frozen account

jillyflower

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place to ask this question but here goes.
My partner and I split up last august. We have 2 joint bank accounts, he uses on and I use the other. The a/c he uses is with the Halifax and I informed them of the change in cercumstances without any difficulty, the problem started when I told Natwest that I wanted to take his name off the a/c. My ex is willing to sign the forms to allow this to happen, so all I needed was the form for him to sign. When I told them the situation they said the a/c had to be stopped straight away and that I couldn't touch the money in it, although it is my wages that are paid into the a/c. They said it was the law.
Is this true, if so how come the halifax didn't mention it?
Hope someone out there can help
Thanks for reading this Jill

xyz123

jillyflower wrote: »

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place to ask this question but here goes.
My partner and I split up last august. We have 2 joint bank accounts, he uses on and I use the other. The a/c he uses is with the Halifax and I informed them of the change in cercumstances without any difficulty, the problem started when I told Natwest that I wanted to take his name off the a/c. My ex is willing to sign the forms to allow this to happen, so all I needed was the form for him to sign. When I told them the situation they said the a/c had to be stopped straight away and that I couldn't touch the money in it, although it is my wages that are paid into the a/c. They said it was the law.
Is this true, if so how come the halifax didn't mention it?
Hope someone out there can help
Thanks for reading this Jill

Its not clear from your post if they have actually stopped the account yet? if not, then transfer the money out to another account in your own name so you can give yourself time to sort out this mess...

jillyflower

thanks xyz123,
the account was stopped immediatly so i was not able to get any of my money out.

premierfella

Not sure about their reference to the law to be honest (although I have my doubts about that). However, the bank are protecting their position as, if I read your OP correctly, they have not yet received the required form from the other party and have been advised of a change in circumstances that could potentially lead to a dispute over the ownership of the funds in the account.

Unfortunately the best course of action is no longer open to you (sorting out the division of funds in the account and mandates prior to informing the bank).

At the very least I would have expected the bank to open up an account in your sole name for future salary payments to be credited to whilst they await the necessary paperwork regarding the joint account. In the interim I would expect them to keep the funds in the existing account frozen I'm afraid.

xyz123

jillyflower wrote: »

thanks xyz123,
the account was stopped immediatly so i was not able to get any of my money out.

When the bank stopped the account, they should have told you what would it take for them to release funds. i am sure that would have to involve the other account holder. so your success of relatively easily getting your money back will depend on your ex's willingness to help you and be honest...

CLAPTON

can you get the form signed by your ex and take it in tomorrow?

jillyflower

No way I can get it that quickly he lives on one of the Scottish islands and post is quite slow probably won't get it back untill the middle of next week, meanwhile 2 kids to feed and wages stuck in the bank!!