ariel

So a friend has sold her house and the completion should be today.
The solicitor dealing with this has said that the money will not be available to her 'till next week due, he says, to three power cuts yesterday that have messed up their banking/computer systems.

Is this likely?
Is a cheque the best idea? (I thought a bank giro credit was best).
Should she ask the solicitor to rebate interest if she accepts a cheque?

She has agreed to a cheque on Monday do you think she should change this?
Where's the best place for £200,000 'till she finds another house?
Other than YOUR account of course

ta, Ariel

MarkO

Get a cheque. That's what we did with the equity from our sale - I paid it in on Tuesday, and my account manager is going to have a heart-attack when he sees my current account balance today/Monday.

As for where to put it, it has to be risk-free, and the best rate possible. Tell her to buy a house. Either that, or a post-office account....

Boarder1

If I was your friend, I would wait until monday for a transfer of funds to be made. She should receive the money by tuesday / wednesday the same week if the transfer definitly gets made on monday.

Otherwise if she accepts the cheque, the bank wont be able to start processing it until monday, and the funds wont (or shouldnt) be cleared until friday or even monday the following week.

The only other thing to look out for, is if the funds are transferred on monday, that the bank does not sit on them for a couple of days, and profit from the interest. This is a stunt all banks pull on large fund transfers. (its where they make their money!!)

Hope this helps

Mark

Dave P

Sounds like bs to me. Sterling can be transferred by CHAPS for same day value up until 3.45pm. They may charge you a fee of upto £25 to do it this way. This will almost certainly be done by their bank so their system faul would not be an issue.

They would probably earn £35 interest for the 2 days over the weekend. Not a lot in it's own right, but if they have lots of customers completing over the course of a year it adds up.

I would call them up, tell them their computer issue isn't my problem and insist on overdraft interest at 5.25%. £28.76 per day that they are out of the money.

A cheque will take 3 days to clear, although you used to be able to get town clearing cheques which could be cashed the same day, not sure if they still exist, they maybe called express clearing now. Again I think there is a cost involved.

Dave

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Solicitors have very strict rules and time deadlines as to what they can and can not do with client money.

Mine was paid the same day as the sale was completed.

Last resort, they can always get off their **** and walk to the bank to instruct the chaps transfer

chris singleton

If power cuts have messed up their internall TT (telegraphic transfer) i.e. Chaps system then as suggested they can instruct the bank to do the transfer.

I've had to do that before, involves taking cheque over to the bank for the amount with instructions, our bank is only a stones throw away though

Couldn't she have called into solicitors after completion and pick up cheque direct then payed it in?

TopBanana

.

[Edited by jlanng - 11/29/2002 4:33:34 PM]

ariel

Thanks guys.
Thought it was BS too.

mattstant

hmmmm and you assume they always follow them.
this is a classic ploy by solicitors the more they can retain in the client fund the longer ,the more interest they make.
Speaking from personal experience our accountants couldnt find the money from a house sale from a year before and we found our solicitors had forgot to transfer the money we now request a cheque from every sale and bank it ourselves

MattN

solicitors accounts don't have interest paid.

mattstant

then how MATTN did we got interest back for a whole year on 80000 from our solicitors.
at the very least they are depriving customers interest they might earn themselves

Dave P

I'd wager they do take interest. What do you think happens to every deposit you leave with a solicitor for that new house. It sits in their bank account raking in the interest.

Client money under as regulated by the FSA has to be segregated from the firms money. There is no obligation however to pay on interest. I don't know what code of conduct solicitors have to follow, but as a lot of solicitors name carry out investment business, I should imagine many are regulated at some level by the FSA.

Dave

Phil

Sorry Guys

If you have a balance over X.XX[will check on Monday] held by your solicitor he is obliged under law society regulations to place the funds in an interest bearing account.This will be disclosed in your engagement letter

Anybody who is in doubt should ask to speak to the practice manager or whoever is mentioned in there engagement letter

BTW I used to audit solictors accounts and they are very careful with clients money

Phil