Overcharged on mortgage because of solicitors delay

We remortgaged and our solicitor recieved the cheque on 28th November. All loans etc were paid off by December 1st as far as we were told. We should have had a balance of about 2500 (pre fees). Just before Christmas we recieved a cheque for €500. Couldn't understand the difference so we queried the breakdown from the solicitor. We had paid an extra 1000 on the mortgage plus 1000 fees accounting for the 2500.

So we requested a statement from the old mortgage company which stated they didn't get the cheque until the 21st December costing us 988 euro in interest! The other 12 was a discharge fee.

We called the solicitors who got very defensive and said it can take 7-10 days on each side (theirs and the mortgage co) to get it wrapped up. Do we have any comeback at all?

We called the solicitors who got very defensive and said it can take 7-10 days on each side (theirs and the mortgage co) to get it wrapped up.

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It shouldn't take that length of time on either side. Check with the mortgage company but it's likely that they stopped charging you interest from the day they received the cheque.

The date they have for the cheque on the statment is 21st December which is 23 days after the solicitor recieved and lodged it.
My main query is whether the solicitor is responsible for this amount (if we have any recourse) as we paid him €1000 fees and almost another €1000 to the mortgage co because of his delay.

The delay is a little on the wrong side of reasonable if your solicitor received a loan cheque.

If, however, the new loan was issued by electronic fund transfer, I would be slower to criticise, without knowing more.

Some lenders - very annoyingly - send the money by electronic funds transfer but can't seem to be bothered sending any communication to the solicitor for several days afterward (or their communication consists only of a call to say 'we are issuing funds' and frankly this is not always enough as phone calls can easily miss being logged or filed, in a way that does not happen with a fax or letter). Plus, if there is a delay or hitch, the solicitor does not have the option of returning the uncashed loan cheque for re-issue. All in all, electronic transfer of funds has not necessarily made life easier or cheaper in connection with mortgages.

Well, the funds were by cheque as I had to go to the solicitors myself to sign the back of it as it was made payable to me and my partner. That was on the 28th/29th November. We had 3 other loans which were paid off by Dec 1st. I can't help but be cynical and think he left the large amount (almost 300k) in his account gathering interest for the month before moving it on. They were quite shocked that it cost us 1000 in interest for 3 weeks. I wonder if they do it frequently and it goes unnoticed as it is smaller amounts of interest in question.

Solicitor finally got back to me and it appears that they requested redemption figures from IIB on 28th and 29th November but were not furnished with them until 20th December 2007 causing the additional interest accrued. They have the faxed letter and are willing to provide me with a copy if we need to pursue the matter.

IIb have said that the solicitor sent the fax to the wrong dept so it wasn't recieved(they have a copy of the fax on file but it wasn't dealt with). They also have a record of the phone call made to them on the 29th December requesting the figures which they never replied to. The solicitor rang them on the 2oth December and they furnished them with closure figures straight away. IIBs opinion is that the solicitor was at fault because they didn't chase the figures. Any advice as to who we should pursue as they are blaming each other (surprise surprise)

Met with the solicitor this morning. He has advised that he faxed the letter requesting the figures twice and posted the request. He has proof of postage (registered letter) and proof of fax transmitted.
He is sending a letter of complaint on our behalf to IIB and requesting that they reimburse the interest. If that fails we will have to head down the Ombudsman route. He feels that we have a good case. Hopefully IIB see that and don't drag it out.

"IMO your solicitor should not have cashed the mortgage cheque until he had all the redemption figures to hand."

In this situation, the solicitor had already received other redemption figures and had ordered the IIB redemption figures. A further delay might have meant a fresh round of redemption letters being needed, which would take time and therefore cost money. Also, i am fairly sure that IIB charge interest from when they send out the cheque (or maybe a day after) so it is of no advantage to hold it uncashed unless you actually get on to IIB to make a special arrangement (which can be done).

All in all, I think the solicitor in this case might not get top marks, but by no means a fail grade either.