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I hope someone can help us, my wife and I are in our 70s and in poor health made worse by our current predicament. We’ve sold our house and are living with our daughter temporarily whilst trying to buy a bungalow closer to them with the purchase completing in the coming week…at least that was the plan 

To say we had an extremely painful house sale is an understatement, without going in to the details we thought that it was all behind us when the solicitor said that the sale had completed. He said that the money £247,000 from the sale would be in our bank account within the day which was Friday 23rd of May.

I checked on the Saturday and there was no money, we assumed it being the weekend that the money would be in the bank on the Tuesday, Monday being the bank holiday. Tuesday we checked and the money was still not in the account.

I contacted the solicitor’s ‘accounts dept’, they said the funds had been transferred so we waited until the Wednesday, unfortunately the money wasn’t there. Again I contacted the Solicitor and he said there had been a problem and the money hadn’t been transferred but he would make it a priority to get the money paid that day…he said to check the account as it would be in by the end of the day.

Wednesday came and went with no money in the account, we contacted the solicitor yet again and he said the money was transferred and that’s all he could do and we would need to talk to our bank. We then did talk to our bank manager and he said it was the Solicitor’s / sending banks responsibility as they were sending the money. So here we are with no money in the bank extremely worried and at our wits end! We thought maybe there was confusion as to where the money should go but the solicitor confirmed via email the account was correct. We would appreciate any ideas as to what we can do to push the solicitor so sort this out????

DumbCoder
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Brian O'Shea
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    Ask the solicitor to get confirmation, sort of a letter confirming the transfer details, from his bank. As it will be a CHAPS payment, they should have some paperwork regarding the transfer. Don't let go off the solicitor. Make a fuss about it. It is their responsibility to confirm the transfer. Else use their complaint mechanism and then contact the senior partner and then use http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/ – DumbCoder May 29 '14 at 20:50

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Given the combination of the admitted delays and then the failure of the money to arrive with only their word they have sent it, I would be worried that the solicitor is having financial problems and has not really sent your money because they don't have it.

This shouldn't be possible unless they were already acting unethically by not properly segregating client money, but that possibility does always exist.

I would consult the Solicitor's Regulation Authority for advice as quickly as possible. They may not be the right people to initially deal with the problem, but they should be able to advise on the appropriate next steps and it might help them match up your problem with any other reports they have received.

GS - Apologise to Monica
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