Q We are using a conveyancer to do our legal work when we buy a house for £305,000 in cash, but are concerned about the security of the funds for the purchase while they are with the firm before we complete the sale.
Is there a way we can send the funds directly to the seller’s solicitor to avoid this difficulty? I don’t like to ask the conveyancer as it might appear we don’t trust them. JH
A It’s not clear why you think your money will be safer with the seller’s solicitor than with your conveyancer. Like solicitors, licensed conveyancers – who are regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) – are required to keep a client’s money safely and separately from their business’s money, typically in a specially designated client account at a bank or building society. That way, if the business were to go bust, the money in the client account would be off limits to any creditors of the business. In addition, licensed conveyancers – again like solicitors – are required to have professional indemnity in place to protect against possible losses. They are also required to pay into a compensation fund which would pay out, for example, if the conveyancer ran off with your cash or was negligent or dishonest in some other way.
It’s also not clear why you think that you have to pay the whole £305,000 to the conveyancer straight away. Typically, you’ll be asked to hand over a deposit of 10% of the agreed purchase price to be paid to the seller’s solicitor at the point that contracts are exchanged. The balance does not need to be with your conveyancer until the day before the completion date. If, however, you pay the balance by cheque, it’ll need to be with the conveyancer at least a week before completion to give the cheque time to clear.
Unless you are exchanging contracts and completing on the same day, if you have been asked for the whole amount up front, you would be right not to trust your conveyancer and might want to consider taking your business elsewhere.
