Money from house sale

[Jeanclaudejackety]

Hi
Any advice would be really welcome

Have sold a property, received an offer and it was supposed to complete, with funds in my bank account, a month ago.

There has been issue after issue and after many promises I almost backed out after being messed about so much. Finally today it completed. I was told by my solicitor to hand my keys in before 1pm today which I did. I was told the money would be in my account. It wasn't. I rang at 2pm and they said it would be in any minute. At 3pm I rang and they said by 4pm. It is now 5.09pm and no money? The solicitor said they funds have 100 percent been paid into my account by bank transfer, not CHAPS, which I know can be next working day, but bank transfer should be almost instant? The solicitor said apart from check the bank details are correct, which they are, there is nothing he can do as the accounts person has gone home early? I'm really starting to be a bit panicky as it's starting to seem a bit dodgy. Also I could do with the money to be honest. I know it isn't millions but it is a large sum of money.
The solicitor is now going to voicemail as they close at 5 and go home I assume.
My friend is training to be one at the moment as keeps going on about how she'll be working 15 hour days etc so I'm surprised they only take calls between 9.30 and 5pm?

Should I just chill and see if the money appears or what? Thank you

I'd just wait –big transfers sometimes get slowed down on the bank's end. I recently sold a property and our solicitor told us that the money would be in on X day but he couldn't guarantee a time as sometimes the bank run extra checks.

Do you have online banking to access your account or a bank helpline you can call. Are you still in the property, I thought that the buyer can't move in until the money is in the bank. You house insurance might have a legal helpline.

The property was empty. I think I'll try ringing the bank maybe?

We sold a property and it took a while to get the money in to the bank account because it was a large amount - I don't know why, surely this must happen frequently! The solicitor managed to get about a third of it in the day the property sold (Friday) and the rest arrived the following Monday.

Can you contact your own bank and ask them?

My bank has a helpline open till 8pm, check if you're have something similar.

'Are you still in the property, I thought that the buyer can't move in until the money is in the bank.'

The money gets transferred to the solicitors and it's then the solicitors who transfer the money to the seller. The money reached the solicitors' bank fine - it's just not gone from there to seller's bank yet, but that's nothing to do with the buyer.

How stressful!
Any joy?

The bank said there was nothing showing as pending on their end. But then as soon as I put the phone down I got a call from the solicitor saying basically they'd forgotten to ask me if I wanted to pay an extra 20 quid fee to have it processed by Faster Payments so it had been paid by CHAPS, and the account woman hadn't put the payment to me through until the afternoon, so it would be next working day.

Does this sound right or a bit made up?

Sounds right. In the nicest possible way calm down dear.

Haha thanks I'm fine now. I was only panicking because I have very little trust in the solicitor after having to constantly chase them, find things out myself, them taking 5 days to reply to emails etc.

Hope iit is all sorted, I think it is understandable that you panicked. Hope it is all sorted now.