Refund given to wrong person

scopeman100

In 2004 I was going through an acrimonious separation and my wife discovered that I was still paying rates on my house before we were together. She contacted Southern Water and and arranged for them to send the refund, Which they did in my name without any consultation with me. They spoke to her as we had a new house which her name was also registered to.She subsequently took the cheque for over £1000 and cashed it through a remaining joint account. She then admitted during the ancillary relief hearing that she had stolen the cheque and cashed it and spent the money. Southern Water sent me copies of the phone conversations they had with my ex wife and sent me an aplogy. My question is should they not reimburse me and pursue my ex for the money that they gave her. The account was never in her name and surely they have a responsibility to me the customer. Both the ex and Southern Water admit that it was wrong, but where do I stand?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I think you might be better of posing your question in a legal forum as the fact that it is a water company involved is purely incidental; it could be any other company.

Although I am no lawyer my opinion is that the Southern Water acted in good faith and most importantly made the cheque out to you and addressed it to you.

That the cheque was intercepted and cashed is totally down to your wife - you use the term stealing correctly.

So IMO you would not have any claim against Southern Water.

scopeman100

Thanks for the input. I was hoping that as I had a sole contract with SW on that property they had a responsibilty to me. At no point did they consult me, the other named party before sending out the money and as a result of both parties' actions I am £1,000 lighter.
As you say this may be the wrong forum, but many thanks all the same. If anyone knows of a more appropriate forum to contact it would much appreciated.

Cardew

You might get some free help from here.

http://www.venables.co.uk/

I really do sympathise with you, we all hate being ripped off.

Had a SW employee picked up that you were due a refund, and sent a cheque addressed to you, the same thing could have happened.

Let us know what the more 'learned' opinions are please.