Sending mortgage completion money by CHAPS safely
CHAPS is the UK’s same-day high-value payment system and is commonly used for property completion because payments settle individually and there is no scheme minimum or maximum. Your bank can still impose its own cut-off and fee.
Get your solicitor’s client-account details through a trusted channel, verify them independently, and arrange CHAPS before your bank’s customer cut-off. The Bank of England’s CHAPS customer-payment deadline is 5:40pm on working days, but banks can set earlier customer deadlines.
Verify the solicitor details before sending money
Property transactions are a prime target for email interception. If an email says the solicitor's bank details have changed, do not rely on the email. Call the firm on a number you already trust and read the details back.
For a six-figure completion transfer, one wrong digit is not a minor inconvenience. Confirm the client-account name, sort code, account number and reference before instructing the bank.
The Bank of England says customer CHAPS payments must reach the system by 5:40pm, but your own bank can stop accepting customer instructions earlier. Branch, telephone and online cut-offs can also differ.
If completion is Friday, do not discover at 4:45pm that your bank's online CHAPS cut-off was 3:30pm. Ask the day before and build margin for security checks.
Practical sequence: confirm the solicitor's account name, sort code, account number, payment reference, exact amount and your bank's latest guaranteed instruction time. Once those items are clear, decide what needs to happen first and what can wait. This is more reliable than making several changes at once, because you can see which action produced the result and you keep a usable record if something later needs to be challenged.
Final verification for sending mortgage completion money by CHAPS: before you treat this step as complete, compare the provider's confirmation with the next real account event. This keeps the follow-up focused on the unresolved fact under "Verify the solicitor details before sending money" rather than reopening every part of the issue.
Work backwards from the bank cut-off and completion time
CHAPS is designed for high-value same-day payments and the Bank of England states there is no minimum or maximum payment limit at scheme level. Your bank can still impose its own operational or channel limits and may require a branch or telephone instruction for a very large amount.
That makes CHAPS different from relying on a retail Faster Payment limit that may be lower or dynamically restricted for a new payee.
Suppose your solicitor needs £186,500 cleared by 2pm. If your bank requires large CHAPS payments to be arranged by noon, initiating at 1:30pm is already too late even though the CHAPS system itself remains open. The legal completion timetable is driven by your bank's customer process, not the theoretical scheme end time.
Arrange the transfer window with the solicitor and bank in advance. If part of the money comes from another savings provider, move it into the sending account early enough that it is cleared and available.
Example for planning: for a £186,500 completion transfer, a one-digit account error is more important than saving ten minutes. Verify the details using a trusted channel already known to you, then allow time for bank security checks rather than starting the instruction at the last possible minute. Treat this as a model, then replace the figures with your own. A simple written example often exposes a hidden dependency, such as an old mandate still being live, an expiry date sitting before completion or a balance that only appears available because a transaction has not posted yet.
Send the exact amount with the correct reference
After sending, record the bank's payment reference and confirm with the solicitor that funds have arrived. CHAPS settlement between direct participants is irrevocable, so mistakes need urgent bank intervention rather than an 'undo' button.
If the payment is delayed, give both bank and solicitor the reference and exact instruction time. A clear audit trail can be crucial when completion deadlines and contractual penalties are involved.
Some buyers like to send a small Faster Payment to verify the client account before the large CHAPS transfer. That can be useful only if the solicitor confirms the process and can identify the test payment. Do not invent your own test if it will confuse the firm's reconciliation or reference requirements.
Whatever verification method you use, confirm the bank details by a second trusted channel. The purpose is to defeat invoice-redirection fraud, not merely prove that an account number exists.
Keep an evidence file containing the solicitor completion statement, independently verified payment instructions, bank transfer confirmation, CHAPS reference and the solicitor's confirmation of cleared receipt. Save it before the issue is resolved, not afterwards, because app screens and pending statuses can change. A short chronology with dates, amounts and reference numbers is usually more useful than a long narrative when you need a bank to investigate or a complaint handler to understand what happened.
Keep evidence until the solicitor confirms receipt
If you are sending your own contribution to a solicitor for completion, verify the firm's client-account details using a trusted channel before moving a large sum. Do not rely on bank details contained only in an unexpected email, even if the message looks like part of an existing conveyancing thread. Calling a known telephone number and reading the sort code and account number back is a small inconvenience compared with trying to recover a six-figure payment sent to a fraudster.
Send early enough to deal with a bank query or payment limit. If £45,000 must reach the solicitor on Friday, discovering at 4:20pm that your online limit is £25,000 leaves very little room to fix the problem. Ask the solicitor when it wants cleared funds, ask your bank how a payment of that size must be authorised, and keep the transaction reference until the solicitor confirms receipt.
If payment details change by email at the last minute, stop and verify them independently. Do not treat urgency as proof that the new details are genuine. A completion can recover from a short verification delay more easily than from money sent to a fraudster. Set yourself a follow-up point rather than assuming the issue is finished after one call. Check the next relevant payment, statement or message and make sure the bank's record matches the outcome you were promised.
Sources and verification
Hannah Lewis - Mortgages & Loans Specialist
For property completion, speed matters less than controlled certainty. Verify the solicitor, know your bank’s cut-off and initiate with enough margin for a security review.
MyBankAnswers uses official provider and UK regulatory sources wherever practical. Information is general and does not constitute financial advice.