Second Bank Transfer Fee—Delay Not My Fault!

CHlHlRO

So we were due to exchange and complete earlier this month. I transferred full monies to our solicitor over the early May Bank Holiday weekend as requested. Exchange and completion didn’t happen due to a delay further up the chain and someone misleading those below that they were ready when they weren’t. We now have a date set but I have to pay a further bank transfer fee because things didn’t go ahead on the original date, even though that’s not my fault? Seems unfair. Am I stuck with it?

G_M

Yes.

Who do you think should pay? Your solicitor? The person up the chain?

As you have not Exchanged there is no contract in place so no come-back o anyone for the failure to Complete. Any costs incurred by anyone in the chain are entirely their own responsibility.

D_M_E

Is the original transfer you made still with your solicitor?

If so then I don't see why a second fee should be paid.

If your solicitor returned your funds then yes a second fee should and will be charged as you will be sending/transferring the funds to your solicitor again.

CHlHlRO

Funds still with Sol. They weren’t returned to me.

HampshireH

...but we're they transfered elsewhere before someone pulled out. I.e had they began the process as agreed & when someone else in the chain failed to so so that day they had to recall the monies?

If so then they would need to do it again. Hence the fee.

davidmcn

CHlHlRO wrote: »

Funds still with Sol. They weren’t returned to me.

So what's the second transfer fee for? Your own bank's fee for sending money to your solicitor, or your solicitor's fee for sending the money on?

CHlHlRO

davidmcn wrote: »

So what's the second transfer fee for? Your own bank's fee for sending money to your solicitor, or your solicitor's fee for sending the money on?

HampshireH has it right—I didn’t pay a fee to my bank because I didn’t transfer the money in one go (not deliberately to avoid the fee but never mind). The Sol is wanting to charge me THEIR fee a second time because the person up the chain misled us into believing they were ready when they weren’t, and the money was returned to them.

Thrugelmir

Unfotunately this remains your cost. There's no one else to pay it.

bowlhead99

CHlHlRO wrote: »

HampshireH has it right - I didn't pay a fee to my bank because I didn't transfer the money in one go (not deliberately to avoid the fee but never mind). The Sol is wanting to charge me THEIR fee a second time because the person up the chain misled us into believing they were ready when they weren't and the money was returned to them.

The solicitor is just charging you the costs that they incurred on your behalf while attempting to complete your transaction, and they will have told you in advance what they will need to charge you for every cash transfer they complete on your behalf. Now they have been given the money back, they will have a further cost when they send it to your seller's solicitors again. And so that's your cost too, because they're not going to cover it out of charity.

If you would like, you could tell your solicitor that you now won't exchange contracts until the seller reduces the price of their house by the amount of the fee. The seller will tell you to get stuffed because they know you're bluffing (and they have probably been hurt by the same issue too), so have no desire to compensate you a token amount of money.

Or your seller will say ok let's drop the price on the contracts so that my solicitor and your solicitor and your mortgage company can all do this deal at a lower price, change the stamp duty paperwork that you're lined up to pay, etc. And in turn they will try and negotiate to buy the property ahead of them in the chain for a similarly reduced price (for the amount they reduced for you and the amount by which they are also out of pocket on their own bank fees). You are not going to win many friends that way, and it's not going to happen.

Or another thing you could do is obtain the details of the person at the top of the chain and tell them that although nobody has any contracts with each other yet because nothing's been exchanged, you feel annoyed that some issue has caused him to delay a bit on the exchange, so please could he compensate everyone in the chain for their incidental costs. He will say no, because there's nothing in it for him if he pays out, unless declining your request were to pose a genuine threat to his sale if he declined.

So, basically your only options are to

a) make a credible threat to trash the chain and storm off in a huff if someone doesn't send you £25 (this might actually work if you have been acting like an unhinged crazy person throughout the transaction process).

b) appeal to someone's better judgement and ask them sweetly for the money (incredibly unlikely to happen and your solicitor is unlikely to help because it's a water of their time)

c) suck it up.