Mortgage starting before Completion date?

MarcusAurelius

Hi, all,

The bank tells me I am liable for a day's worth of interest as the solicitors have requested for the mortgage balance to be wired to them a day before the completion date. The solicitors have requested this to make sure the balance clears on the completion date.

Could I please have your opinions as to who should be liable for this one day's worth of interest, i.e. me, the solicitors or 50/50?

Thanks!

nidO

You. This is fairly normal.

marliepanda

I don't think the solicitors are going to pay half for ensuring you get into your house with no hiccups.

It's called doing their job properly and ensuring you hold your end of the deal.

Ask them to pay half. See what they say it might be a good laugh.

harrys_dad

Making up some figures: £200,000 mortgage at 5%, gives £10,000 a year interest, or about £28 for a day. Not the biggest of costs involved in moving house and not worth making a fuss over. You could of course try to recoup some of the cost by asking your solicitor to pass on the one day's interest they earned for having it in their account, but they will laugh too.

laidbackgjr

And comparing the costs of one day's interest with the costs you would be liable for if the money didn't arrive on completion day, makes it a no brainer, your solicitor requesting the funds a day early is doing it to protect you.

Richard_Webster

Banks don't guarantee when in the working day they will send money to solicitors so it is common practice to ask for it the day before.

Otherwise the money might not arrive until some ridiculous time like 3.20pm and that would be well past the normal 2pm deadline - then the buyer would be liable to the seller for much bigger penalties.

Thrugelmir

harrys_dad wrote: »

You could of course try to recoup some of the cost by asking your solicitor to pass on the one day's interest they earned for having it in their account, .

Solicitors don't though. The client funds are held separately.