Solicitor held my money for 20 years should I get interest on top of the capital amount

ciderboy2009

Sea_Shell said:

delilahdelilah said:

The solicitor / admin dealing with it said she’d calculate the interest and send it to me.  Silvercar … as you say there may not be a breakdown? I did ask for one but she hasn’t mentioned it even though I’d asked. 

 

“I’d want to know how much it would cost the solicitor if you made a formal complaint to the Law Society/ ombudsman. I’d then ask for compensation based on that.  “ 

 

I may suggest that they could consider compensation …. 

And regarding the 

“Have you suffered any losses as a result of not having this money eg any borrowing taken?” 

I was selling my property to free up cash to go to auction and I would have had to borrow less on a new mortgage if I’d had the capital they held 

many thanks for your reply

pogg000 said:

Don't calculate on saving rates, use borrow rates.


As this  is what you have lost.

I agree.   You should calculate it based on what additional interest you've PAID, not what you might have earned.

The problem with this is finding relevant precedents.

Personally I would be lodging a formal complaint with the company and seeking the advice of s second solicitor's firm.  Don't run the risk of them baffling you with legalese.

user1977

ciderboy2009 said:

Sea_Shell said:

delilahdelilah said:

The solicitor / admin dealing with it said she’d calculate the interest and send it to me.  Silvercar … as you say there may not be a breakdown? I did ask for one but she hasn’t mentioned it even though I’d asked. 

 

“I’d want to know how much it would cost the solicitor if you made a formal complaint to the Law Society/ ombudsman. I’d then ask for compensation based on that.  “ 

 

I may suggest that they could consider compensation …. 

And regarding the 

“Have you suffered any losses as a result of not having this money eg any borrowing taken?” 

I was selling my property to free up cash to go to auction and I would have had to borrow less on a new mortgage if I’d had the capital they held 

many thanks for your reply

pogg000 said:

Don't calculate on saving rates, use borrow rates.


As this  is what you have lost.

I agree.   You should calculate it based on what additional interest you've PAID, not what you might have earned.

The problem with this is finding relevant precedents.

Personally I would be lodging a formal complaint with the company and seeking the advice of s second solicitor's firm.  Don't run the risk of them baffling you with legalese.

I don't think seeking independent advice (at least at this stage) is needed - the amounts are hardly huge and it's not as if the original firm are denying all liability. I expect they will up their offer without too much hassle, they don't want to spend their own time on this either.

delilahdelilah

Thankyou … I just need to put together my email to encourage them to up the interest willingly … 

delilahdelilah

Hello Grumpy Chap … would it be prudent to suggest they use the rates you suggested in the Law Society link ? Which as you say would give a more favourable payout … Thankyou 

delilahdelilah

Hello just wondered if anyone could help making suggestions on composing an email to the solicitors. I would like an explanation as to how this happened  …. Many thanks in advance 

RHemmings

I've lost track of the exact situation. Perhaps you can write a letter as a draft, and then post it here for comment. 

user1977

delilahdelilah said:

Hello just wondered if anyone could help making suggestions on composing an email to the solicitors. I would like an explanation as to how this happened  …. Many thanks in advance 

That's all you need to say - though I'm not sure it makes any difference to you how it happened, we know it shouldn't. You may wish to concentrate more on making sure the amount you get is appropriate.

BarelySentientAI

delilahdelilah said:

Hello just wondered if anyone could help making suggestions on composing an email to the solicitors. I would like an explanation as to how this happened  …. Many thanks in advance 

I think that's not going to help anything.

RHemmings

If I was the OP, I would focus on getting the money back including appropriate interest. I would not ask in the slightest how it all happened. Just focus on having it made good. Asking how it happened can wait until after the money and interest are returned. 

silvercar

delilahdelilah said:

Hello just wondered if anyone could help making suggestions on composing an email to the solicitors. I would like an explanation as to how this happened  …. Many thanks in advance 

The only way it could have happened is that they forgot. So many large sums of money going in and out of the client account that your slipped their mind and was too small to trigger any alert in the end of year balance. Combine that with human error like a change of staff member at the time and you can see how it may have happened.
So once it is beyond that year or the next one, no one is looking at items within the account. Then wind forward decades and someone does a serious audit of the account eg if they are closing that account for some reason or changing their accounting procedures. Then someone is charged with either identifying every element in the account or emptying it and finding some money left behind.