Money Moral Dilemma: Should my neighbour return my money?

Cimscate

I'm in the process of replacing carpets and store ask for payment in advance! I paid on credit card so protected. I'd be a bit suspicious of the story though as surely you'd be more careful with other peoples money than to hand over cash......

hazyjo

Cimscate wrote: »

I'm in the process of replacing carpets and store ask for payment in advance! I paid on credit card so protected. I'd be a bit suspicious of the story though as surely you'd be more careful with other peoples money than to hand over cash......

You'd have proof of payment too to put their minds at rest, plus you'd surely have a receipt.


The police would want to see if that money had been paid into his own personal bank account or that of the residents association (or whatever it might be). If it was taken in cash and paid in cash, the police would be investigating the carpet company. If lots of flats and the job was over a grand, I would have thought there would have been around 3 quotes.

LesD

BS_Meter wrote: »

John Gray is right. There is no such Act, I would have been surprised if there was as this sort of thing, if legislated at all, would probably be by statutory instrument, which are generally made under powers delegated by principle legislation to the appropriate Secretary of State. If you are going to cite legislation give the section or schedule and paragraph, they are numbered. If it is a statutory instrument you can cite the regulation in the SI.

Welcome to the debate.

May I suggest you read up on a couple of other so-called 'moral' dilemmas.

No-one in their right mind takes them seriously any more.

Most of us just come here for the banter.

moneyistooshorttomention

joehoover wrote: »

This makes no sense, your neighbour asked you for £150 and you just stumped up? You would have either right to manage, share of freehold or a lease. In all cases you will be paying into a fund to cover expenses, if the carpets need an additional fund then that would be agreed at a meeting and additional funding would be agreed more formally than just asking you for cash. You would be able to see the tenders/quotes for the work. It would therefore not fall with one person unless they are the freeholder alone. More information is needed here.

It's not logical/modern/fair/etc/etc for such a (lack of) appropriate system to exist as a neighbour "just asking for money". But there are places still where this sort of (lack of) proper arrangements happens.

I do know this...

....and this is precisely why anywhere/everywhere at all "communal" needs to have proper normal arrangements for things like this. That being that a Resident Bossyboots doesn't decide they are "in charge" and make such informal arrangements as this.

minicooper272

One option would be to approach the neighbor, and ask them for contact details for the carpet layer, saying you're planning to take the carpet fitter to small claims court. That's the point where you'll either get contact details, or fobbed off. If you get fobbed off, I'd suggest the neighbour has fleeced you, and I'd consider taking them to small claims court, as they'd be obliged to show a judge the money trail at that point.

Ebenezer_Screwj

You should never pay upfront for work that has never been done, let alone not even started. I suspect that you've seen the last of your money.

primrose_penguin

This all sounds a bit odd to me, why would a neighbour ask you for £150 towards communal carpets, surely there would have been a meeting with all the residents present, don't you pay any yearly fees for cleaning of the communal areas etc with a management company overseeing any areas where money needed spending, i.e. painting, repairs etc. I would have thought the management company would handle something like new carpets and would get quotes etc. then contact all the residents regarding costs. I think a get together with the other residents would be the thing to do and if they are in the same boat a word to the police would be best.

crmism

In the normal course of events, there is usually a management company which is responsible for the maintenance, insurance and repair of communal areas on behalf of the tenants or, as in your case, property owners. There is also usually a tenants or property owners association which meets, discusses and monitors progress to make sure that work needed is done.

It therefore seems rather odd that your neighbour should have asked for money and that the contractor wasn't checked out before it was paid over. As it is, you've no choice but to wave goodbye to it, as the cost of tracing whoever it was will be a lot more than what you might get back, if anything. I don't think you can blame your neighbour if the money was paid over in good faith.

Before anything is done, call a meeting of occupiers and set up your own association. It will require officers, but there's nothing complicated about that. Once it's set up, you can use the power of numbers to get the management company to do what it's being paid to do.

Racxie

davidmcn wrote: »

I think all these "dilemmas" are fabricated by the MSE interns (or stolen from elsewhere, as I've noticed in the past...).

I do remember quite awhile back there was one of these where the person who had asked the original question fessed up because they wanted more detail and answers which they could only get by making themselves know, although granted it was the one and only time I've seen it happen.

pixiebel81

Racxie wrote: »

I do remember quite awhile back there was one of these where the person who had asked the original question fessed up because they wanted more detail and answers which they could only get by making themselves know, although granted it was the one and only time I've seen it happen.

It happened twice last month