Getting a direct debit back from a paid off mortgage

Tewdric

Quick question.

We completed on the sale of our old house on the 26th August. A direct debit for the mortgage payment for our old house went out of my account on the 1st September. That same day we received a letter from our solicitor, dated and posted on 30th August confirming that he’d used the funds from the sale of our house to pay off the remaining mortgage on it. Having had confirmation that we fully paid off the mortgage on 26th August I have since cancel the DD for the old mortgage so no more payments will go out.

Question – will we get back the extra direct debit mortgage payment on our old house? How long will it take? Do I need to do any chasing to get it back, or will it automatically be returned to the account it was taken from?

Many thanks.

ACG

It would normally get refunded automatically.
However, it is best checking whether or not the papyment you made to clear the balance included the direct debit payment or not.

DDs are set up to claim about a week before it actually goes through so its just "one of those things" but if you need the money back sooner rather than later I would pick up the phone and chase.

davidmcn

The practice depends on the lender - sometimes refunds go to the solicitor who dealt with the redemption.

AnotherJoe

Generally its advised not to cancel the DD as this can mess up any refunds back to you since the lender now has no bank details to provide a refund to.

I would phone them to sort it out / find out whats happening.

Tewdric

Heaven help us if it goes back to our solicitor he caused us an absolute shambles with our onward purchase (36 hours before we were due to move and were attempting our onward exchange we discovered that he hadn't requested our new mortgage funds from our new mortgage provider - but that's another long story).

Are solicitors honest? If the additional payment has gone to him will he be duty bound to get it back to us?

After confirming our sale by letter, saying that the old mortgage had been paid off, and confirming he was in the process or registering our new house in our name with the land registry we haven't heard from him. It's been more than a week now - will we get some sort of final letter confirming everything has been sorted out?

Tewdric

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Generally its advised not to cancel the DD as this can mess up any refunds back to you since the lender now has no bank details to provide a refund to.

I would phone them to sort it out / find out whats happening.

Looks like I'd better give them a ring to get it sorted then. Thanks

ACG

The land registry update can take a good few weeks.

davidmcn

Tewdric wrote: »

If the additional payment has gone to him will he be duty bound to get it back to us?

Yes, of course - it's clients money, he can't just pocket your mortgage payments!