[Graham Richardson]

We had something similar, we collected rental debts for a sales & lettings agency who were taken over, the business that took them over did not continue with the lettings side of the business so did not want the funds we had recovered. They wanted us to send them to the landlords which we refused to do. I asked them for agreement that if they did not want the funds then could we donate them to charity to which they agreed.

Wrote to the SRA as it was about £1500 and they were not interested, they said as our client had agreed the funds could be donated then they didn’t need to provide authority, we were free to donate the funds as long as we did not have any suspicions about why the client would not accept the funds.

As the client was engaging with us our situation was a bit easier.

[Graham Richardson]

Thanks both, I think ideally we’d go down your route Melanie but sadly as there wont be functionality to do the post completion transfer without raising a bill it may have to be three bills. I think they do all need to be sent to the client too. I think we’ll just try and make it clear to the clients at the outset how many bills they will receive and try and make it clear the bills are fully paid and don’t require payment.

[Graham Richardson]

Thanks Emma!

[Graham Richardson]

We’ve had this at our firm, as the money is in client account we’ve always taken the view that it is client money as it’s being held prior to a bill being delivered, therefore any accrued interest is due to the client even though it is for the firm’s costs and disbursements, but be interested to know if anyone does treat it differently.

[Author]

Posts