House Sale - How Long Before I Get Money From Solicitor

mystic_bertie

I live in Scotland. I have sold my house, the sale date is Fri 29th Apr. I asked my solicitor how soon i will get my money. They initially told me 5 working days. The money needs to clear blah blah, I can get it in 3 working days if the other solicitor agrees to use a different type of payment, which of course involves a fee. I do not understand this,it sounds like they are trying to delay giving me my money right away.

I read about the CHAPS system used for these transactions. I called the solicitor again, i told her i wanted my money on the day of sale, she said that's not possible, they need to log the money into their system, that will be done the next working day, even when i asked if i will definitely get my money on the next working day, she would not commit, she just said i will put a note on the system to tell the people in the cash room you need the money asap.

Are they telling the truth or is there no reason why i cannot get my money on the day of sale. I need to go and find somewhere to rent and i need the money right away.

Ozzuk

Odd, it used to be the case transfers took a while but my house went through late last year and money arrived within hours.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

They can do it straight away if they wanted to - to get it guaranteed the same day the CHAPS transfer needs to be made before 3pm.

mystic_bertie

Thanks for the replies guys.

Bluebirdman, i think you said it right, 'if they want to' . I get the impression they dont want to and so are giving excuses. They cant even guarantee giving me my money on the next working day. Which is gonna be a Monday.

davidmcn

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

They can do it straight away if they wanted to - to get it guaranteed the same day the CHAPS transfer needs to be made before 3pm.

They can only do it after settlement has taken place - which might be too late in the day to get it out to the OP same day. And that assumes they've settled by CHAPS rather than solicitors' cheque (which is still commonplace for Scottish residential transactions) - if you want to insist the purchasers' solicitor sends the funds by CHAPS you need to negotiate this, and possibly pay for their bank charge.

Essentially what the OP's solicitor has said is correct.

AdrianC

Quite simply, CHAPS is the right way to send a larger sum like this.

Faster Payments (the normal bank transfer) may arrive the same day.
CHAPS promises to arrive the same day if the money is sent before 2pm. CHAPS is also more secure.

You're asking them to provide a guarantee for things that are outside their power. All they can do is say "We will transfer the money as soon as our internal processes allow." - once it's left them, it's down to the banking system.

Frankly, for the sake of the potential loss of one working day and a cost of £25 or so, are you over-thinking this? If you think your solicitor is somehow trying to do you over, then perhaps you should have engaged a different solicitor...?

Missus_Hyde

AdrianC wrote: »

Quite simply, CHAPS is the right way to send a larger sum like this.

Faster Payments (the normal bank transfer) may arrive the same day.
CHAPS promises to arrive the same day if the money is sent before 2pm. CHAPS is also more secure.

Absolutely; when we sold my late mother's house, we paid about £30.00 (I think) for CHAPS. We completed about 11am ish and by about 3pm my sister and I had the money in our respective bank accounts.

It was worth paying for CHAPS as I was scared witless at the thought of such a large sum of money floating about in cyber space over a few days! :eek:

agrinnall

AdrianC wrote: »

Quite simply, CHAPS is the right way to send a larger sum like this. Or a cheque if that's acceptable.

Faster Payments (the normal bank transfer) may arrive the same day. But only for amounts below the sending bank's transaction and/or daily limits.
CHAPS promises to arrive the same day if the money is sent before [STRIKE]2pm[/STRIKE] the relevant cut off time for the sending bank. CHAPS is also more secure.

You're asking them to provide a guarantee for things that are outside their power. All they can do is say "We will transfer the money as soon as our internal processes allow." - once it's left them, it's down to the banking system.

Frankly, for the sake of the potential loss of one working day and a cost of £25 or so, are you over-thinking this? If you think your solicitor is somehow trying to do you over, then perhaps you should have engaged a different solicitor...?

I don't think any solicitor would guarantee being able to get the proceeds of a sale to the client on the day of settlement as it would require two CHAPS (or possibly FPS) transactions to be completed in a relatively short time.

fed_up_and_stressed

Missus_Hyde wrote: »

Absolutely; when we sold my late mother's house, we paid about £30.00 (I think) for CHAPS. We completed about 11am ish and by about 3pm my sister and I had the money in our respective bank accounts.

It was worth paying for CHAPS as I was scared witless at the thought of such a large sum of money floating about in cyber space over a few days! :eek:

We completed on the thursday before Easter. I received the funds on the Tuesday after the bank holiday.

AdrianC

fed_up_and_stressed wrote: »

We completed on the thursday before Easter. I received the funds on the Tuesday after the bank holiday.

Next working day.

GDB2222

davidmcn wrote: »

They can only do it after settlement has taken place - which might be too late in the day to get it out to the OP same day. And that assumes they've settled by CHAPS rather than solicitors' cheque (which is still commonplace for Scottish residential transactions) - if you want to insist the purchasers' solicitor sends the funds by CHAPS you need to negotiate this, and possibly pay for their bank charge.

Essentially what the OP's solicitor has said is correct.

I wasn't aware that solicitors send cheques for house completion any longer. Amazing! But, if that is the case, the OP's solicitors will indeed have to wait for clearance before remitting the funds.

In addition, they may have to send funds to pay off the mortgage, and they will want to deduct their fee. That all takes time to do, but I'd expect them to pay the OP within around 24 hours of getting cleared funds.

It does sound like the OP is getting a fairly basic service from her solicitor, which is fine if she is paying a fairly basic price.