Should Solicitors pay interest on money held by them?

hellbent

:mad:My solicitor has held onto €300,000 (following the sale of my house) for about 8 weeks, due to her insistance on dotting loads of i's, etc, before she says it can be released. Should she pay interest on this money when it is finally released, or can she keep the interest earned, if any.
And should the money be held in a deposit account by law, or can the solicitor choose where to lodge it? Any advice/info welcome.
Is this, as I suspect, a typical lawyer-type rip-off?

eamon234

How do you think they make so much bloody money? Besides the crazy fees that is, it's a big source of income for them. Robbin' gits.

Cabaal

They earn interest while holding it but you don't get any, sucks eh?

NUTLEY BOY

Of course they also declare it for tax purposes........:)

Mr. Presentable

If they actually have the money, yes. But I doubt they have it.

Gillo

Eight weeks sounds like a fairly long time, perhaps any inquiry to the Law Society would help speed things up.

hellbent

At least with the other people who 'solicit' for a living, you know you're being screwed. Maybe solicitors should operate under a red light, to warn us that they're in essentially the same business.

altered121

solr. has resposibility that "all the paperwork" is fully and properly completed and it is reasonable to with-hold part monies until transaction is fully complete, in short no You do not get any interest on the amounts held. solr. has not broken any Laws and No the Law soc. are not interested as there is no incorrect behaviour,

hellbent

nipplenuts wrote: »

If they actually have the money, yes. But I doubt they have it.

Nipplenuts: yes, they have the money allright, but wouldn't release it without a revenue certificate, which I've now supplied (Revenue is slow due to decentralised office being setup). But that's not the issue, it's re the interest that should have accrued and which I do not expect to receive.

hellbent

altered121 wrote: »

solr. has resposibility that "all the paperwork" is fully and properly completed and it is reasonable to with-hold part monies until transaction is fully complete, in short no You do not get any interest on the amounts held. solr. has not broken any Laws and No the Law soc. are not interested as there is no incorrect behaviour,

The solicitor withheld ALL the proceeds of the sale.

Her reason is kinda complicated - I am the Executor of a will, but she is not acting for the Estate, but simply to sell the house for me. She feels that she may be liable if any beneficiary owes Inheritance tax, but I'm sure it is I who would be responsible in that event, not her, as she is not, as I said, acting for the Estate. In any case I have supplied the required Tax Exemption Certs, and am about to get the proceeds, after this 2-month delay that I consider unnecessary.

jimmycrackcorm

tell her you are making a complaint to the Law society and writing to the press. With the recent scandal of solicitors hiving off client funds, it shoudl make her think twice about keeping the interest.

foggy_lad

not unusual surely and if she is any good she should have known she would not be liable as it would appear the executor only is liable.

rameire

the solicitor made, uummmm roughly €23.01 on that 300,000 its not much but i suppose it all adds up,

dotsman

rameire wrote: »

the solicitor made, uummmm roughly €23.01 on that 300,000 its not much but i suppose it all adds up,

Taking interest at 4% (that's the minimum rate you'll get for that amount).

300,000 * 0.04 = 12,000 p.a.
12,000/52 = 230.77 p.w.
230.77 * 8 = €1,846

€1,846 (slightly bigger than €23.01;)) probably covers the solicitor's fees!

Nothing you can do OP, it's pretty standard (as long as she is not intentionally trying to find reasons to give you the funds). If, however, she is billing you extra for the delay (saying that she had to do extra work not part of the original estimate), then perhaps you can point out all the interest that she has profited from.

alanceltic

All funds should be held in a client account which I believe is supposed to be a NON interest bearing account, this takes the "conflict" of delaying funds released to clients so your assumption grievance is unwarranted

rameire

the client accounts have a maximum of 0.05% that is how i came out with the €23.01.

hellbent

Thank's all of you for your input. I was away over the weekend, so I'm only seeing your replies now.
I had thought that a client account would be interest-bearing, with maybe 1 to 1.5% interest rates applying. If the 0.05% rate (or less) is correct, then any conspiracy theory I may have suspected would seem stupid.

Still....:eek:

mcaul

Ulster Bank have a rate of 1.45% for solicitor client accounts, I expect other banks would be similar.


If the amount of interest is under €100.00 there is no obligation for the solicitor to pay it. If the amount is over €100 then the solicitor is obigated to pay it.
In this case interest is running at approx. €84 per week and as such an amount of €670 is owing.

And in case the solicitor has a problem with this, you can ahnd over a copy of the relevant paragraph from the irish Statute Book

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1995/en/si/0108.html

cassiedoll

i work in a solicitors. And any money belonging to the clients that we might be holding for a considerable amount of time, we place the money in a deposit account and when the money is being used for whatever...the full amount plus any interest accured is returned to the client in full. The only reason why ur solicitor would hold funds that long would be possible a Capital Gains Tax liability query with the Revenue which can take a considerable amount of time and as far as i am aware its can be no more than 21% of the sale price so you can ask for the balance of your solicitor

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

OP - my advice: go with the information provided by mcaul and cassiedoll.

Am sure that the solicitor has no intention of not paying you your interest.

hellbent

Thanks cassiedoll and mcCaul. I looked up the regulation and it seems clear that interest should be paid alright. I'll post up on the boards what finally develops once the money is paid out.

hellbent

Thanks especially to cassiedoll and mcCaul. I followed the link to the regulation and it seems clear alright that interest has to be paid. I'll post the outcome on the boards when the money finally comes to me, but it looks to be 3-4 weeks away.

alanceltic

Roundtower2 wrote: »

Am sure that the solicitor has no intention of not paying you your interest.

WOW thats one hell of an assumption!!!!! in the current climate of rogue solicitors coming to the attention of the courts I wouldnt be prepared to trust any of them.

OP I was under the impression all client accounts had to be non interest bearing (I was informed by my then solicitor!!!!!) so apologies if this turns out not to be the case

stepbar

Any fees and charges related to the operation of solicitors a/c's must be charged to their office a/c. Client accounts are not allowed to go overdrawn. AFAIK solicitors should pay interest to clients but often times don't!

The flipside has to be considered. I can only assume that a solicitor would be well within his/her right to charge the customer interest if the solicitor needed to draw a cheque against uncleared funds (e.g where a cheque is lodged from one property and used to pay for another on the same day).

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

alanceltic wrote: »

WOW thats one hell of an assumption!!!!! in the current climate of rogue solicitors coming to the attention of the courts I wouldnt be prepared to trust any of them.

come on, they're not all crooks ...

* if only we could say that with a straight face

englishrose

Ive just found this thread after googling the smae question. Im a beneficiary in a relative's will and the proceeds from the sale of the house have been sitting in the solicitors account since 1 December and that was over a month after the house should have been sold. We had to sign a tax form which only came a couple of weeks ago and which was sent back within 24 hours and I know from speaking to Revenue Commissioners that they had no backlog. We are due to receive our inheritance in the next couple of weeks but also wondered what would happen to teh interest. THere's about 480k in the account. SUrely they have a duty when holding onto money for months to maximise it?

Maximilian

You know, there are some complete idiots on this thread. You substitute speculation for facts.

Here's an idea - why not ask your solicitors the questions instead of asking here. You will get the answers you need.

uberwolf

Maximilian wrote: »

You know, there are some complete idiots on this thread. You substitute speculation for facts.

Here's an idea - why not ask your solicitors the questions instead of asking here. You will get the answers you need.

how about the concern that they will not get a straight or legitimate answer from the solicitor in question.

I know, I know, there's been nothing in the media recently to suggest that solicitors aren't completely above board in all instances, but a little healthy paranoia goes along way.

hellbent

In response to Maximilian, the reason I ask the question here is simply because the solicitor in question has a serious attitude problem, and takes total umbrage and treats it as a challenge to her professional integrity, any questioning of her duties or conduct.

Had she not got me by the short and curlies by having total control of the money, and the major hassle and time involved in changing her for another solicitor, I would have gone elsewhere long ago, but I feel I have to stick with her to the bitter end at this stage.


A little considered thought before excercising your urge to increase your posting count might be worthwhile.

hellbent

englishrose wrote: »

...I know from speaking to Revenue Commissioners that they had no backlog. ...

The Capital Acquisitions Tax Section of the Revenue -for the South East-
has been decentralised from Tallaght to Athy, Co. Kildare, since January this year. There are 3-4 weeks of a backlog due to the setting up of the office/ moving files, and staffing shortages. (That's from the Revenue people themselves, not my speculation).