Made Homeless during house move due to negligence during solicitor payment

[Deleted User]

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

Hi all,
I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

What figure in pounds, shillings and pence does that “a lot” come to? 

AdrianC

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters to the buyer that completion could not happen. That's now been rectified, albeit two days late.
It matters to the buyer that they incurred costs as a result of that delay. Those costs are claimable.
It matters not to the buyer where in the chain the error was caused.
It matters not to the buyer how it was resolved.
It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

davidmcn

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

Slinky

We had a similar experience with the sale of OH's house, completed on the Friday, his funds went missing until the following Wednesday. We were fortunate that there was no onward purchase involved, just an embarrassing conversation with a builder doing work on our house and whose bill we delayed paying whilst the funds turned up. I'm not entirely sure they believed us.

xylophone

Completion was scheduled for 15/2 and took place on 17/2?

Mickey666

davidmcn said:

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

Good point.  There are a number of possibilities for the error, but if the OPs solicitors transferred the money to the specified account then it would seem hard to pin the blame on them.  If the seller's solicitor passed on the wrong account details then the mistake is surely theirs?  But regardless of which solicitor made the mistake, one of their insurance policies will pay for the costs and compensation due - and for this reason we can be sure that the insurers will be wanting to investigate the precise cause of the error!

But supposing the actual seller gave their solicitor the wrong account details?  Would these be simply passed on in good faith or have the respective solicitors have some 'duty of care' to check they are correct?  And if the seller turns out to be the source of the error, are they personally liable for the OP's losses and compensation or are they protected by their solicitor's indemnity insurance?

The main thing is that the OP is now in their new house, but I imagine the repercussions for the solicitors will run on for a little while yet.

GDB2222

davidmcn said:

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

Clearly, the OP needs to make a complaint to the solicitor, and the solicitor has that explaining to do. It sounds like they were concentrating on rectifying the problem, but they didn't explain exactly how it occurred. 

I assume the OP and his family were left with the clothes they were standing in, and everything else went into storage. We were in much the same position when our house burnt down, and we managed to get everything we needed from M&S in a pretty frantic one-hour shopping spree before they closed for the night. 

davidmcn

Mickey666 said:

davidmcn said:

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

But supposing the actual seller gave their solicitor the wrong account details?

The completion transfer is between the solicitors' client accounts, so realistically the only parties who could be at fault are the solicitors (or I suppose one of the banks).

GDB2222

davidmcn said:

Mickey666 said:

davidmcn said:

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

But supposing the actual seller gave their solicitor the wrong account details?

The completion transfer is between the solicitors' client accounts, so realistically the only parties who could be at fault are the solicitors (or I suppose one of the banks).

Is there a secure database of these accounts?

It's quite difficult to send money to an incorrect account these days, as the account number and account name both need to match. However, with some automated software, it might be easy to select select the wrong firm from a list. The software would then make sure everything matched.

davidmcn

GDB2222 said:

davidmcn said:

Mickey666 said:

davidmcn said:

AdrianC said:

teachfast said:

Scotbot said:

mackolicious12 said:

I have now been given the keys to my new property! I spoke to my solicitor and they informed me that the money had been found and had been successfully transferred to the seller's account - so I'm really relieved and happy (and thankful to you all for your support!). I've already begun a claim to get some legal support but I wanted to whether I should start the process of negligence with my solicitor (e.g. asking for evidence as to where fault lies) or should I wait until we've fully moved in and completed 100%?

Fortunately completion was only delayed by 2 days. Whilst nail bitingly ahonising for you financially that is only 2 nights hotel costs, removalists costs and late payment fee to the vendor.  I doubt you will be able to claim more, it seems to have been human error which was quickly resolved, we all make mistakes sometimes. It was almost certainly a simple typo, does it really matter who was at fault? I suspect trying to sue a solicitor for negligence will be more hassle than it is worth.

Does it matter that £600k went astray? Er, yes, a lot.

It matters greatly to the solicitors, and they will be reviewing their internal procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It's still not clear from what the OP has told us that it was their solicitors at fault.

But supposing the actual seller gave their solicitor the wrong account details?

The completion transfer is between the solicitors' client accounts, so realistically the only parties who could be at fault are the solicitors (or I suppose one of the banks).

Is there a secure database of these accounts?

No, they should get passed between the solicitors at the time of each transaction. Generally with some more precautions these days to protect against fraud e.g. phoning up their office to confirm the details, or (if it's a firm you've dealt with previously) at least verifying that you've used the details before.