Smart Currency Exchange Misled - Advice Please

Rachelina

In December 2019 I spoke to an advisor about the potential sale of my house in the UK. Contracts had not been exchanged and I emphasised that I couldn’t not commit to a firm date to transfer funds.

I was advised that due to Brexit it would be prudent to lock in a currency exchange now with a deposit or risk losing €10,000+ should the rates drop. I reiterated that I did not have a firm exchange date yet but was told it didn’t matter the contract could easily be extended. At no point was I told my deposit would be at non returnable risk. I paid a deposit of nearly £6,000 and agreed to a provisional transfer date of end of February, subject to sale.

My buyers mortgage lenders withdrew their offer and the buyer threatened to pull out of the sale. I advised Smart Currency of the situation in early February asking what could be done. They agreed to extend the contract by one month.

In March the buyer pulled out completely. I contacted Smart Currency and was told to cancel the contract I would lose my entire deposit as the funds had already been purchased. I referred the matter to their compliance team stating this was not made clear to me at the point of contact. They replied with terms and conditions and said it was in the details.

I spoke to the Senior Advisor who agreed to extend the contract until the end of the year to give me time to sell the property. Due to a new legal issue with the ground rent company lease, I have had to delay the sale and won’t be able to put the property back on the market until April 2020 now.

Smart Currency have my deposit still but argue this is for ending a contact I explicitly stated to the Advisor at the time of purchase I would need to be flexible.

Any advice is welcome, thank you

Thrugelmir

What's the purpose of the deposit you made? You are selling a property not buying. Rather confusing.

sal_III

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What's the purpose of the deposit you made? You are selling a property not buying. Rather confusing.

I suspect this is a deposit to Smart currency to lock in an exchange rate. Basically they buy (or otherwise hedge/secure) in advance X Euro for Y GBP at today's rate, ensuring you will get X Euro in the future for Y GBP for a fee.

This is really not the correct board for this question as it's about currency exchange, not really property sale. What does your contract with Smart Currency state? I highly doubt it is indefinite and perfectly reasonable for you to forfeit the deposit if you fail to fulfil your end of the bargain. Sounds like they were reasonable and already granted you an extension.

CM66

Do you have an account that the money can be deposited in to until you need to use it?

Comms69

Rachelina wrote: »

In December 2019 I spoke to an advisor about the potential sale of my house in the UK. Contracts had not been exchanged and I emphasised that I couldn’t not commit to a firm date to transfer funds. - what funds??!!

I was advised that due to Brexit it would be prudent to lock in a currency exchange now with a deposit or risk losing €10,000+ should the rates drop. I reiterated that I did not have a firm exchange date yet but was told it didn’t matter the contract could easily be extended. At no point was I told my deposit would be at non returnable risk. I paid a deposit of nearly £6,000 and agreed to a provisional transfer date of end of February, subject to sale. - is this a money changer you're talking about?

My buyers mortgage lenders withdrew their offer and the buyer threatened to pull out of the sale. I advised Smart Currency of the situation in early February asking what could be done. They agreed to extend the contract by one month.

In March the buyer pulled out completely. I contacted Smart Currency and was told to cancel the contract I would lose my entire deposit as the funds had already been purchased. I referred the matter to their compliance team stating this was not made clear to me at the point of contact. They replied with terms and conditions and said it was in the details.

I spoke to the Senior Advisor who agreed to extend the contract until the end of the year to give me time to sell the property. Due to a new legal issue with the ground rent company lease, I have had to delay the sale and won’t be able to put the property back on the market until April 2020 now.

Smart Currency have my deposit still but argue this is for ending a contact I explicitly stated to the Advisor at the time of purchase I would need to be flexible.

Any advice is welcome, thank you

This doesn't have anything to do with housebuying, it's a separate contract.

AdrianC

I suspect the missing information is that the funds from the UK sale were being used to purchase a property in a Eurozone country, and that the €10k "loss" relates to exchange rate changes on the full purchase amount, and the £6k was used to purchase a hedge option.

Given that you hadn't exchanged contracts on the sale, I think you've basically just committed before you were really able to - and didn't read the Ts & Cs.
https://www.smartcurrencyexchange.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/
They seem to be fairly clear (5.3 and elsewhere) that once a future order has been placed, it cannot be withdrawn by the client without their agreement.

Rachelina

I agree that the terms state that the contract can not be withdrawn without their agreement.
At the point of sale I queried with the Advisor what would happen if the sale didn’t go ahead and I didn’t need the fund transfer or it was delayed. The implication was not to worry, they could be flexible.

The deposit paid was described as a % of the final contract value. It was not highlighted by the Advisor as a forfeitable amount should the contract be cancelled.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Apologies if I posted in the incorrect forum but the topic is unique and crosses categories.

eddddy

Did the advisor refer you to their terms and conditions on their website?

For example, did they ask you if you had read them, tell you to read them, send you a confirmation email with a link to them, etc?

If they didn't, they can't bind you to contract terms they didn't tell you about, and you didn't know existed.


It depends how sure you are of your position, but maybe with £6k at stake, you might want to do a SAR (Subject Access Request) to get a recording of the phone call.

Then listen to it and read any/all emails they sent you - and decide whether a 'reasonable person' would have understood that their £6k was non-refundable.

If you think a 'reasonable person' would have understood that the £6k was refundable, you can take things further.

(But for example, if they sent you a link to their t&cs, a 'reasonable person' would have read them.)