Do I have to pay back?

abbash

I received a payment of £13,000.00 from the maturity of an Endownment policy. Several weeks later I was told the payment was made to me in error and that it should have been paid to the Beneficiary - the Mortgage Company.

Before the payment was made, I was in correspondence with the Insurance Company for several months to establish I was entitled to the payment - which I believed I was entitled to.

How can I avoid paying this back - as most of it was used to pay of debts and I cannot afford to pay this back.

arcon5

If the money was sent to you in error you can't avoid paying it back and could potentially be classed as 'theft' if you do not intend to repay or return the money and cannot demonstate reasonably that you had no reason to know why the money was not yours.

So did you & the insurance company establish whether or not you personally was owed money? If they agree that they in addition to this owe you money you could negotiate the offset the amount sent in error against this -- whether they agree or not is a whole different matter.

Ultimately though, you can't get blood from a stone.

tomjonesrules

If you choose not to pay it back, how do you intend to pay off the mortgage? Either way, you still need to find the money.

unholyangel

Alternatively, if it has been proven you are not entitled to the money, you can write to them and propose a repayment plan.

As for not getting blood out a stone, no but they can get it out your assets , from what the OP said, they do own their own home so might be best seeking legal advice. OP if you have house insurance, you will probably have legal assistance with this.

OP how much of it do you have left?

arcon5

unholyangel wrote: »

Alternatively, if it has been proven you are not entitled to the money, you can write to them and propose a repayment plan.

As for not getting blood out a stone, no but they can get it out your assets , from what the OP said, they do own their own home so might be best seeking legal advice. OP if you have house insurance, you will probably have legal assistance with this.

OP how much of it do you have left?

well pointed out, should have realised that! *slaps own wrist *

hcb42

abbash wrote: »

I received a payment of £13,000.00 from the maturity of an Endownment policy. Several weeks later I was told the payment was made to me in error and that it should have been paid to the Beneficiary - the Mortgage Company.

Before the payment was made, I was in correspondence with the Insurance Company for several months to establish I was entitled to the payment - which I believed I was entitled to.

How can I avoid paying this back - as most of it was used to pay of debts and I cannot afford to pay this back.

Have you paid off the mortgage? If so, no problem. I assume this is why you believe you were entitled to it?

Do you still owe the mortgage? If so how will you pay it off now, can you not make arrangements to switch to repayment mortgage and get it paid off.

tomjonesrules

hcb42 wrote: »

Have you paid off the mortgage? If so, no problem. I assume this is why you believe you were entitled to it?

Do you still owe the mortgage? If so how will you pay it off now, can you not make arrangements to switch to repayment mortgage and get it paid off.

I guess it depends on how close to the end of the mortgage term he was, and whether the bank wish to extend his lending period.

abbash

Dear All,

Many Thanks for the response .

Just to confirm - both the Insurance Company and myself believed that I was the Beneficiary - hence the payment .

I accept it can be classified as Theft - if I received something I was not entitled to or received and spent without making an enquiry. This was a conclusion to an on-going saga with the Insurance Company.

They managed to pay me directly as they had my bank details - but my wifes payment was stopped as they belatedly received communication from the Mortgage Company.

The Mortgage was Interest Only and the balance outstanding was £96,000.00 (now reduced to £83,000.00 having received the £13,000.00 from my wife's policy). As you can see - it was never going to be cleared even if they received both payments.