Endowment payout company wants refund

scarletspider

3 years ago had endowment pay out of £20,000 now morgage company has phoned informing us we have been overpaid and should have only had a £8,000 payout and we now owe them the difference!

Where do we stand legally?
Do we have to pay it back it was their mistake?

dunstonh

Mistakes do not give you entitlement to the money unless you have a realistic expectation of the amount. If they made a mistake and underpaid you, would you expect them not to pay it?

If you had statements each year leading up to it and it was £6000 or £7000ish range on those and you got £20k then you didnt have realistic expectation of that amount. However, if the statements had been £18k-£19k in lead up then you would have reasonable expectation.

silvercar

They made a mistake and took a long time spotting it, so it is reasonable for you to have spent the money. Try and agree a repayment schedule over a few years, once they have proved that their current calculation is correct.