My family sold a property and the £223,000 sale price, which we were going to use as a deposit on a new house, was paid into our solicitor’s HSBC bank account.
Soon afterwards, HSBC decided to close her accounts, and sent her one cheque combining the funds from all three. A solicitor is not allowed to mix client and business funds and she therefore returned the cheque and requested that the money be split into several payments.
HSBC’s response was to send another single cheque. Five months on she still has not received her money. We are unable to proceed with the purchase and are being pursued by the agent who sold our property, for their commission.
DH, London
The alacrity with which banks are closing customer accounts without warning or explanation is alarming and HSBC dominates the complaints I receive on the issue. The main reason is draconian anti-money laundering rules which oblige banks to police the source of all the funds on their books.
It’s unclear why your solicitor fell foul of HSBC.
What is plain is that you have been trapped in the middle of a blame game.
HSBC, which did not want to comment on the record, kept assuring me that appropriately split cheques had been sent on several occasions, but were returned; your solicitor was equally adamant that only cheques blending all three accounts have been received and duly returned as it would have breached Solicitors Regulation Authority rules to cash them.
It took a further seven weeks after I contacted HSBC for the money to reach you, by which time you had lost the property you had been trying to buy and lost the mortgage and legal fees you had already paid.
Presumably, others also had vital funds stuck in limbo for seven months.
Unfortunately, as you are not the HSBC customer, your options for compensation are limited, but your solicitor could complain about the handling of her case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If her complaint is upheld they can require the bank to pay redress.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
