payment mistake

[malimner]

Hi
what is the actual legal position if you receive a payment made by a company in to your bank account and werent expecting. No one has contacted me about it yet.

[Amethyst]

How much has been paid in to your account ?

Do you have any outstanding PPI claims or such like in the pipeline where a payment may have arrived before the letter informing you of such ?

Easiest way to find out if it is genuine or a mistake is to contact the company concerned and ask them what the payment is for.

If it is a mistake you will need to repay it to them, not to do so could be classed as theft.

[2222]

"If it is a mistake you will need to repay it to them, not to do so could be classed as theft."

Do you need to pursue them actively in order to return the money, or can you just sit back and wait for them to ask for it back?

[des8]

The problem with not reporting the unexpected windfall is that there remains the temptation to spend it.

Depending on the amount (if in the thousands?) it might be worth putting it into a savings account whilst the matter is sorted.
The interest would be yours!

[CLL1]

You would need to pay it back if asked.

[malimner]

thanks... is there a time limit on this - say 12 months or soemthing if hey dont ask for it back?

[2222]

Probably six years.

[des8]

I doubt there is any time limit.
To use that money is theft, a criminal offence for which there is no statute of limitations

I would suggest that the Theft Act 1968 is studied, especially the bit that says :
"Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner."
together with the bit that defines theft as:
A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.
Dishonestly is also defined

You can always chance spending it, but if a gaol sentence follows don't complain you didn't know

[james_law]

I would just pay the money back ASAP. The longer you leave the money unpaid, the potential situation will look bad for you. I would not risk the chance they wont ask for it back, because as said its going to look really bad a year down the line having a conversation.

Even if you don't spent it, you could quite easily be prosecuted for theft in say, a few months.

You know the property doesn't belong to you,
You know who it belongs too,
You can take reasonable steps to give the property back.
By not doing it, it could easily infer you were intending to permanently deprive the other of the money.

[malimner]

ok, thanks everyone, will contact my bank asap