Countrywide are nothing more than aggressive brutes! They didn't send service charge reminders to the property and when we didn't pay their charges, we would have done if asked, they got solicitors involved and added interest charges to our account. A simple 6 monthly service charge of £547, v expensive for what they do at the property was then hiked to include £645 for interest, disimbursements and legal charges. We have no choice but to use this company and reluctantly we paid so as to avoid court action. Countrywide is a huge PLC property services company providing everything from estate agency, property management, letting agency, surveying, conveyancing etc and I for one will refuse to ever use their services. In most instances they trade under a local brand name, so its worth checking locally to see what brand they operate under so as to avoid.