Deposits and Solicitors

Hi all,

2 years ago i bought my first house...I gave the solicitor approx 19K deposit. Because it was an ex council house it was nearly 3 months before contracts were signed etc, my question is would my solicitor have earned any interest on my money? and should that interest have been given to me when the deposit itself was handed to the vendors solicitor?

P.

I'm no expert, but if indeed interest was accrued on this amount I think you would find it hard to lay a claim to any of that interest.

The stated amount was presumably simply handed over, with no expectation or explanation regarding any likely profit to you - regardless of whether or not the money is invested or otherwise.

Playing the devil's advocate, that's the way I would call it.

Your solicitor would have lodged it to his client account which is a deposit accuunt earning some interest (€190 if the interest rate was 4% no deduction for DIRT) when i was qualifying there was an amount above which you had to account to the client for interest. As far as i recall it was around IR£180 so your solicitor in this case may not have had to account for it.

Hi Patrick2007,

Your solicitor could put it into a standard client a/c where the interest accrued would be nominal if the closing date is in the not too distant future but may also have a second client a/c in a different bank/building society (e.g. earning higher interest rates with 21 day rollover). As far as I am aware the solicitor is entitled to keep the interest accrued even on a higher earning account unless the client asked for or enquired for any interest accrued on the amount deposited.

Folks,

the rules may be summarised as follows:

1. The solicitor must pay you the demand deposit interest rate, unless it is below a certain figure (I don't know the current figure - previous poster said €190; I assume this is right. When I qualified as a solicitor the figure was IR£50; )

2. You can't get a higher rate just because the solicitor is getting a higher rate from the bank (the solicitor will have deposits from many clients, so is able to negotiate a better deal with bank; the individual clients do not get the benefit of this, which is fair enough). You can only get the interest rate appropriate to your money.

3. If your solicitor is holding money you can of course make arrangements with your solicitor to have it placed in a separate account, which may well produce a higher interest rate (actually, it definitely will). There may be a charge from your solicitor for this, but it may be worth while. (My rule is that I do not charge for opening a separate account in the same bank that my firm uses, but I do for other banks, as there will be an admin. overhead for me). Bear in mind that it may be necessary to keep the money available on demand (depending on the nature of the transaction) which may affect the available interest rate.