Missing morgage money

Jennimcparland2003

My daughter is buying  her first house with a mortgage from a bank. The bank transferred the money 8 working days ago to her solicitor’s bank and paid a cash back portion into her personal account which appeared the following day. The money never reached the solicitor’s account and nobody seems to know where it is. Sending bank says it went through clearing. Receiving bank says it never arrived. Allegedly all codes were correct. Banks won’t/ can’t talk to each other and lender won’t reissue money. 5 day closure was put on house, ending tomorrow and threatening loss of house, deposit and expenses. Solicitor say they are doing all they can but …!  Who is responsible?

p00hsticks

Jennimcparland2003 said:

 Who is responsible?

I would think it depends on why the error occurred.

Who informed the lender of the solicitors account details ? And how ? Were they correct ?

There is a known issue with solicitors e-mails being hacked and bank account details changed to re-route funds into scammer's accounts - fingers crossed this is not what has happened here.

kingstreet

Purchaser's solicitor confirms bank details in Certificate Of Title when requesting funds and this is not usually sent in "open" email.

user1977

And lenders are generally pretty strict about checking solicitors' client account details when setting them up, I doubt they'd fall for that sort of scam.

GSDMum

kingstreet said:

Purchaser's solicitor confirms bank details in Certificate Of Title when requesting funds and this is not usually sent in "open" email.

Agree, though recently I received solicitor's bank details by post saying they would never send their bank details electronically, yet several days earlier an assistant sent me the solicitor's bank details via email. Mistakes can happen.

kingstreet

GSDMum said:

kingstreet said:

Purchaser's solicitor confirms bank details in Certificate Of Title when requesting funds and this is not usually sent in "open" email.

Agree, though recently I received solicitor's bank details by post saying they would never send their bank details electronically, yet several days earlier an assistant sent me the solicitor's bank details via email. Mistakes can happen.

I've heard of issues between client and solicitor where authorised push payment fraud has taken place; but I've never heard of fraud between lender and solicitor where mortgage funds have been half inched.

Thrugelmir

The funds are somewhere in the banking system. The banks will be involved in locating them. They'll be found. 

AFF8879

p00hsticks said:

Jennimcparland2003 said:

 Who is responsible?

I would think it depends on why the error occurred.

Who informed the lender of the solicitors account details ? And how ? Were they correct ?

There is a known issue with solicitors e-mails being hacked and bank account details changed to re-route funds into scammer's accounts - fingers crossed this is not what has happened here.

You’d think that would be very easy for either the receiving solicitor or bank to confirm by simply re-checking the account details. Although if they’re refusing to talk to each other…

OP I know this is scary but you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, so if you do lose your deposit (I’m really struggling to think that you would), you would sue the bank/solicitor for that amount and more, and at least you know they won’t be short of a bob or two.

theoretica

The time I was involved in funds going missing it was the receiving bank which found them after being firmly told to instigate a search - though they had several times been asked if they had arrived and simply said no.

Jennimcparland2003

Sending bank said they had been sent again on Friday to my daughter’s solicitor’s bank account and should be in by 3pm yesterday ( all the details on account were checked and correct apparently). No sign of money yesterday or today- which is the last day before the vendor’s solicitor takes action and my poor, wholly innocent daughter loses all her hard saved cash and the house. Mortgage bank seem to think making sympathetic noises is the height of their responsibility 

wilfred30

Jennimcparland2003 said:

My daughter is buying  her first house with a mortgage from a bank. The bank transferred the money 8 working days ago to her solicitor’s bank and paid a cash back portion into her personal account which appeared the following day. The money never reached the solicitor’s account and nobody seems to know where it is. Sending bank says it went through clearing. Receiving bank says it never arrived. Allegedly all codes were correct. Banks won’t/ can’t talk to each other and lender won’t reissue money. 5 day closure was put on house, ending tomorrow and threatening loss of house, deposit and expenses. Solicitor say they are doing all they can but …!  Who is responsible?

And yet they have, apparently, which would suggest that the lender has discovered that it was indeed their fault.  Your daughter could presumably therefore ask for compensation from the lender if she loses her money and, ultimately, the house.