Appalling company to deal with. I have just moved my properties to another agent and I am so relieved - dealing with Countrywide has been incredibly stressful. I have complained many times over the years, but nothing has ever really changed. They have no interest in doing a good job for the landlord, and I suspect that this is also the case for the tenant - they're only interest in how much more they can squeeze out of both sides. They are always coming up with new ways to charge additional fees. A good example, which I see someone else has noted, is that they changed my property from an initial 6 month lease which rolls on a monthly notice basis after that, to a 6 month fixed period lease which has to be renewed every six months. They didn't ask me if I wanted to do that and as far as I can see it was only done so that they could charge me a lease renewal fee every time (which they probably also charged the tenant). When I phoned to query this I was told it was for reasons of flexibility, but couldn't actually explain how it was of any benefit to me. Back to the old type of contract I went, but why do I have to police them this way? In-between lets they didn't seem too interested in actually getting it let out - I had to be constantly e mailing them about it. I might as well have been managing the property myself. Cost of any repairs was always prohibitive - I believe they must add a % commission / admin fee to what they charge, but this has never been transparent - no receipts ever provided, they simply pretend that this is the real cost. Finally there was a dispute with the deposit on my final tenancy, which they handled extremely badly - they finally grudgingly admitted they were at fault for not providing the correct information at the correct time, but only after telling me that the problem is that the ajudicator thinks the deposit belongs to the tenant so it's really hard to get the money back. Seriously!! So this is an agent who doesn't understand that the deposit does actually belong to the tenant and the landlord is only entitled to deduct for damages that can be proved?! (the damages were there, but Countrywide failed to provide the evidence to the ajudicator who, given the information that was provided, made a perfectly fair decision). Having heard them say that I am now horrified at how they must treat their tenants - their whole attitude stinks and I would recommend landlords and tenants alike steer well clear.