Lloyds TSB Cheque Clearing

Annabelcx · 22 April 2012 at 1:53AM

Hey,

If anyone has any suggestions or can help me please reply!!

Basically I wrote out a cheque to be cashed in on the 1st of April to my estate agents for £XXX.
I checked my online statement on lloydstsb.com and it said, and still does say that this amount £XXX was debited from my account on the 3rd of April.
This money has not be returned to my bank account since.

My estate agent sent me two letters, and i only received them after being away for a few weeks. The first stated that my cheque had bounced first time, and that they waited and it was confirmed as cleared. This was sent on the 11th of April.

Then a letter on the 19th of April said that my cheque had bounced and that I needed to pay them by cash.

I have since checked my statement, and there is in fact no change in balance since it got debited, so I would presumed it has been paid, as it has now been 19 days since the money was taken from my account.

How should I proceed? They are demanding a cash payment in full, but I already had the money debited from my account??
Surely the bank would contact me if the cheque had bounced? or i would have been credited the amount taken out?
Is my estate agent lying, or is it a bank error?!

Thank you!!

Annabel :j

rb10 · 22 April 2012 at 8:43AM

Sounds like an error on the part of the estate agent - maybe they are mixing you up with a different customer?

First step would be to contact them to double check that the letter they've sent is actually accurate.

agrinnall · 22 April 2012 at 9:12AM

Another possibility is that a crooked employee of the estate agency has intercepted the cheque and somehow (not sure how they would manage it these days) paid it into their own account. So the money will have gone from your account, but won't be in the estate agent's account. To check this you would need to get your bank to retrieve the cheque, which will be stamped on the back with the sortcode and account number of the payee, which you can then check with estate agent to see if it is their account.