Completion monies received by solicitors but not released until tomorrow

[KOKOagainandagain]

My deceased mother's house has been sold (simultaneous exchange and completion). The solicitors emailed and said the account has to be approved by their legal accountant who is back in the office tomorrow and they will transfer the monies then. Can they do this? Who else in the firm could provide authorisation?

CHAPS was down yesterday - any chance that could have been the problem?

Nothing to do with CHAPS. Seems to be simply due to their staffing arrangements. If this was sell and buy rather than inheritance they would have no choice but release sale monies required to complete on buying a property.

get the money and then raise a complaint. Haven't they heard of deputising?

They may not have arrived in time. When my daughter bought her lender did not transfer the monies on time so she had to pay extra interest to the sellers for the 3 days over a weekend she could not complete - not her fault but not worth trying to get the interest out of the lender for it.

There is no legal duty on solicitors to transfer money by a certain time. They might need to work out what their bills are first and deduct those and various other things. They may be obliged to pay you interest on the day they held the money if it is over a certain sum.

If the money comes in just before cut-off time, it can't be sent on. The CHAPs system shuts much earlier than office hours.

Prob not worth it unless vast amounts but you could ask for 8% over base / 365 X number of days