Help regarding new home rettention

SallyDucati

Maybe Persimmon are getting confused and think the retention happened whereas they received the full amount, so have now asked the solicitors for it?

And someone at the solicitors aren't checking what happened properly?  

lorr13

Maybe. Its all just been so distressing... I hate the not knowing and the threats of the letterbsre so distressing 

TheJP

lorr13 said:

Exactly my point... But there content of letter received in april 2021 says ideally we should of witheld the retention figure but regardless this payment is now due and needs to be paid by yourself.... 

I wrote back saying how... The completion statment all adds up and full purchase price, as made among other costs.... The balance we was due is correct..

Heard no more... 
So thought no more of it... 

Then Friday i receive a solicitor letter from gilsongrey.. Who ive learnt were home property lawyers.. Threatening if we dont pay within 14 days all sorts... Ive replied stating please explain how u think we owe this money and sent them a copy of our completion statement.... Yet to have a response 

You still haven't confirmed whether you were paid an additional £5k, look back at your bank statements, do the figures on the statement match what your solicitors paid into your account? It seems like you are ignoring whether you were paid the cash rather than focusing on a lack of numbers on paper.

Your bank holds 6 years worth of statements, request the month and year, pretty straightforward and should give you the answers you need/may not want.

warwick2001

This is confusing. However, this is how I understand it (I'm going to use imaginary figures)

House is £200k, of which £5k will be retained by solicitors until house signed off after 2 years as 'all grand and that'
OP pays full amount to solicitor - £200k - Is this true?
Solicitor pays building firm either full £200k, or £195k and keeps back the £5k retention - This bit is unknown
Solicitor issues transaction paperwork to OP, showing that OP has paid full amount - Is this true?
2 years down the line builder's solicitors approach OP's solicitor asking for £5k retention
OP's solicitor approaches OP for the £5k, cos they don't have it

And that's the bit we don't quite understand. What exactly does the original transaction paperwork show, and do all the figures (actuals, not mine) match with bank statements at the time.

OP, if you can prove that all the paperwork and bank statements match, and these all match the agreed figures for the sale, then you should be ok. If, however, there is a shortfall of £5k in there that wasn't picked up at the time, then unfortunately, you do owe that money.

You need to get out all the old paperwork for the sale, and all bank statements and check thoroughly. I would be tempted to stick it all under the nose of an accountant as I don't trust solicitor's maths skills. Our solicitor managed to underestimate the amount of SDLT we owe'd by £6.5k on our recent purchase. My wife is an accountant, and she picked it up just before we completed. We tend to trust professionals when we're paying them to do a job, but they are human too, they also make mistakes.

Good luck

TheJP

warwick2001 said:

This is confusing. However, this is how I understand it (I'm going to use imaginary figures)

House is £200k, of which £5k will be retained by solicitors until house signed off after 2 years as 'all grand and that'
OP pays full amount to solicitor - £200k - Is this true?
Solicitor pays building firm either full £200k, or £195k and keeps back the £5k retention - This bit is unknown
Solicitor issues transaction paperwork to OP, showing that OP has paid full amount - Is this true?
Solicitor pays OP £5k retention by mistake, OP spends the £5k and now the developers want the retention back.
2 years down the line builder's solicitors approach OP's solicitor asking for £5k retention
OP's solicitor approaches OP for the £5k, cos they don't have it

There is also this probability in bold that is most likely the real scenario.

lorr13

Hi ok so here are my figures
Purchase price £320k
This is on ly competition statement under payed amounts as 320k
Less stamp duty and solicitors costs leave us with a balance owed to us which works out £40 different in our favour..

Had solicitor done what they should of that statment should of said 315k taking off the 5k retention that they should of held back but it dont... 

Ive been in touch with persimmons today and they have confirmed that there retentiion was paid and they vave the full 320k

So where is this 5k ly solicitors are threatening me with saying it was paid to us?

As of yet i still have had no correspondence at all from the solicitors and CA suggested i give them a date if tomorrow to respond and explain in full detail how they think this money is outstanding..

We had soo many issues with out new home.. Too many to list and had the solicitors of witheld this 5k i sure as hell wouldn't of agreed to have let persimmons have this as we was promised compensation but received sod all....

The letter received from solicitors was very threatening and has caused such worry for my self but speaking with CA and also filing an online complaint with the legal ombudsman i feel more reassured as none of it makes sense 

lorr13

Also bank statment matches the balance on the completion cert

sheramber

Ive been in touch with persimmons today and they have confirmed that there retention was paid and they vave the full 320k

So, if the full amount was paid why are Persimmons now asking the solicitor for it?

it looks like Persimmons fault.  They have asked for a retention despite having been paid the full amount. Because it was paid in full the solicitor has no retention, nor any record of it.

You need to get Persimmons to confirm to the solicitor that there was no retention and they  have claimed it in error.

lorr13

Well persimmons legal team have told me today that they can confirm retention is payed so they can't be chasing them for it.... It appears the solicitors are chasing something from me that doesn't exist...
My worry was... Suppose somewhere along the line we did have it... But gone back through everything and its not there... So if i have no response by tomorrow from them as i requested i think i may just forget all about the threatening letter? 

TheJP

Send a copy of all of that to your solicitors by tracked mail. Be sure to save any correspondence with Persimmons as well.