CHAPS payment sent to the wrong account

Itsallgonepearshaped · 26 May 2019 at 12:25PM

Hi
House sale completed on Friday but the CHAPS payment of the funds has been sent to the right sort code but the solicitor transposed the last 2 numbers of the account code so the cash has disappeared into the banking system somewhere. The sort code was correct so I'm assuming it's gone to the correct bank and the account code isn't assigned to them so it should be sitting in a suspense account somewhere I would imagine. Does anyone know how long it will take for the cash to bounce back to the solicitors account so they can resend it to the correct account ? I needed the cash to pay deposit and rent on a new place which I couldn't do because it hadn't arrived so we'll be sofa surfing until its sorted out !
Many thanks

eskbanker · 26 May 2019 at 12:32PM

I don't know the answer to how long it'll take to bounce back but I do know that if I was in this situation I'd be demanding that the solicitor accepts full responsibility for their error by using their own funds to make the payment at the earliest opportunity, rather than waiting for the erroneous payment to be returned.

They should also accept responsibility for consequential losses, such as costs of temporary accommodation, to the extent that these were directly caused by their negligence....

xylophone · 26 May 2019 at 1:15PM

Does anyone know how long it will take for the cash to bounce back to the solicitors account so they can resend it to the correct account ?

The solicitors have made a mistake - insist that they make the payment promptly to your account and compensate you for any consequential loss/worry and anxiety.

Itsallgonepearshaped · 26 May 2019 at 1:30PM

Thanks folks. Unfortunately they are saying at the moment I gave them the wrong account number - I very much doubt this as it's one you check more then once given the sums involved, but I didn't take a copy of the form so I can't prove it at the moment. Don't want to wind them up while I'm relying on them to get it sorted by accusing them so I'll wait until its over then request a copy of the form they say I filled in incorrectly

kazwookie · 26 May 2019 at 1:37PM

I fail to understand when large amounts of ££ money is involved for house sale / purchase that a test run of say £50 is not made first............ to check the account details are correct.

robatwork · 26 May 2019 at 4:12PM

kazwookie wrote: »

I fail to understand when large amounts of ££ money is involved for house sale / purchase that a test run of say £50 is not made first............ to check the account details are correct.

Nobody would do a CHAPS test payment of £50 that would cost £35.

BUT everyone involved should check recheck and rerecheck the numbers. I'm sure this is pretty basic procedure for the solicitor so the jury's out if the number was wrong on the form or a typo.

csgohan4 · 26 May 2019 at 4:21PM

When transferring funds to the solicitor for completion, I called them up to confirm the account number etc due to the email interception scams in place.

Your solicitor should have done the same and confirmed with a quick phone call, your paying them so much for due diligence

18cc · 26 May 2019 at 4:52PM

The first thing you need to do is a very reasonable request to the solicitor to send them a photocopy of the form where you put your account details on

18cc · 26 May 2019 at 4:53PM

You would be wise to contact the bank and ask them to check and send the money back as soon as possible rather than just waiting for it to bounce back

Ms_Chocaholic · 26 May 2019 at 5:00PM

You can check here if the account that was paid in error is a real account

www.sortcodes.co.uk

Ballard · 26 May 2019 at 5:13PM

It’s a while since I’ve been involved with CHAPS payments and I can’t remember whether IBANs are an option with them but they would make it all but impossible to mess up the number with a typo.

CHAPS payment sent to the wrong account

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