Can I receive the proceeds from a house sale (inheritance/probate) directly in to a savings account?

AnnNother · 17 January 2020 at 10:20PM

If I am selling a house but not buying another one (buyer has a mortgage) can I receive the sale proceeds from the conveyancer directly into a savings account typically?

(Circumstances, but I don't think it's relevant: I bought a house recently, am paying off the mortgage in an unrelated transaction. Then unexpectly inherited a property from a relative. I don't want to pay off the mortgage with the proceeds, for carefully thought out reasons.)

Or would I have to get it paid to my current account that I use for my normal salary etc (and typically has a balance of less than £1000)

Some of the savings accounts I've seen have FAQs about how money can be put in and often they specify money must be transferred from "a UK account in your own name". (so I could fund it from my own current account or another savings account perhaps, but not "receiving a payment" as such).

Any suggestions for accounts with a reasonable amount of interest where I could park the money initially?

Zero_Sum · 17 January 2020 at 11:26PM

Best instant access savings account is Marcus but you can only transfer in/out via linked current account

Aretnap · 18 January 2020 at 12:51AM

Many savings accounts do only accept transfers from a linked account t in your own name - for the bank it reduces the need for identity and money laundering checks etc, which means lower costs,. potentially passed on to the saver in the form of higher interest rates.

What's wrong with receiving it into your.cirrent account, then transferring it to a savings account? I mean, it will be in your current account for a few days at most, and the interest you would be missing out on in the best instant access savings account works out at less than £4 per £100K per day. I know this is a money saving site and everything, but how much extra effort is £4 actully worth?

Presumably you're aware that while the FSCS will cover short term balances of up to £1M for events like house sales and inheritance, in the medium term you will need to split the money between several banks to avoid going over the £85K limit? (If you plan to keep it as cash if course).

AnnNother · 18 January 2020 at 9:47PM

Thanks for the replies -- I hadn't considered the money laundering / id checks aspect (bit naive of me) !

The reason I was thinking I might not want to receive the money into a current account is that I don't want to keep it there for any amount of time (as @Aretnap mentioned) so would then need to do a large transfer 'out' into a savings account at another bank, potentially triggering more checks and confirmations etc.

(To be clear it is all above board and the checks would come back as legit but it seems like extra hassle!)

t0rt0ise · 19 January 2020 at 9:42PM

I inherited some money which was put into my current account with no problems and then I moved it quickly to various accounts from there. There were no obvious checks and no delays. It was all very simple and straightforward.

Speedbird676 · 20 January 2020 at 10:24AM

I was in a similar position and had the proceeds of a house sale paid into my Santander current account before transferring out to multiple accounts.

The only issue I had was the second payment to each of the accounts (Santander have a £25k limit on faster payments) was delayed whilst Santander confirmed with me they were genuine.

Slightly inconvenient but at least it shows their systems spot potentially unusual transactions.

Can I receive the proceeds from a house sale (inheritance/probate) directly in to a savings account?

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