Completion day delayed due to Bank error.

spoulter

Hello! 

Hoping this is the right thread for this question.... 

My husband and I are FTB and we were all set to complete this past monday. The friday before when our solicitors were drawing the funds from our bank (NatWest), they informed us that the bank was in receipt of a completely different sum of money to be released than was was on our offer letter.

Naturally we panicked and after some digging discovered it was the Underwriter from Natwest that had made a human error and entered the wrong amount. This was unfortunately discovered at 430pm and therefore would not be rectified until the monday - completion date. 

Monday rolls around and after further errors, delays and miscommunications all from the banks side, our funds were still not released in time for completion. 

Luckily they have been released today, but now our the sellers solicitor has issued a fee of nearly £250 for completing a day late. 

Is there any way we can recoup this money from NatWest as we well and truly did nothing wrong and everything was completely out of our control. 

Any advise is appreciated here, we want to be excited to get our keys but we feel very frazzled and deflated. 

p00hsticks

When were contracts exchanged ?

spoulter

Contracts were exchange a week ago today, so the Tuesday before the error was uncovered on the Friday, just under a week before completion day. 

saajan_12

How long do Natwest say they need to drawdown the funds? Usually solicitors would request the funds a few days ahead of time in line with the bank's timeframe to allow for such issues. If your solicitors didn't allow enough time, then it could be (partly) on them. 

Also how did the seller's solicitor come up with the £250? Its not inherently an outlandish number, but they do need to demonstrate it relates to their damages. 

pjs493

I think under the circumstances, it's worth asking NatWest to cover the £250 as a goodwill gesture. I bank with NatWest and have had compensation of a similar level for less serious issues in the past.

Flugelhorn

pjs493 said:

I think under the circumstances, it's worth asking NatWest to cover the £250 as a goodwill gesture. I bank with NatWest and have had compensation of a similar level for less serious issues in the past.

I agree - I have had £100 compensation from them when I have just spent a lot of time of the phone trying to chase up a delayed ISA transfer - this was in addition to the missed interest. Am sure that they can sort £250 for a delayed completion

PRAISETHESUN

Assuming you aren't questioning the £250 from your seller, ultimately you'll need to pay the fee and then try and recoup it from NatWest. I would definitely put in a formal complaint if you haven't already, asking for them to compensate your loss incurred by their error, and perhaps some sort of goodwill payment for the inconvenience.

user1977

saajan_12 said:

How long do Natwest say they need to drawdown the funds? Usually solicitors would request the funds a few days ahead of time in line with the bank's timeframe to allow for such issues. If your solicitors didn't allow enough time, then it could be (partly) on them. 

They might build in enough time for funds to be sent, but nobody is expected to allow for the bank sending the wrong amount and continuing to c0ck things up thereafter.

Brie

PRAISETHESUN said:

Assuming you aren't questioning the £250 from your seller, ultimately you'll need to pay the fee and then try and recoup it from NatWest. I would definitely put in a formal complaint if you haven't already, asking for them to compensate your loss incurred by their error, and perhaps some sort of goodwill payment for the inconvenience.

If NatWest don't offer to pay this when asked and you go ahead and pay it then you should go back to NW and state that you have been "financially inconvenienced" by their admitted errors.  Provide proof of what was billed and paid and imply that a further goodwill gesture for your time is expected.