'Completed' property sale 12 days ago - My mortgage is still not redeemed

Thoroughbred

Hi there,

I exchanged and completed the sale of my property on 28/11.

I had some negative equity in the sale which I financed via a personal loan, this was sent via CHAPs to my solicitor on exchange/completion day. This transfer was received too late in the day for him to send the funds to Alliance & Leicester (my mortgage company).
He therefore sought an undertaking from A&L on the promise the funds were to be sent on Monday. I was told to release the keys to the buyer.

I received a letter a few days later from my solicitor confirming completion took place. All sorted I thought...

A&L then took another full mortgage payment on 2/12 which I rang them the following day about, they said they hadn't received any funds. This seemed strange but I assumed there system wasn't up to date. So I rang again today and they still haven't received funds (no doubt I'm still being charged interest).

I rang my solicitor who said he sent a CHEQUE(!) on 2/12 even though I paid him £30(ish) for a CHAPs transfer. :eek: Surely these things are always done by CHAPs?

He was going to contact A&L tonight and find out where the cheque has got to and if necessary cancel the cheque and send it via CHAPs, but to be honest I no longer trust him. :mad: I told him I want a call back tomorrow.

Has anyone got any suggestions, I'm pretty worried now and this full payment A&L owed me is slowly disappearing. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Here's the solicitors website: http://www.cortssolicitors.co.uk/

terryw

Have you definitely paid him £30 for a CHAPS payment to the building society?
If so, he has not carried out your instructions and you should contact the senior partner for an explanation and reimbursement of any extra interest charged by the society.

terryw

MarkyMarkD

If you are paying by DD, then A&L would have collected the payment on 2 December whatever. They have to cancel DDs a long time before 2 working days before.

No sensible solicitor is going to redeem your mortgage with a cheque. He should obviously have used CHAPS.

Thoroughbred

terryw wrote: »

Have you definitely paid him £30 for a CHAPS payment to the building society?
If so, he has not carried out your instructions and you should contact the senior partner for an explanation and reimbursement of any extra interest charged by the society.

terryw

Thanks for the replies.

I've found his statement of account (all paid) which shows a "T T FEE" of £35.25. He is actually the senior partner so I can't go any higher.

I'll see what he comes up with tomorrrow.

Ilian2008

Hiya, cant believe he sent a cheque. That is very old school unless the lender says they can only recieve cheques which is rare. In 7 years ive only seen one which was a building society that said it wanted cheque only. The Solicitor would have had interest on the money as well.

The Solicitor will want to deal with this quickly and easily to avoid a complaint. best of luck. Oh yeah by the way sometimes two chaps transfer payments are required if paying out to two lenders for example, one secured and one unsecured.

terryw

I am just wondering if the CHAPS fee that you have paid is for the transmission of the money from the personal loan to the solicitor and not for the settlement of the mortgage.

terryw

elspeth240

You'll probably find that the solicitor has hung onto this money for as long as possible in order to get the interest as they won't be doing much business at the moment. Complain and insist that you get all the interest owed to you.