Shared ownership CHAPS payment to wrong account

skintandscared_2

You won't have lost the money and I'm sure the solicitors can work this out between them, but as I said the seller's solicitors will need to protect themselves against money laundering issues so they are covered.

bris

A solicitor can't just accept a large amount of money without knowing where it came from. Now he has it he can't just give it back for laundering reasons. You will have done this with your solicitor, can your solicitor not just pass over the confirmation he has. If he doesn't have any, then he would need to do the checks anyway.

skintandscared_2

bris wrote: »

A solicitor can't just accept a large amount of money without knowing where it came from. Now he has it he can't just give it back for laundering reasons. You will have done this with your solicitor, can your solicitor not just pass over the confirmation he has. If he doesn't have any, then he would need to do the checks anyway.

I wondered if the OP's solicitors could share their AML documentation with the Seller's solicitors, to show that the identity checks had been done, but the only thing that worries me is that, effectively, would the Seller's solicitors then be making the OP their own client, resulting in a conflict of interest (i.e. acting for both the buyer and the seller)? The regulations for solicitors are so strict these days. You'd think it would be quite a simple mistake to rectify but in practice it's a bit of a minefield, and unfortunately conveyancing and tax are two of the most common legal areas to encounter money laundering issues.

Actually, I am very surprised that the Seller's solicitors accepted the funds without any questions as to where they'd come from! They should have refused them.

rockall81

So are the two solicitor playing a game here then ?

alunharford

skintandscared wrote: »

Actually, I am very surprised that the Seller's solicitors accepted the funds without any questions as to where they'd come from! They should have refused them.

CHAPS is real time gross settlement. They don't have any way to refuse them.

Now that a significant amount of money has been transferred into their account, they're required to follow anti-money laundering regulations and cannot transfer the money on until they 'know their customer'. In addition, I doubt this kind of thing happens to them every day: they'll need to work out exactly what they can and can't legally do before taking any action.

OP: Your solicitor will probably have to sort out the mess for you. This may take a while.

rockall81

What i am worried about is that, i am loosing my money. Is there a chance for this?

Do i have to end up in court to collect my money back?

BobQ

rockall81 wrote: »

What i am worried about is that, i am loosing my money. Is there a chance for this?

Do i have to end up in court to collect my money back?

I really would not worry about this. The solicitor is following whatever bureaucratic processes he thinks he needs to do in order to watch his back which is quite understandable. Unless you are laundering money (which I assume that you are not) this will get sorted. In principle the sellers solicitor should only need the same information as your own solicitor as to the origin of the money.

Think yourself lucky that you did not accidentally pay the money to a complete stranger! At least the recipient has an interest in seeing the matter is resolved.