Halifax cheque bounce

mrkjd

My elderly payments recently paid a builder £3k for work done. They have the funds in their Halifax current account and paid by cheque. The builder’s bank have sent him a letter that the cheque has been ‘returned as unpaid’ and the reason ‘Advise of drawing required - please represent’. We have received nothing this end from the Halifax. 

My father rang up the bank and told them the cheque was legit and was advised to now write another cheque. He did. Same issue. Same reason!

The builder was now understandably concerned. I double checked no funds had left my parents account and have made the payment electronically myself. No idea how I’m going to get the money back off my parents now. My bank has cheque imaging but I suspect it will bounce again. My parents have mobility issues and can’t physically get to the bank easily. 

Since ringing them didn’t work for issuing a cheque what are their options to pay me? And why didn’t the Halifax honour the cheque even after my father rang them in advance to confirm the payment! Can the bank do this? I understand measures need to be in place against fraud but this seems ridiculous since my online bank made the payment smoothly. 

MovingForwards

Were they signed? Dated? Did the written figures match the numbers exactly?

It will be something with the cheque rather than the account.

If your parents haven't done so already, put a stop on the two cheques.

Double check they're using the right cheque book and not an old one which they've reported as lost and had replaced.

Until your parents send you a cheque, you won't know if it will bounce paying into your account and £3k in one go may be too high for banking it via the app, which would result in having to take it to your bank; maybe that's what happened with the builder.

SiliconChip

Has there been a change in the health of the person who wrote the cheques since the last successful presentation? I'm wondering whether the parent has become more frail and as a result their signature has changed enough to not be acceptable when the cheque is manually reviewed. In the months before she died my mum's signature was all over the place, in part because her vision had deteriorated so much that she couldn't properly see what she was writing.

Ballard

I’m not familiar with this answer (advice of drawing required). Do you have the physical cheques back? If not then they need to be cancelled immediately as it clearly states that they can be represented and could be paid upon presentation this time.

I’d be tempted to complain to Halifax for
the inconvenience. 

born_again

Write a the cheque yourself & get parents to sign it. At least if it bounces you know it a known issue. But as you have checked the builder had not been paid for either cheque, can you not get them to send the funds to you via faster payment?

Cheques are not manually checked. It's all automated. So even something on the system statings it's OK is not going to help if there is a error on the cheque.

Daliah

Assuming your father doesn't do online banking, can he do telephone banking at Halifax? If so, he can use this to make a payment to you

Daliah

Rob5342 said:

This suggests its something the builder is doing wrong rather than a problem with the cheque.

https://supportcentre.ulsterbank.co.uk/Searchable/1179421382/Is-there-further-information-on-the-reason-codes-for-cheques-that-are-unpaid.htm

I would say it suggests that something was missing on the cheques

phillw

Could it be the payee name doesn't match the name on their bank account?

Ballard

Daliah said:

Rob5342 said:

This suggests its something the builder is doing wrong rather than a problem with the cheque.

https://supportcentre.ulsterbank.co.uk/Searchable/1179421382/Is-there-further-information-on-the-reason-codes-for-cheques-that-are-unpaid.htm

I would say it suggests that something was missing on the cheques

This has puzzled me but I don’t think that there can be anything wrong with the cheques per se as it says that they’ll be automatically represented. That wouldn’t make sense if they needed to be corrected. 

Daliah

Ballard said:

Daliah said:

Rob5342 said:

This suggests its something the builder is doing wrong rather than a problem with the cheque.

https://supportcentre.ulsterbank.co.uk/Searchable/1179421382/Is-there-further-information-on-the-reason-codes-for-cheques-that-are-unpaid.htm

I would say it suggests that something was missing on the cheques

This has puzzled me but I don’t think that there can be anything wrong with the cheques per se as it says that they’ll be automatically represented. That wouldn’t make sense if they needed to be corrected. 

True, it's puzzling. Some sort of failure of the imaging software, perhaps?

[Deleted User]

Sounds like the transaction is unusual and the bank wants confirmation from the drawer before paying the cheque.

Do they frequently write cheques and if they do are they for larger amounts like this one?