money deposited by accident

jimbo007

Hi,

Somebody deposited money into my account 5 months ago by accident, which I didn't notice at the time (as some direct debits were coming out).

They've looked for it back now. Do I have to pay them right away, or can I legally pay it back to them in installments as I dont have the cash?

Thanks.

eden_my_ass

Unless I'm missing something, "someone" made a mistake and gave you money...now thats their mistake, or the banks, but not yours. I'd say legally you're not obliged to do much of anything, so I'd set terms that suit you to pay it back and the mistake maker can just be glad they put it in the account of an honest soul!

jimbo007

Just to elaborate it was a cheque lodged into my account that I did not know about. An individual's mistake, on behalf of the place they work, not a bank. I also have no problem in agreeing to pay it back in full, just not right away as I don't have it and have just been alerted to it.

Toots

How much money are we talking about? If it was a bank error, then they'd need to refund the other customer now, and they'll more than likely arrange a payment scheme to get it back from you.

Seeing as it was the "customer's" mistake, then AFAIK it's up to you whether or not you pay it back. However, it should be noted that it would probably be better off for you in the long run if you pay it back, either in one lump or in installments. Think about it, the other person could get quite nasty about it if you refuse to pay it back. I'm not sure if there's any legal route they can go down to get it back from you, however if it was a substantial amount of money, you might have a hard time proving that you genuinely had no idea it was in your account.

jimbo007

Not substantial, but not trivial either, and there's good reason why i didn't notice it. Not a bank error.

I do intend on fully paying it back, I'm just wondering what legal ground i stand on it terms of not being able to pay it back straight away, and have already suggested installments.

There's somebody else waiting on the money apparantly, but I don't see this as being my fault/problem. The person lodged it to my account instead of somebody elses of a similar name, and it wasn't picked up on for 5 months by them.

They haven't responded in terms of installments yet, they did send me a letter before this, I'm just trying to pre-empt them and figure out where I stand, in case it escalates.

Toots

TBH, I think it's a bit much if they start putting pressure on you to pay it back as a lump. It was their mistake at the end of the day. I'm really not sure what legal recourse (if any) they have as regards getting it back.

TBH, if they did go down the legal route it would probably be a total waste of time because all that would happen is that you'd most likely be asked to pay them back in installments, which you have already offered to do. I think you're being very reasonable about it by offering to pay back installments. I can't imagine any court in the country would order you to pay back a lump sum if it was going to put you in financial hardship.

I think if whomever in the office has any sense at all, they'll realise that they're lucky that there's a chance they're getting it back at all! We had a case similar to this in work, where someone lodged money to a third party account by mistake, and the person who received the money drew it all out and then closed the account!!