Overpaid final pay, what are the consequences if I ignore letter?

orikien

I'm guessing play ignorance is out of the question right? They know my name, my bank, my phone number and probably can find my address through electrol register. I guess I will reply on Monday and ask for the P45. I wish I changed my Email address.....

Comms69

orikien wrote: »

I'm guessing play ignorance is out of the question right? They know my name, my bank, my phone number and probably can find my address through electrol register. I guess I will reply on Monday and ask for the P45. I wish I changed my Email address.....

I just dont understand why you would even consider it? Surely if you had been underpaid you would want the money?

orikien

Comms69 wrote: »

I just dont understand why you would even consider it? Surely if you had been underpaid you would want the money?

To be honest I didn't really expect to get paid at all. It was a fairly small company, the 'contract' was only 1.5 pages long and looked super dodgy and unclear, That's why i didn't even bother to chase them even after 2.5 months of delay. I was REALLY surprised when I saw the bank transfer, at the amount of money and its existence. That's why I didn't touch it even though money is tight. But you are right I rather have peace of mind than worrying getting a court summon or baliffs knocking on my door.

TBagpuss

orikien wrote: »

Wow, I didn't know it count as theft, that seemed to be over the top.... That's kind of scary if people receive a sum of money they have no knowledge of. I thought it would be like debt at most.

It's about if you know, or ought to have known, that the money wasn't legitimately yours. If they overpaid you by £13 you'd have a reasonable argument for saying you didn't know it was wrong. Very few people have the kind of income where they could believably say they did't realise that an extra £1300 was an error.

I|t's similar to the offence of 'theft by finding' - if you keep something you've found and know isn't yours you can be guilty of theft.

However, it is certainly reasonable for you to request that they provide you with your P45, a breakdown of how they have calculated the figure.

w00519772

orikien wrote: »

To be honest I didn't really expect to get paid at all. It was a fairly small company, the 'contract' was only 1.5 pages long and looked super dodgy and unclear, That's why i didn't even bother to chase them even after 2.5 months of delay. I was REALLY surprised when I saw the bank transfer, at the amount of money and its existence. That's why I didn't touch it even though money is tight. But you are right I rather have peace of mind than worrying getting a court summon or baliffs knocking on my door.

They know who you are i.e. your first name; surname; date of birth; national insurance number; previous addressees etc.

The worst case scenario is that they will apply to the small claims court and will eventually be awarded a CCJ. Then your credit rating will be affected (with a CCJ) meaning you will have to pay much higher interest rates if you want to borrow money in future e.g. mortgage; loan etc. Some banks may not even want to lend to you.

Also I know that some company vetting procedures see a CCJ as a black mark against the candidate, so your future employment prospects may be more limited if you ignore this.

I would just do the right thing. If they are correct then pay it back. If they are incorrect then write to them explaining why. I am no expert though, just giving my thoughts.

Samsung_Note2

Well im going to go against the "Its theft" and "You will get a CCJ"" type advise.

Can only speak from personal been there done it got the T shirt and kept it experience..lol

After receiving a significant sum of money circa £18,000..it turned out there was very little the company who had paid it out could do to reclaim it and that's coming from a big firm.

Bottom line was i offered to repay and they had very little choice but except the offer i made,questions of police involvement as assumed/told it was theft etc etc and turned out it was nothing other than a civil matter despite the Social media experts shouting very loudly it was theft etc.

Its only fair to pay them back the amount that's been over paid...but id make sure its paid at an amount thats suits you,if that's £10 a month for the next 30 years then that's tough !!!!!! on them,maybe they will be more carefull next time.

Gavin83

Samsung_Note2 wrote: »

After receiving a significant sum of money circa £18,000..it turned out there was very little the company who had paid it out could do to reclaim it and that's coming from a big firm.

Well they could just take you to court to reclaim it. However I do agree with you it is a civil matter, you won't be getting a criminal record for it or anything like that but it can result in more hassle than it's worth. It's far easier to come to an agreement with the company.

steampowered

I don't think this is a criminal matter at the moment. Theft requires you to 'dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another'. Leaving the money sitting in your account is not appropriating it.

However if you spent the money, then it would become theft. A number of people have been jailed for doing exactly that (e.g. click this link) though admittedly over much larger amounts.

If the employer can get your address, they could issue a small claim against you.

I would insist on the employer providing proper details of how much you should have been paid (e.g. a payslip). You should then refund the rest (less tax, until you have been able to reclaim the tax from HMRC - you should not be left out of pocket by their mistake).

andrewg112

It was an honest mistake, be honest and pay the money back.

You never know how things will work out and when you will be back in the same city.

antrobus

orikien wrote: »

I just moved to a new city so any cash is welcome, but my question is if I just ignore the email (I guess the old company haven't got my new address yet),...

A tracing agent will put that right.

orikien wrote: »

...
what they will do to me? Will they sue me in court, pass to a debt collector or something? .

I'd guess, yes. And they might use your old address.

orikien wrote: »

...
And if I pay the XXXX back will they inform HMRC so I can get my tax allowance back? .

You should insist on it.