Money held by solicitor - interest?? UPDATE!!!!

jordan_gibson

Hi,

I bought my new house 2 months ago. Before this all went through my solicitor held a very large sum of money of mine, ready for the house going through. Due to delays down the chain etc, it took a few months to go through. My question is should they pay me interest on this?

Just for figures, they held £65K for 2 months and then £20K for a month

silvercar

Law society rules for England & Wales require a solicitor to account to you for the interest earned if it is over £20 and they have held the amount in column 1 for longer than the time in column 2:

amount time (weeks)
£1,000 8 weeks
£2,000 4 wks
£10,000 2 weeks
£20,000 1 week.

insured

Under the solicitors account rules, solicitors must hold your money in a separate account from their own money.
If they are holding your money for a short period they normally do not put it in an interest bearing account (called a client call account)
However, if they are holding it for a longer period or there is a larger sum involved, because they are under a duty to treat the money with the same level of care as they would their own money they should put it into an account earning interest. If they have not done that, ask them why, and if they cannot offer an adequate explaination, tell them you want them to pay interst personally from their office account.
They cannot keep the interest themselves if that is what you mean.

RabbitMad

Last year I completed at the end of July and in November I got a cheque from the solicitor for about £40. I was shocked. I just assumed they kept any interest as a perk of the job. If I'd know that I was going to get interest on my deposit I would have got it together a whole lot quicker.

jordan_gibson

Many thanks everyone - what's the best way to ask for it back? Would a nice polite letter to them do the trick or should I start quoting the Law Society rules etc etc. What kind of interest should they give on the money (just so I can roughly work out what they owe)

Thanks again

silvercar

Assume they get about 4%, 65k for two months would be around £433 and £20k for 1 month about £67, so your looking at £500.

Voyager2002

jordan_gibson wrote: »

Many thanks everyone - what's the best way to ask for it back? Would a nice polite letter to them do the trick or should I start quoting the Law Society rules etc etc. What kind of interest should they give on the money (just so I can roughly work out what they owe)

Thanks again

The first time I bought a house, a quick telephone call to the solicitor's secretary produced a cheque within a few days.

The second time, when I received my final account from the solicitor the credit interest was included in the calculation.

jordan_gibson

silvercar wrote: »

Assume they get about 4%, 65k for two months would be around £433 and £20k for 1 month about £67, so your looking at £500.

Blummin ummer.....I'm writing the letter right now! :beer:

plane_boy2000

Had a similar thing a couple of years ago and asked them to account to me for the interest. Quite surprised when they came back and quoted me a rate which was only about .25% under the base rate - gave me a nice little perk after completion and paid for the curtains!

jordan_gibson

Right - I have just had a reply.

Basically, the solicitor has said that it is not practical for them to open individual accounts (unless specifically specified by the customer) due to costs and therefore they can not pay me any interest. They have given me a cheque for £36 as a gesture of good will - !!!!!!!!

They explain this tiny amount by saying that it would have cost £60 to open an account for me and then I would have to pay tax. This is all fair enough but as you can see from the replies above they will have made around £500 interest on my money. Therefore, even when the tax and costs have been paid they owe me a blummin sight more than £36!!!

If I need to find out more should I go through the Law Society?? Can you imagine how much money these guys make just through doing this with all of the house sales they look after!! I would have thought that each solicitor is regulated to be fair and impartial - they way it is at the moment it is actually in their interest to delay each house sale by a few weeks, which can't be right!

Any advice greatly appreciated

silvercar

No need for them to have individul accounts, the money should be held in their client's fund account. Their own paperwork will identify how much money belongs to each client.

You need to follow the solicitor's internal complaints procedure and then go to the law society.