How to transfer deposit and then final payment to solicitors for purchase?

jesskel

Hi everyone.
Just been looking for info on how to transfer funds to solicitors for deposit and outstanding on completion. Obviously due to the amounts (11, 300 for the 10% deposit and then the outstanding 32, 000) it cant be done through partners internet banking due to the limits. Our solicitors never return our calls and only seem to communicate via email (which is all well and good until we ask questions and it takes them a week to get a reply) so thought I would ask on here. Ive heards of bacs? And chaps payments but dont really know anything about them. So can anyone shed any light please? How do we set this up with a yorkshire bank account? Does it take a few days to sort or can you just visit bank/call them and instruct them to sent x amount to x account on x day?We were told that hopefully in another 1 to 2 weeks to contract exchange so im trying to work out how it will all work.
Thanks in advance

zod666

jesskel wrote: »

Hi everyone.
Just been looking for info on how to transfer funds to solicitors for deposit and outstanding on completion. Obviously due to the amounts (11, 300 for the 10% deposit and then the outstanding 32, 000) it cant be done through partners internet banking due to the limits. Our solicitors never return our calls and only seem to communicate via email (which is all well and good until we ask questions and it takes them a week to get a reply) so thought I would ask on here. Ive heards of bacs? And chaps payments but dont really know anything about them. So can anyone shed any light please? How do we set this up with a yorkshire bank account? Does it take a few days to sort or can you just visit bank/call them and instruct them to sent x amount to x account on x day?We were told that hopefully in another 1 to 2 weeks to contract exchange so im trying to work out how it will all work.
Thanks in advance

BACS payments will fall foul of the limit and is the default method used by internet banking as you have discovered. You are better arranging a CHAPS payment which will get there the same day for the whole amount on the day in question. You bank will probably charge you a small fee but better to pay this than prevent the transaction going through.

contact your bank a day or so before to arrange it.

Southend1

When I bought my house I transferred £10k a day by Internet banking to my solicitor to avoid the chaps fee.

benjus

I didn't think the limits were so low these days... My current account can send up to £100k as a Faster Payment. Who do you bank with?

Having said that, Faster Payments are not guaranteed to go through the same day in some circumstances, so if you are paying at the last minute you should probably use CHAPS.

jesskel

Thanks for all your replies. Looks like chaps is going to be the way forward. My partners account is with yorkshire bank and his online limit is 1k, he can apply for some sort 'security token' to send higher amounts but that can take 7-10 days to be sent out. Obviously with 3 bank holidays over the next few weeks we will be pushed for time.
Does anyone know how much a chaps payment is or does it depend on the amount sent?

pinkteapot

We phoned HSBC as there was a £10k limit on internet banking transfers. They did multiple £10k transfers over the phone so we didn't have to pay the £35 CHAPS fee.

Did have to tell the solicitor to expect our cash in several transactions!

Okydoky25

Sorry to jump on this but if there is plenty of time can you leave a cheque with the solicitor when you go in to sign the contracts?

excitedbridetobe

Our bank charged us £25 for the CHAPS payment. The fee was a one off cost and not dependent on how much we were transferring

maninthestreet

Okydoky25 wrote: »

Sorry to jump on this but if there is plenty of time can you leave a cheque with the solicitor when you go in to sign the contracts?

Last time I moved (17 years ago), my solicitor required payment via a bankers draft, and would not accept a cheque.

aldershot

I must admit I am always a little surprised that people query a £25 CHAPS fee when sending many £000s. Its only a one off and you are buying a house. Whether you pay £150,000 or £150,025 doesn't really matter. Go into the bank, send it safely and in one piece and avoid any potential risks of it ending up late or in the wrong place.

DepositSaver

My solicitor recommended that I sent mine by CHAPS to ensure it arrived the same day. Apparently with faster payments (i.e. a normal internet banking transfer) the money may arrive the same day but the full sender details might not, resulting in the money not being usable.

Santander messed up my deposit transfer - I specifically asked for a CHAPS payment, they did the transfer and only after it had gone through told me it hadn't been sent by CHAPS, but insisted the money would be usable that same day. As warned by my solicitor the fuller sender details did not arrive the same day so exchange was delayed.

Natwest on the other hand, when I told them I was sending money for my solicitor's bill and that it had to arrive by the next day, immediately suggested CHAPS (I had missed the cut off for same day). So I would say if there is any urgency, or a deadline to meet, send the money by CHAPS.