but they ignored us and deducted this from our deposit after the end of the tenancy. We even sourced our own independent quotes which were significantly cheaper, but these were not properly considered.

Overall, the lack of fairness and support throughout the process was very frustrating and disappointing. I would strongly advise tenants to be cautious and carefully review their contracts if Countrywide is managing the property.

Avoid avoid avoid

They were property management on behalf of Santander repossession property that we were buying

They didn’t even communicate with the agent they employed to sell the property

No accountability and told lies constantly. Told us they ordered management pack from first port then weeks later told us they didn’t . After 8 months still didn’t recieve it.

There is no way to contact them individually and the whole chain of people they employ including ascent legal lack accountability or professionalism any other Business that operated like than would be struck off

We were told back in July that we had 28 days to complete. We were ready within time limit but a catalogue of errors and terrible customer service occurred and it’s taken 8 months and finally competed yesterday

I tracked down all of the directors and complaints people and emailed them all with my concerns and not one person replied

They promised they were chasing and they had been waiting for responses from company’s that were not operating any more and it took me to track down the correct company with a quick google.

On the one time I did manage to talk to someone they promised I could call again and they would keep my updated but she lied and never followed through on any of it

If you are looking at buying a repossession and these people are involved I would avoid at all costs.

Terrible terrible company

If I could give less than one star to this company, I would! Unfortunately it's not possible! Please landlords, do you do not ever use this company! They will just take your money and do nothing! At a time of writing this review, there's over nine hundred peopl giving one star this company... listen to them.