The CHAPS payment system used by estate agents to process property transactions went down yesterday causing many problems for agents, buyers and sellers.

The Bank of England said a “global payments issue” is causing the problem, and says it is working to fix the issue “as promptly as possible”.

We are mindful of the impact this is likely to have.”

The Bank released a statement saying: “A global payments issue is affecting the Bank’s CHAPS service and delaying some high value and time-sensitive payments, including some house purchases.

“We are mindful of the impact this is likely to have and are working closely with a third party supplier, industry and other authorities to resolve the issue as promptly as possible.”

The Bank says other payment systems, like the one used for credit cards in shops, are not affected by the issue.

A further statement at around 4.30pm yesterday declared the issue ‘fixed’, “We are pleased to confirm that the third party supplier has restored service following their earlier issues, and CHAPS payments are settling as normal.

“We expect that all payments received by the Bank today will be settled by the end of the day.

“If you are concerned about a CHAPS payment you plan to make or receive today, please contact your bank, or other payment service provider.”

Fixed quickly

Toby Leek, Propertymark President, says: “Completing on a property can be extremely stressful even without technical issues, however it is important to remember that should systems ever cause unexpected problems at a vital moment within the transactional process these issues do tend to be fixed quickly.

“The flipside is in the short term, this can have the potential to leave people waiting outside their new property with a removal van full of their belongings in very extreme cases.”

Anthony Codling MD Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets, says: “The CHAPS collapse could leave hundreds of homebuyers out in the cold.

“The breakdown of the payments system is impacting high value transactions such as house purchases, on average there are around 4,000 housing transactions a day,” he says.

“If conveyancers don’t get the money, they can’t release the keys, and the completion delays don’t just impact the buyer but also all those in the chain.

CHAPS, which stands for Clearing House Automated Payment System, has been around since 1984, and is widely used for housing transactions in the UK.