Cash Buyer - Payment Question

robatwork

Oddly, banks are quite used to doing high value transactions, and so are solicitors. I'm surprised if you asked yours they didn't tell you about CHAPS. That's what it's designed for.

Sure there's a fee - £25 or £30 but when set alongside a house purchase it's peanuts, maybe 0.01%.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payment-and-settlement/chaps but you'll need to check in your bank just what they need in the way of ID to arrange the payment.

Slinky

MarcoM wrote: »

I wull ne in the same position as OP.

i have booked an appointment at the bank and the instructions
given online are to bring two forms of id.
There is no mention of having to bring proof of source of funds.

Did anyone have to provide evidence of where the money was from?

Regards

Our solicitor required bank statements from the accounts we held money in, and I had to give details about every receipt of £1000 or more, going back 6 nmonths. As OH had been shifting money around chasing best interest rates, it was a lot of work. And I had to do it twice as we withdrew from the first house we had intended to buy.

MarcoM

Hi,

I meant did you have to provide evidence of source of funds at the bank when you transferred the money.

Regards,

newbutold

I paid cash for my home and just did a CHAPS payment to the solicitor. Think it was £25 fee and as I bank with first direct, I did it over the phone no problem.

Also as a cash buyer I had to prove to my solicitor where the money came from, didn’t had to prove anything to first direct. In my case this was easy as it was from a previous sale a couple of years before, so I just sent the solicitor a copy of the completion statement from that sale.

AdrianC

MarcoM wrote: »

I meant did you have to provide evidence of source of funds at the bank when you transferred the money.

The bank should have done their money-laundering checks when you deposited the money.

warby68

I know this is a money saving site, but when considering what method to choose spare some thoughts for the accounting department at your solicitors. Receiving faster payments in dribs and drabs over days is extra work. Which completion payments are going to be made first on a busy Friday - the ones with the correct full referenced amount easily visible or the laborious adding up jobs. Its also more prone to delay and error in my view.

There are payment systems specifically for larger amounts, for the sake of £30 or so on such a significant and vital purchase, I know which I'd go with.

I wonder if clients would be happy to receive their sale proceeds in dribs and drabs over a week or so lol?

Tiglet2

I bought a property for cash 10 years ago using Barclays. There was a charge (£25 I think) for transferring the whole amount in one go by CHAPS. Easy enough, but you do need to go into the branch with ID - could always telephone first so they know to expect you and can advise what documents you need to bring).

davidmcn

AdrianC wrote: »

The bank should have done their money-laundering checks when you deposited the money.

They may well ask why you're sending a large sum of money to a new payee (partly to check there's no coercion going on as well as for anti-money-laundering purposes), but as you say they should already be satisfied that the money in your account is yours.

davidmcn

warby68 wrote: »

I wonder if clients would be happy to receive their sale proceeds in dribs and drabs over a week or so lol?

It's not unusual for solicitors to offer clients a choice of payment methods and charges. Your solicitors' client account is effectively your account, so it amounts to the same thing no matter which direction the money is going in. The CHAPS fee may well be more than the interest you'd lose by using another method.

Slinky

warby68 wrote: »

I know this is a money saving site, but when considering what method to choose spare some thoughts for the accounting department at your solicitors. Receiving faster payments in dribs and drabs over days is extra work. Which completion payments are going to be made first on a busy Friday - the ones with the correct full referenced amount easily visible or the laborious adding up jobs. Its also more prone to delay and error in my view.

There are payment systems specifically for larger amounts, for the sake of £30 or so on such a significant and vital purchase, I know which I'd go with.

I wonder if clients would be happy to receive their sale proceeds in dribs and drabs over a week or so lol?

Our solicitor was perfectly happy for us to transfer 'in dribs and drabs'. They are very used to this. We were well organised and the final amount was with them several days in advance of our completion date.


We were far happier with this than on a previous occasion where we were supposed to be receiving proceeds of a sale on a Friday, but the money went walkabout and didn't turn up in our account until the following Tuesday or Wednesday. Fortunately no onward purchase was depending on it - a mess up somewhere between the solicitor and the bank and that was using CHAPS!