Solicitor Account

hellototheworld

Hi there, 

In the final stages of purchasing a small commercial property. 
Will need to send full cash funds to the solicitors client account v soon. 
Nothing has occurred to cause real cause for concern, just a bit of the heebie-jeebies when thinking about transferring the full lump sum to their account. 

The solicitor is registered on SRA, addresses and names in real match the SRA details.
Have already paid searches-fee's to the solicitors client account, bank does Confirmation of Payee, confirming the account name is genuine + matches. I'll call them to confirm details before doing the final transfer. 
 
Should I check anything else?

Out of curiosity, is the temporary high balance (£1m) protection relevant here, or just the standard 85K? The full amount for the purchase is being sent to their client-account for onwards sending to the sellers. Or is that only when client-account receives funds from a sale, as opposed from funds from a buyer. 

thanks 

MyRealNameToo

hellototheworld said:

Hi there, 

In the final stages of purchasing a small commercial property. 
Will need to send full cash funds to the solicitors client account v soon. 
Nothing has occurred to cause real cause for concern, just a bit of the heebie-jeebies when thinking about transferring the full lump sum to their account. 

The solicitor is registered on SRA, addresses and names in real match the SRA details.
Have already paid searches-fee's to the solicitors client account, bank does Confirmation of Payee, confirming the account name is genuine + matches. I'll call them to confirm details before doing the final transfer. 
 
Should I check anything else?

Out of curiosity, is the temporary high balance (£1m) protection relevant here, or just the standard 85K? The full amount for the purchase is being sent to their client-account for onwards sending to the sellers. Or is that only when client-account receives funds from a sale, as opposed from funds from a buyer. 

thanks 

If you've already transferred some funds to this account and they've been received I would say thats it. If it's a different account then do a low value test transaction first just to make sure you haven't miskeyed etc. 

Who do they bank with? Do you realistically think the bank will fail in a week or two given the mention of the FSCS limit? The answer is no though, the FSCS THB rules are only in relation to your main residence 

user1977

As above, although it's a common topic here and it's good to understand the (tiny) risks involved, the FSCS guarantee has (as far as I'm aware) never been invoked. Previous cases of bank/building society failures have been resolved in other ways.

In any event, are the funds currently sitting anywhere which has a lower risk than the solicitors' bank?

hellototheworld

@MyRealNameToo thankyou
@user1977 thankyou

I'm not worried about banking failure. 
Just double checking the risk of (highly unlikely) solicitor malpractice. SRA compensation for malpractice would cover compensation, so long as the solicitor is presenting itself exactly as it should.   

I've noticed that their client account doesn't comply with SRA rules. 
Client accounts must have the name "client" in the account name. 
Their account is just "ABClaw", it should be ABC law client 
I called SRA, they said if reported would take 45 days to investigate and feedback. Too long. 
When purchasing house few years ago, a different solicitor also didn't use "client" in their client account name. 
Am I making a mountain out of a mole-hill?

MyRealNameToo

hellototheworld said:

I'm not worried about banking failure. 
Just double checking the risk of (highly unlikely) solicitor malpractice. SRA compensation for malpractice would cover compensation, so long as the solicitor is presenting itself exactly as it should.   

Then why mention £85k? The limit on the SRA Compensation is £2m with an aggregate limit of £5m but they have discretion and can go higher. There would also potentially be their PI insurance which has to be at least £2m or £3m depending on their structure. 

I used a conveyancer rather than a solicitor so didnt dig into the SRA compensation fund because the SRA doesnt regulate them. 

Ultimately life is full of risks, presumably you did your due diligence on the firm and they have a history of doing these types of transactions and so the chances of them going rouge on yours is not nil but its slim. 

user1977

hellototheworld said:

Am I making a mountain out of a mole-hill?

Yes, it sounds rather like it.