Mortgage redemption problems. Bank didn't receive money.

sapstar

I have sold my buy-to-let property on 14th May. I  received a completion statement from my solicitor, followed by the remaining money after paying the bank.

Today my usual mortgage payment was still collected by the bank. I called them to find out why the payment has still been taken, and they told me that they have received no money from the solicitor.

I reached out to the solicitor, but she is on holiday. I am really worried with what's going on. Anyone else had these sorts of issues before? Do they usually get sorted out quickly? Who can I complain to if there are problems sorting this? 

user1977

Chances are the bank does have the money but it's stuck in a holding account and hasn't reached yours yet - might have had the wrong reference attached to it, for example. Presumably your solicitor isn't a one-person office?

sapstar

user1977 said:

Chances are the bank does have the money but it's stuck in a holding account and hasn't reached yours yet - might have had the wrong reference attached to it, for example. Presumably your solicitor isn't a one-person office?

Thanks for your reply. If it is something as straightforward as that, it will be fine. I will try my solicitor again tomorrow. She is the person who dealt with it start to finish. So she should have made sure the references are right. 

GrumpyDil

If your solicitor is not available no reason why the support staff can't look into this for you. 

sapstar

GrumpyDil said:

If your solicitor is not available no reason why the support staff can't look into this for you. 

I previously called their office when she was not around and was told she is the only one who can help with conveyancing .  Other solicitors in the firm probably don't do conveyancing. 

pretamang

this happened to me - the redemption figure was actually reduced by the amount of the next direct debit still to come since it was close enough to the completion date the bank already counted it. I wasn't warned about this beforehand, and only found out when I asked the bank for it back and they sent me copies of the statements.

GrumpyDil

sapstar said:

GrumpyDil said:

If your solicitor is not available no reason why the support staff can't look into this for you. 

I previously called their office when she was not around and was told she is the only one who can help with conveyancing .  Other solicitors in the firm probably don't do conveyancing. 

I didn't mean speak to the other solicitors. From my experience of buying/selling houses my conveyancer has always had an assistant/secretary. If not I'd ask to speak to the finance dept or her supervisor. Basically I don't believe everything grinds to a stop just because she is in leave.

GDB2222

Curiously, the best possible outcome to this is that your solicitor has run off to South America and taken your money with her. The Law Society would pick up the can. 

The worst possible outcome - well really there's no worst possible outcome. Your solicitor had your mortgage details and was well aware of where to send the money. If she quoted the wrong reference or sent it to the wrong account number, that's her (or her insurer's) problem to sort out.

eddddy

sapstar said:

GrumpyDil said:

If your solicitor is not available no reason why the support staff can't look into this for you. 

I previously called their office when she was not around and was told she is the only one who can help with conveyancing .  Other solicitors in the firm probably don't do conveyancing. 

If you contact the firm and say that your mortgage lender hasn't received their money, and can somebody check it was correctly sent - I'd be pretty sure somebody would look into it.

Maybe nobody else in the office would answer routine conveyancing questions, but if there's a suggestion that hundreds of thousands of pounds have gone astray (perhaps because the solicitor made an error), I think they might take it more seriously.

sapstar

Thanks for your replies. I will try to talk to someone at the solicitors tomorrow. 

user1977

Indeed, it's cashiers who actually do the banking side of things rather than the solicitors, so I would expect somebody else can confirm at least that the payment went to your bank.