Deposits

[JayJay]

Hi hoping somebody might be able to answer my question.
I've just exchanged on a property and the completion date is has been set 6 working day later. I gave my 10% deposit to my solicitor 2 days ago and then the solicitor requested the rest of the money earlier because the rest is a gift from my father and the solicitor made a fuss about money laundering. I gave this yesterday, this cash amounts to 30% of the property price (35K). The rest is coming from a mortgage.
My question is: Does the solicitor have to return to me any interest he made on the money I gave him to hold? He hasn't given the 10% deposit to the person selling the property either, he says he's giving everything together. My father is telling me I should write a letter asking for a return of the interest gained and i'm not sure whether I should or not? My solicitor keeps on saying that I can't comlete earlier but I don't understand why as i gave him bankers drafts rather than a cheque which has to be cleared and I'm not in a chain and the seller is ready to move asap.

[Matt Churchill]

A good question and I am afraid that I am not entirely sure of the answer. He will be obliged to keep the funds in a designated client account, and from memory he has no rights to this money, therefore, I would assume (always a bad thing to do I know!) that he also has no right to any interest earnt.

Not sure he is obliged to place into an interest earning account though, so if he hasn't, I am not sure you would have a claim.

It is quite normal, in my experience, to give solicitors completion monies a day or so before the day to avoid hitches on completion day, but 6 days is a little different I guess.

The other thing is that the solicitor still may want to wait for the draft to clear. Whilst the idea behind drafts is that they are only issued against cleared funds, I do not believe that they are automatically treated as cleared when paid into an account nowadays. Used to be a lot different in years gone by. Also, one reason to wait for the draft to go through the clearing system is to ensure it is not stolen (not that I am saying in your case).

HTH