Haven't got the keys, but our Mortgage has started...

I've been in the process of buying a house on a piece of land for the past few months. It was looking like we would be getting the key this friday. Our solicitor had the mortgage cheque from the bank, and everything was in order from our point of view... Based on info from the Sellers solictor, all the outstanding items were sorted from the selling point of view... I went for a look to confirm this myself last night and found that this was far from the case (I won't go into the details...), but from what I saw, it will take a while to sort out...
I spoke to our solicitor this morning and relayed this information, only to be told that he had lodged the banks cheque in anticipation of a closure on friday.

My question is - Should our solicitor have done this given that I hadn't given the go ahead to complete? - I'm assuming it will take up to a month to sort out the issues, which will mean that a months Mortgage will need to be paid, even though we don't own the property.

Hi,

The same thing happened to me with a solicitor lodging/cashing the mortgage cheque. It took a couple of days for us to actually notice. Immediately I rang the bank and informed them of the situation. They in turn informed the mortgage dept.(BOI) that the cheque was going to be returned. The solicitor then reimbursed the bank.

Two things to watch out for though..

1. That interest is not charged from the date of drawdown to the date they receive the cheque back. Your solicitor should pick up the tab for any amount payable. We did not in our case pay anything but this probably was due to the fact that we are commercial customers of the bank and have a lot of dealings with them.

2. We experienced a lot of red tape six weeks later when we wanted the cheque re-issued. A good contact person within your bank is vitally important.

I personally feel that a solicitor should not be able to lodge "my mortgage cheque" without my prior approval first. Surely the cheque is issued in my name and would need to be endorsed ... or am I wrong in thinking this?
I have drawn down several mortgages and they were always lodged to solicitors account.
Is there such a thing as an actual cheque or is it an EFT?
Hope all this helps you out a bit.

Thanks for the feedback...

In answer to your question, my assumption is that the "cheque" was made out in the name of my solicitor and hence he could lodge it...
- I think he was taking a shortcut (with good intentions I'm sure in this case) by lodging it before I had asked him to do so.

I'll wait for a few days to see if it makes more sense to get the solicitor to return the money to the bank (and pay any interest charged...) or hold onto it (if it looks like the sale can be complete within a week or two)