Total Property Completion Failure: NatWest ‘misplaces’ our house payment money

Troubled2012

Can anyone believe this situation?

We were due to complete on a property on Friday.

Our solicitor sent the money off by the CHAPS system all fine – but then NatWest ‘misplaced it’.

For days.

And as I speak, on Wednesday, the money has still not been located. Almost quarter of a million pounds.

Our estate agent has never heard of this happening in his 20 years of being in the trade.

Worse still, as we are not customers of NatWest, WE cannot complain to anyone or chase it up. It is all in the hands of the bank to locate the money and we have to hear everything third hand through our solicitor, who hears it from his accounts department.

Now, imagine the ramifications of this.

Luckily we have time left on our rental property as I need to completely renovate the property (rewire, new boiler etc.) to make it safe and liveable for my young family. But we could have been in a chain, with all our property in a removals truck ready to move in. We would have been literally homeless, with no sign of completion.

And this may still happen as we have given notice on our flat although we have no idea when, or if, our money will show up.

We are now in the position of possibly having to pay an extra month’s rent AND pay a mortgage (can’t afford that).

We are paying interest on mortgage money which we do not know the whereabouts.

I have lost the tradesmen who were doing our rewire and new boiler as they have had to move onto other jobs ( I took time off work to source these guys).

We have contacted NatWest (they won’t help as we are not customers), we tried the financial ombudsman (the woman rudely said they couldn’t help, yet again because we are not NatWest customers).

We are in the position of being totally powerless.

What would you do?

sharao

You serious!!
Jeez, sorry to hear this!

Tell me why would your solicitor transfer money via Natwest when you are not the account holders?

Do you have the mortgage through them? Basically where they come into the picture?

ta

Troubled2012 wrote: »

Can anyone believe this situation?

We were due to complete on a property on Friday.

Our solicitor sent the money off by the CHAPS system all fine – but then NatWest ‘misplaced it’.

For days.

And as I speak, on Wednesday, the money has still not been located. Almost quarter of a million pounds.

Our estate agent has never heard of this happening in his 20 years of being in the trade.

Worse still, as we are not customers of NatWest, WE cannot complain to anyone or chase it up. It is all in the hands of the bank to locate the money and we have to hear everything third hand through our solicitor, who hears it from his accounts department.

Now, imagine the ramifications of this.

Luckily we have time left on our rental property as I need to completely renovate the property (rewire, new boiler etc.) to make it safe and liveable for my young family. But we could have been in a chain, with all our property in a removals truck ready to move in. We would have been literally homeless, with no sign of completion.

And this may still happen as we have given notice on our flat although we have no idea when, or if, our money will show up.

We are now in the position of possibly having to pay an extra month’s rent AND pay a mortgage (can’t afford that).

We are paying interest on mortgage money which we do not know the whereabouts.

I have lost the tradesmen who were doing our rewire and new boiler as they have had to move onto other jobs ( I took time off work to source these guys).

We have contacted NatWest (they won’t help as we are not customers), we tried the financial ombudsman (the woman rudely said they couldn’t help, yet again because we are not NatWest customers).

We are in the position of being totally powerless.

What would you do?

hazyjo

Oh God, how awful. There was a similar thread recently, I'll see if I can locate it. You should be able to claim for all this after, along with all legal fees, I think.

Hope it gets sorted soon.

Jx

Troubled2012

Our solicitor transferred our money from his company's Barclays account into the seller's solicitor's NatWest account via the CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) - the system that (supposedly) enables money to be transferred from one bank account to another on the same day

pinkteapot

Can your solicitor ask the seller's solicitor to put a rocket up NatWest?

This was a previous thread with a similar issue:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3605879

Completion was delayed there too. In that case, when the mortgage bank sent the mortgage funds to the buyer's solicitor's account, it got lost. Still might have some useful advice...

Troubled2012

hazyjo wrote: »

Oh God, how awful. There was a similar thread recently, I'll see if I can locate it. You should be able to claim for all this after, along with all legal fees, I think.

Hope it gets sorted soon.

Jx

Thanks, would be good to see that thread - I couldn't find anything about this at all on Google.

sharao

Ah, so it can be traced easily by Barclays (their problem not yours now). You will get it back, indeed I can understand the pain you are going through but this is ridiculous. I mean what on earth is happening to the system here. I see more issues due to staff being made redundant and lots of stress on existing people so unable to do their jobs properly.

Troubled2012 wrote: »

Our solicitor transferred our money from his company's Barclays account into the seller's solicitor's NatWest account via the CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) - the system that (supposedly) enables money to be transferred from one bank account to another on the same day

TrickyDicky101

Are you sure the error lies with Nat West and not with your solicitor who presumably filled out the CHAPS details?

Mrs_Z

That sounds very strange to me - surely your solicitor has the receiving bank's (Nat West) bank account details and they should be able to check??? There must be an audit trail on electronic transfers.

Very scary - keep my fingers crossed for you. I'd be going absolutely mental to the solicitors - they are your first point of contact. They MUST sort it out presto.

Let us know the outcome.

WestonDave

It will get sorted out - money doesn't just disappear but if its sent to a slightly wrong code etc it will get put into a suspense account from which it can be harder than it should to retrieve.

Get on to your solicitor and keep on at them - ask for the name of the complaints partner - that normally wakes them up! They can contact Barclays and their opposite number to get them to contact Nat West, and whilst they may have to act as go betweens to get info from Barclays to tell NatWest where to look, it will get found.

Once its sorted and established where and why it got lost you should be able to claim your costs from your solicitor where you can demonstrate they actually occurred and cost you, and that they were reasonably connected to the late completion. It will then be down to your solicitor to recover any relevant parts from its bank, the other solicitors or its own insurers as applicable.

hazyjo

Troubled2012 wrote: »

Thanks, would be good to see that thread - I couldn't find anything about this at all on Google.

pinkteapot beat me to it