Solicitor hanging on to excess funds and is currently uncontactable

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notabene

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Recently moved mortgage providers, took 7 months (seems I have no luck with mortgages!) beset with issues, broker let original approval lapse, covid, banks under staffed with movers with the two banks leaving yadda yadda yadda - the upshot being there was just over €2100 excess draw down as it had taken so long and I didn’t want to change the amount lest another delay of five or six weeks.

It seems all has been done, Mortgage was finally redeemed three weeks ago, closing statement from original bank - but no word on this excess money to be transferred to me.

I contacted the solicitor x2 this week, Monday and Friday - fairly casual on Monday and no response, firmer laying out the figures on Friday and radio silence - I’d told them to deduct their fee and transfer the remaining balance c€900 at her earliest convenience - meaning now - where do I go from here it will be a month on thursday since drawdown
 
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Send an email requiring discharge to you of excess funds within 7 days otherwise you complain to LSRA.

Then complain to LSRA. Legal Services Regulatory Authority. Details online.
 
notabene said:
I contacted the solicitor x2 this week, Monday and Friday - fairly casual on Monday and no response, firmer laying out the figures on Friday and radio silence -
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Johnno75 said:
Send an email requiring discharge to you of excess funds within 7 days otherwise you complain to LSRA.
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notabene said:
Mortgage was finally redeemed three weeks ago,
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Some solicitors are very inefficient. And some other professionals are also inefficient.

There is no conspiracy or greed here - we are talking about €900! She is not hanging onto this as some great fraud.

Give her time to respond.

You have no idea what is going on. She could be out sick. She could have an urgent and complex case which is absorbing all her energies.

If it were €90,000 I might be more aggressive.

Brendan
 
I don't think it's fair to say that someone who has not responded to a letter and call within a week is uncontactable.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Some solicitors are very inefficient. And some other professionals are also inefficient.

There is no conspiracy or greed here - we are talking about €900! She is not hanging onto this as some great fraud.

Give her time to respond.

You have no idea what is going on. She could be out sick. She could have an urgent and complex case which is absorbing all her energies.

If it were €90,000 I might be more aggressive.

Brendan
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I never said it was a conspiracy - I’d just like it sorted and have other reasons why its important to get it done now - it has also been going on since October of 2021, I want it finished. In my book 3-4 weeks is ample time to have it transferred, i dont think that is unreasonable - I waited 3 weeks before I said a word. In the reverse, If her fee wasn’t covered by the excess and she was waiting to get paid, do you think she would feel the same if I didn’t respond or waited weeks to pay it ? I’m not so sure about that…
 
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Sorry "conspiracy" was the wrong word.

Solicitor often hang onto money or use to when they earned interest on it.

But in this case it's just incompetence and inefficiency rather than anything more serious.

I would not be making complaints to LSRA for some time.

Brendan
 
Friday, as in Friday just gone, as in, effectively yesterday?

It’s €900 for heaven’s sake.

And the fact that it’s going on since October 2021 seems to be down to bank and mortgage broker issues.

I’d give it until the middle of the week and then make contact again.
 
The old mortgage has been redeemed, but do we know that all the ‘I’s’ are dotted and ‘T’s’ crossed in relation to the new mortgage and the associated work?
 
I wouldn't be getting too excited just yet, but neither would I be very impressed with the solicitor's lack of urgency. I can understand if there's some tidying up to be done, but an acknowledgement of your two emails should really be forthcoming.

It's also important to distinguish between the very frustrating delays caused by broker and banks, and this further but shorter delay.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Sorry "conspiracy" was the wrong word.

Solicitor often hang onto money or use to when they earned interest on it.

But in this case it's just incompetence and inefficiency rather than anything more serious.

I would not be making complaints to LSRA for some time.

Brendan
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My former solicitor hung on to the proceeds of a house sale, delaying the closing of the new house, as their client account was in the Irish Permanent when it was being demutualised and wanted the shares.
That was considerably more than €900.
Solicitors, just like people in every other industry, are no better or worse than anyone else.
 
Johnno75 said:
Send an email requiring discharge to you of excess funds within 7 days otherwise you complain to LSRA.

Then complain to LSRA. Legal Services Regulatory Authority. Details online.
Click to expand...
I would not have too much confidence in the LSRA. I purchased an apt during covid the lawyer (recomended by DNG)was extremely incompetent he forgot the address of the property and sent me the folio of a different property. Hence when I went to collect the conveyancing papers from him I asked to check if he made any more mistakes. He refused to allow me to look at the papers, and I said OK I will sign for the papers as unchecked. He refused my suggestion stating I had to sign for the papers as being full and correct without checking if they were full and correct..and I said no, and he said he would keep the papers and charge me for keeping the papers until i sign for them as being full and correct. I contacted the LSRA and they told me " just because your lawyer made small mistakes does not mean he made a mistake doing the conveyancing you should sign for and collect your papers" twelve months later I decided to sell the apt and told the lawyer who worked for me during the sale to pay for and collect my papers from the first lawyer. I told the lawyer handling the sale to make sure the papers were OK before paying for said papers. However, he forgot said instructions and did not bother checking the papers. Instead he sent the papers to the lawyer acting for the person buying my property said lawyer was the only one who actually did his job properly. He found the the lawyer who I used to buy the property received a "MUD report" letter telling him the property was the subject of a legal dispute, but my lawyer did nothing because I assume he did not read the notice of impending legal dispute.
I contacted the LSRA and told them that the sale of my property had fallen through, because they failed to tell my first lawyer to allow me to read the papers before accepting them as being good.....the LSRA attitude was so what.
PS It is not just the LSRA that is the problem when it comes to Layers in Ireland. After what happened to me I started studying other decisions made by the LSRA, and I found one instance where after several months they did decide to regulate a not so good lawyer. This started by reports of missing funds made to the LSRA. At first said funds could not be found but eventually the LSRA managed to inspect all bank accounts held by the Lawyer, and his partner. The LSRA found said funds in one of said accounts, and the lawyer (same as father ted) said he had not stole the money he just made several mistakes when doing transfers, and it was a coincidence that all mistakes went into his accounts. Surprisingly the LSRA took back the money he stole and took away his licence. However the thief/lawyer appealed and won the appeal...the court believed the tranfers from customers accounts to the lawyer's account were all mistakes
 
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