Are my property purchase completion funds protected?
A. Solicitors operate two separate kinds of bank accounts: an 'office' account and a 'client' account. Rule 2.3 of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules requires them to pay any money received from clients into the designated client account. Any mixing of these moneys is a serious breach of professional ethics and will result in disciplinary action.
It has long been recognised that money in a client account is held by the solicitors on trust. For example, in the 2002 case of Twinsectra v Yardley, the House of Lords said that cash paid for a
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