Advice please - cheque saga

want_to_own_my_own_home

Hi,

Hope this in the right place

My partner runs a interior/building firm. Upon completion of a job he was paid by cheque from the customer. This was at the end of June.

He accidentally paid the cheque into the wrong account. The bank contacted him to tell him this and that it was being returned. He has not been sent the cheque.

The bank have told him that the funds have been sent back to the customers bank. The customer is claiming that the funds have not been reimbursed and have left their account. They are refusing to re issue a cheque or enter a dispute with their bank as to where this money is. His bank now wont do anything as they say the transaction on their end is complete.

Is there anything he can do? Does he have any rights here to force the customer to re issue the cheque? They have been very evasive of his calls etc which is unnerving.

thanks for your help

YEOVILGOM

The bottom line therefore is that your partner has not been paid?

I would be inclined to issue a LBA (letter before action) letter which should illicit a response of some sort and then consider MCOL action

Hopefully they will either issue payment or prove my production of bank statements that the debt has been paid already!

Brassedoff

I am sorry, but I would not do the LBA yet. You may upset the customer unessesarily.

Make an appointment with your business bank manager, before you go, write down all the facts, the chain of events, account numbers and dates. The business manager at the bank will then be able to investigate thoroughly.

If the bank then tell you the money was returned, ask for it in writing, you have something concrete that you can take to your customer, give them a copy, give them 7 days to investigate.

You have to know what happens to stray payment returns. They go into a suspense account, your customer would not know it is there.

Once you both prove the payment is missing, the onus is on the bank to pay out and find it themselves.

However, if the customer has had the money back and is playing games you will have the audit trail enough to go via the county court system. DO NOT go down the MCOL route, go to the local court, submit the paperwork, add the banks info and explanation and a copy of the cheque and ask for summary judgement. The customer by having the payment returned and not then honouring the cheque has broken the law. There are two defences to bouncing or refusing payment (yours is the latter) of a cheque.

1. Fraud
2. Lack of consideration (your HB got the client to write the cheque but never finished the job)

If he has not done 1 or 2 there is no need for the normal trail of events when you issue a summons. The judge must enter a summary judgement, although the numpty behind the counter will either disagree or not know that.

I hope that helps?