FTB - Stressing about paying deposit to solicitor!

jsj25

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is well. FTB here and have been told that completion for my property has tentatively been set for the end of the month! However, I’m a bit stressed about the whole process of transferring my deposit to my solicitor as it’s a hefty amount - £155k. More specifically, I’m not so sure what the best way to transfer the funds would be. 

It’s my understanding that if I wanted to transfer all £155k in one go, my only option would be to go to my local bank branch to organise a CHAPS payment. I’m a bit hesitant about going to a branch due to COVID and was hoping there might be an option to do it online. Did anyone pay their solicitor their deposit via online banking? I think my bank has a Faster Payments daily limit of £50k, so I was hoping to do 3 x £50k + 1 x £5k payments across four separate days, providing my solicitor is fine with this. Does anyone have any experience paying in this way – and are there any potential drawbacks?

Also, how early can these funds typically be transferred to solicitors? I’d be very worried about doing a CHAPS payment on completion day and would much prefer to have the money in my solicitor’s account, say, one or two weeks in advance. Is this fairly common?

Sorry if these are all obvious questions! Have tried to do my research but am still slightly confused and stressed about the whole thing!

NinjaTune

You should be able to do a CHAPS payment via online banking.

155k is a big deposit!

NameUnavailable

Whatever you do check the solicitors bank details, check them again and before making any transfer check them again.

Details given over the phone can be incorrect. Emails have been intercepted and false details added. Employees have given their own bank details......... it's a common fraud in business.

Irishpearce26

jsj25 said:

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is well. FTB here and have been told that completion for my property has tentatively been set for the end of the month! However, I’m a bit stressed about the whole process of transferring my deposit to my solicitor as it’s a hefty amount - £155k. More specifically, I’m not so sure what the best way to transfer the funds would be. 

It’s my understanding that if I wanted to transfer all £155k in one go, my only option would be to go to my local bank branch to organise a CHAPS payment. I’m a bit hesitant about going to a branch due to COVID and was hoping there might be an option to do it online. Did anyone pay their solicitor their deposit via online banking? I think my bank has a Faster Payments daily limit of £50k, so I was hoping to do 3 x £50k + 1 x £5k payments across four separate days, providing my solicitor is fine with this. Does anyone have any experience paying in this way – and are there any potential drawbacks?

Also, how early can these funds typically be transferred to solicitors? I’d be very worried about doing a CHAPS payment on completion day and would much prefer to have the money in my solicitor’s account, say, one or two weeks in advance. Is this fairly common?

Sorry if these are all obvious questions! Have tried to do my research but am still slightly confused and stressed about the whole thing!

As others have said you can do a CHAPS online but with such a big deposit do a £1 trail run, do a payment of £1 to your solicitor then call to confirm they have it. 

olgadapolga

I transferred £250k via telephone banking. It took a few hours to get there and I had to go through a number of security checks before my bank would actually send the money to my solicitor. It helped that I had set the details up online and made a small transfer beforehand.

As I wasn't aware of this facility before I spoke to my bank about transferring the money, my solicitor said that she was fine about receiving several smaller amounts as long they were with the solicitor's bank before the day of completion.

NinjaTune

As NameUnavailable says, make very sure you have the details correct.

I'm guessing, however, that you will have already made payments to your solicitor for searches so you should already have them as a verified payment option.

I'm in a similar situation (though much smaller deposit) so will be interested to know if others have transferred the full purchase cost rather than just the deposit portion prior to exchange. 

davidmcn

Would help if you told us which bank you're with, they have different policies about limits etc. You can transfer money as early as you like. 

jsj25

Thanks for the advice, guys. And yes, £155k is massive - hence the stress   

I bank with Barclays and, as you guys have mentioned, they do allow online CHAPS payments. But having just checked with them they've advised that the £50,000 daily limit still applies (seems a bit pointless to me). 

I may call tomorrow to double check that's correct - but if that's the case, and £50k is the limit for both CHAPS and Faster Payments, seems counterintuitive to pay extra to use the CHAPS service as I'm not sure what I'm really getting from it. In which case I'd prefer just to go with Faster Payments, but I'm not sure if this is a done thing.

But for sure, before transferring any money I'll be calling them to confirm the bank details my solicitor sent! And I'll be doing £1 before even thinking about the other £154,999!

jsj25

davidmcn said:

Would help if you told us which bank you're with, they have different policies about limits etc. You can transfer money as early as you like. 

Cheers David - yes, should have mentioned in my OP that I'm with Barclays.
Good to know the money can be transferred early, though! Will double check with my solicitor that this is fine.

frogglet

Definitely send a pound first and confirm receipt  no matter how you end up sending it.

jsj25

frogglet said:

Definitely send a pound first and confirm receipt  no matter how you end up sending it.

I will do, thank you!!