How do you get a retention returned?

onylon

When I sold my flat we had to leave money with our solicitor to cover any bills/management fees that hadn't been billed yet. 

What is the usual process to get that money back - assuming it's unclaimed? My conveyancer was frequently less than honest/truthful with me during the sale so if I need to deal with them again I want to be prepared. 

yllop1101

How long did you agree it would be retained for or for what to happen, i.e. when the accounts have been calculated and settled? 
As and when this happens, you will need to provide proof of this to your solicitor for them to check with your buyers solicitor. It might be that you need to contact the freeholder to get confirmation of the accounts being settled as this will automatically go to the new owner in most instances. 

onylon

My understanding was that the money would be returned once the bills were received but I am no longer the leaseholder so I have no access to those accounts. I will email the management company and see if they can confirm.

canaldumidi

onylon said:

My understanding was......

You need to confirm this. Look at the wording in your contract that relates to the retention. If you don't fully understand it, quote it here in full. Only then can we tell you when or how you might be able to reclaim the money!

breaking_free

In my case I waited for a full year then emailed my solicitor and asked for it back. I knew that the local council would send out their leasehold charges bill some 7 months after I left so I was expecting all of my rentention (and then some!) to be used to cover the period of time when I still owned the property. The buyer never asked for it so it remained unused and then, as I say, a full year later I asked for and received the full amount. 

Tiglet2

The management company has to produce Final Accounts which sometimes don't materialise until six months after the year end.  Usually a retention will be held until those final accounts have been published (not general bills, but a full breakdown of actual expenditure for the year).

The final accounts will be sent to the new owner, so it is important that you look at your paperwork to see if there was a Rider or written agreement about how much and how long the retention could be held.  It will be very much up to the buyer to claim all or some of the retention if there was a shortfall during the period the retention is held.  But if the buyer does not request funds from the retention because there wasn't a shortfall, or the retention period has passed, then your solicitor will be able to return the funds to you.  But be aware, you will not get those funds any earlier than was agreed.

TripleH

We sold 22 months ago and had a retention kept.

I specifically stated that no funds held could be released without my prior consent. As yet we have heard nothing despite chasing several times over the months. It's now a formal complaint to the conveyancer as we were waiting for March 2020 accounts and as useless as the management company were, I know there are people in the old complex who would have kicked off long before now.

We sent an email to our case handler asking for the position of the retention and for any surplus funds to be released.

I think part of our problem is that the case handler has subsequently left and no-one is checking old files.

The money should be held in a client account and the rulescare that funds should only be held in a client account for a designated purpose and only got as long as necessary. (Exact wording is different but fundamentals are the same).