Payment via online banking keeps being refunded.

karxlee

Hi All,

This is my first post so apologies if this isn't the right thread

I am looking for a bit of advice if possible.

The situation is: After a long civil legal battle we incurred a large bill from our solicitor, who hadn't kept an eye on the costs during the case and hit us with a demand for over £15,000, we could not pay this and were forced into either having this as a charge on our house (so kind of a mortgage, with interest) or they would file for bankruptcy.
So we agreed for a charge to be added to our house this was setup in 2010. I have made the regular payments through my online banking each month, it is not a DD, I just pay £175 a month on payday into the solicitors account.
The issue I have is I have not had any contact from the solicitor for over 2 years, but in March this year (2014) the payments started to be refunded. We have not been advised of a change in bank details for the solicitor, and we have not had a statement to show what the debit currently stands at.
So my question is where do I stand with this, I am not even sure if the solicitor we dealt with is still working for them, he use to email me when he wanted the payments to be increased.
I have not contacted the solicitor because I am worried they will want to put the monthly payments up again.

Thanks in advance.

Thrugelmir

On the basis that you have no wish to make contact.

I would pay the refunded amounts into a savings account. Then should you be pursued for the debt. You'll be in a position to do so.

karxlee

Thanks Thrugelmir, I was thinking along those lines myself, I'll start to transfer the payments into my savings account. I did do that for a couple of months, but then life took over and bills had to be paid

densol_2

Do a search on the SRA - Solicitors Regulation Authority - you can look to see where the solicitor has gone and also if the firm even exist anymore. It may be partnership changed with new bank account ?

karxlee

Thanks Densol

The firm still exists, although I'm not sure if the actual solicitor works for them or not, the issue I have is I have not been told about any change in bank account details, that's if there has been one, I'm just guessing, but that can be the only reason why the payment keeps being refunded.

When the solicitor use to contact me he was always quite rude and disrespectful and blamed us for him not keeping on top of his costs - but that's all in the past although it is the reason why I don't want to contact him.

He use to threaten us with bankruptcy if we didn't pay and we also documented we accepted we were responsible for the costs and would pay them. What I cannot understand is why hasn't the branch been in touch with us about the payments not going through? My bank shows they have been paid - then returned, but I'm not sure where we stand if they claim we haven't made the payments.