Money left over from House sale. Is it safe?

bazza1603

Hi,

We have sold our home, and cannot find another we like due to lack of houses in our area.

We are filling in the forms to start the sale of ours, with the view of renting.

The Solicitor we were recommended, so far seems very good and professional, but I dont know a lot about them. We will be due over a £100k back and since they are not members of the FSA I am worried about it and am asking the question should I swap to a bigger well known solicitor?

Is there anything I should ask now to make sure the funds are secure on exchange day?

Thanks

Baz

gizmo111

I don't know - but I cannot see what the difference is if you ahd bought somewhere else - either way the funds go to your solicitor before being passed on, whether to you or a 3rd party you had purchased another property from.
My instinct would be if you don't trust him don't use him.

david29dpo

Firstly, solicitors are only members of the FSA if they sell finance products so no worries there. All have to be registered with the law society so no worries there either. Your will get the funds from him on completion, not exchange.

N79

Just to add to David's post.

Your solicitor is regulated by the Law Society, not the FSA. The society requires them to have a seperate deposit account for client money. This account is protected in the event that your solicitor goes bust. Solcitors pay a lot of money for this protection. IE your money is not sitting in the solictor's account but in a special account that they use to temporarily store their clients money. When the time comes, they will pay this money out as you instruct. If you want, you can always ask for it back while you buy - but anywhere that you put the money will expose it to far more risk as you will only be protected on 100% of the first 2000 and 90% of the next 35000. Otherwise, they will pay the money to whomever you purchase the house from.

N79

bazza1603

Thank you.......