Made Homeless during house move due to negligence during solicitor payment

mackolicious12

Hi All,
I desperately need some help/advice on my options based on the following:
I was in the process of moving with my family out of our sold property into our new property when I was told that we would not be given the keys. It was explained to me by my solicitor that the money had been paid into the wrong account. Me and my family are currently homeless and need help getting the resolved.
Any help would be appreciated.

parkingadvice1212

Paid by whom? The mortgage company or your solicitor?

teachfast

I really feel for you. Have you established why the wrong account was used? That will help understanding where the money has gone and timescales and it will also assist any claim you have for costs against the solicitor later on. 

For example: if it was an incorrect digit it's going to be a lot harder to sort than if it accidentally went to the wrong bank or the wrong account within the right bank. 

macman

Your solicitor will have professional indemnity insurance for just this sort of incident.

princeofpounds

Keep a record and receipts for all your additional costs. Claim them from the solicitor (assuming it was them who make the mistake) once everything is wrapped up.

xylophone

I was in the process of moving with my family out of our sold property into our new property when I was told that we would not be given the keys. 

Quite literally supervising the removal men while your wife drove over to collect the keys of the new property?

TBagpuss

So sorry this has happened.
To clarify - 
Who has paid the money to the wrong account? 
Do they know where it has been paid? 
Is it being recovered? 
Why was is paid to the wrong account? (i.e did you sellers solicitor provide incorrect details, did someone at your solicitors make an error, or where you the victims of fraud?) 

Best case scenario is that it has gone to a holding account and will be sent back by the bank, in which case you will have a lot of hanging around and will be in later.
Worst case scenario is that you / your solicitors have been the victim of fraud in which case the solicitors  may be liable if they failed to make appropriate checks to ensure that details were correct, however, if they carried out all the appropriate check but the fraud was a very sophisticated one they they are victims as much as you and may well not be responsible. 

Keep records of any extra costs so if you can identify who was at fault, you can claim them back. 

mackolicious12

Hi All,
Thanks for your responses. I'll try to reply to them all here:

• Our solicitor has paid the sum of £685,000 (that's the lender amount + deposit) into a "wrong" account.
• Our solicitor claims that they were given the wrong details and have been trying to recoup the funds since 12/02.
• I have kept a record of all my current expenses - which I will hopefully get back.

Does anyone know whether transactions take this long to revert and whether I will be entitled to claim back any expenses that have occurred during this period?

elsien

Who was your solicitor given the wrong details by? 

AdrianC

Was it simultaneous exchange and completion?

greatcrested

You need to press your solicitor for more specific details eg

1)  who gave him the account details (I assume the seller's solicior?) and how (letter? email?....?).This will help establish where fault (and hence liability) lies.

2) was a scam involved? eg an email was intercepted and the account details altered

3) what account details were provided?

4) what acount details was the money sent to?

Your solicitor may not wish to divulge or this (good old 'data protection'!), but be persistant. If fault lies with your solicitor, he may be .. errr... flexible in what he tells you....

If the money was sent to a non-existant account (eg a single wrong digit or 2 were given to your solicitor, or he inserted a wrong digit or 2), the receiving bank will have placed the money in a 'holdig accout' and it will be traced and returned... in time.

If it went to a live account, eg belonging to a scammer, the money may already have been spent or moved on by the account-holder, and then it will be a question of determining fault (the receiving bank? the sending bank? one or other of the solicitors?) and they will ..... eventually...... have to refund you.

So the more you can press your solicitor for information, and to chase the money himself, the better.

Do everything in writing and keep copies.

Look up the solicitor's complaints procedure and use the address/process there.