How do I pay the funds over?

[milkytwilight]

This is probably a stupid question and I was so sure of myself until my colleague said I was wrong.

My dad is purchasing a house in cash. I'm of the opinion that HE transfers the money to the solicitor before completion (with whatever is on the completion statement).

My colleague seems to think THEY will take the money directly from his bank account.

I was so sure he had to physically do the BACS payment himself. I've only ever bought a house with a mortgage, so slightly different in that they draw down mortgage funds.

Am I wrong?

Do it via a solicitor and CHAPS payment May cost more but all above board

But am I correct in thinking my dad makes the payment from his online banking, rather than expecting the solicitor to take the money (in a type of direct debit)?

I had to make a CHAPS payment from my bank to my solicitor. I think I had to arrange it by phone rather than just online though as they wanted to check I had seen the property and was using bank details given to me by the solicitor not via email.

@milkytwilight

But am I correct in thinking my dad makes the payment from his online banking, rather than expecting the solicitor to take the money (in a type of direct debit)?

Your dad will be told by his solicitor when to transfer the funds to them, this is safely done by CHAPS payment.

No, the solicitor cannot just 'take' any monies. It must be transferred prior to completion.

Bank manager here. He'll need to send as a faster payment or chaps. Himself.

Your Dad needs to arrange the transfer with the bank, probably won't be able to do it online as the sum is likely to be too large to be authorised that way.

Solicitor can't just take the money from your dad's account.

No he needs to action it, I'm a solicitor and it would be really handy if we could just help ourselves to the money when clients miss the deadlines we carefully explain

But in all reality it would be far too dangerous with some dodgy firms

I went in to the bank to do it .

Your DF pays it via CHAPS at his bank

Thank god. I thought I was going crazy!! Was 100% sure and this colleague made me doubt myself.

Your Dad will need to transfer the money to his solicitor.

He should discuss this with his solicitor and check all the details.

We had to transfer money ourselves. Might be worth checking if there's a limit direct from his bank account. We found out it was £25,000 on the day, just short of what they wanted!

You are definitely correct. Your colleague is definitely wrong.

Your dad's solicitor will get him to transfer the money to them he cam either donit via chaps or he can do a standard online bank transfer (this is what I did with my deposit)

@MrsAukerman

Bank manager here. He'll need to send as a faster payment or chaps. Himself.

Seconded. He should check the daily transaction limit for his online banking as he may need to transfer over a number of days. Alternatively a CHAPS payment will likely cover the whole amount but he may have to go into branch to do it.

Very important - scammers target people transferring money to conveyancers. He should call the solicitor and get confirmation of the account details over the phone and be wary of any change of details via email.

You need to set it up with the bank in advance as a CHAPS to Solicitors who then transfer to other solicitors and then into vendors account from there.

Has to be done in advance as they won't do such big payments usually (I recently had to do 6 x 40k to 6 different people and it took me an hr and a half in the bank to sort so allow plenty of time as the fraud triggers are hair trigger at the moment.

Just to echo what Palaver said - transfers to lawyers are big scamming/fraud targets at the moment. Your father MUST either only use details sent by post - or phone the firm's switchboard and check them - or both!

To be doubly sure you could send over £1 then call to ensure they have it before sending the rest.

Of course your dad needs to do it, no one other than the government can just go and take money from someone’s bank account.

your colleague is a fool and should be ignored.

either CHAPS for big sums (set up at the bank, costs, is instant) or BACS for smaller sums.

check and double check the bank details by phoning the solicitor or even calling round. The standard scam is an email which looks to be the solicitor but isn't, saying they have changed their bank details. The client then sends the money to those new bank details and it is gone. It happens quite often.

I second that if using BACS (the payment limits will be too low in most cases), send through a tenner and then phone/visit the solicitor to check it has arrived. This also protects against typing errors.

even with CHAPS, you must be absolutely sure the details are right.

We had to go into the bank to set up the CHAPS payment due to it being above our daily limit. They also have to see ID and check there is no fraud involved.

Our bank was able to check the solicitors account was who they said it was.

Yes, your Dad transfers the money. No one can just take money from your account. It has to be authorised.