refund mine then not mine HELP

anothersally

I part buy and part rent from a housing association. A credit was made to my rent account re the previous years audited accounts. I was not living there at the time so queried the credit. I was told that the money was mine. The previous occupant has now claimed the refund (quite rightly) and they housing Association is now claiming the money back 6 weeks after beig told otherwise.
so I worte arguig my case asking for the now debt to be written off on my account

I am in receipt ofyour letter dated 23 November regarding the credit/debt of the above amountrelating to the audited accounts April 2011-March 2012. Whilst I canunderstand the principal behind your letter I did in fact ring your office on17 October at 13.26 regarding this matter, for the self-same reasons you statein your letter, that the money belonged to the previous occupant. Iexplained that I was not living in the property at the time and was told byyour office that the refunds are based on the property not tenants and that themoney belonged to me which is why it had been credited. The person on the phonedid state how nice it was to have a bit of extra money just before xmas. I did raise the morality of this credit but was given assurances byTVHA that they were correct and that I was entitled to the refund. On thatbasis I then made the reduced payment in October of �188.03. I find it unbelievable that despite my call to youroffice regarding this matter you have only just realised your error 6 weekslater.

This is the response back today from them

Further to your email, I am sorry to hear that we did not informyou that the previous owner had the right to request the credit that wasapplied to your rent account. If the previous owner failed to request a refundfor the credit then you would have benefited fully from any credit balancesgenerated from the audited accounts. We have not made an error on this matter,however we should have informed you that there was a possibility that theprevious owner could still request the credit to be returned to them.


As there is a dispute regarding the balancing charge credit, we can either;

• Stop the refund that is due the previous owner and advise you both to revert back to your solicitors in order to resolve this matter.
• In acknowledgement of the issues raised, we can agree to set up a 4 month repayment plan for the debt to be cleared. As you have benefited fully from the services provided, we can not agree to write off the outstanding debt.

So what do I do have I any rights in this matter against the housing association?

N79

Yes - you have the "right" to request a reasonable repayment plan for paying back the money they have paid you by mistake. You do not have any right to keep the money.

Without knowing the amount in question, I have no idea if their proposal of 4 months to repay is reasonable.

GDB2222

I assume that the amount credited was an adjustment to service charges for earlier years. Normally, when you buy a property, you take responsibility for making any top up payments required for prior years' service charges. Or, as in this case, you are entitled to the benefit of them if there was an over-payment. I therefore think that you are wrong to just assume that the money is actually the previous tenant's.

Whom did you buy from, the previous tenant or the housing association, and did you have a solicitor acting for you?

Finally, the law on unexpected receipts into your account is fairly clear. The starting point is that you have to repay the money. However, if you have 'changed your position' as a result of the receipt, you can keep it. Consequently, if you committed to additional expenditure (perhaps a holiday or for Christmas) because you were told this money was yours, then you may well be able to keep it.

It is more complicated if you knew that the receipt was a mistake. However, you specifically queried this and were told that the money is yours.

anothersally

I bought from the previous occupant and yes I had a solicitor and yes I did commit the extra money
I had a feeling the money was wrong which is why I raised the question with the HA at the time

GDB2222

If this is a small-ish amount, eg £50-100, I suggest that you take this up with the HA again, making both the points I made above, ie (1) under the contract of sale from the previous owner the money is yours, not the previous owner's, and in any case (2) you relied on the HA's advice and changed your position, so they are not entitled to have the money back.

If the amount is much more substantial, I suggest that you speak to the solicitor who handled your purchase.