received money then was asked to give it back

grantham2

I recently received money from a solicitors' office, following a court case re. a car accident that I won. We checked with them it was genuine and NOT a mistake - they said yes, it was all for us to keep.
2 weeks later they sent me a letter asking it back, apologising for the mistake...it should have gone back to the insurance company...not me! Problem is...I have already spent a large chunck of it.
Where do I stand legaly?

jonesMUFCforever

Did you also get paid by the insurers?

Before we can answer we need to know this.

Biggles

You were surprised to receive it. You thought it was a mistake. You doubted it was yours. Yet you've 'spent a large chunk of it'. Why?

melancholly

Biggles wrote: »

You were surprised to receive it. You thought it was a mistake. You doubted it was yours. Yet you've 'spent a large chunk of it'. Why?

is that not a bit harsh, given that the OP checked with the solictors first and was told that it was all meant to be for them? they did make some effort to find out before spending it.

dunstonh

If you have received money that you were not meant to have then you have to repay it. However, as you checked first and were told it was yours, you should expect to be able to set up a payment facility to pay the money back over an agreed period.

That said, if the insurance company are going to pay you then that money can be used to offset the money you have spent.

Alfie_E

dunstonh wrote: »

If you have received money that you were not meant to have then you have to repay it.

It doesn’t always work like that. It depends on the exact details of the situation. As you say, if it’s just that the cheque should have been from the insurers not the solicitors, it’ll naturally sort itself out.

If grantham is going to be left with less money in total than he had genuinely believed, it can be more complicated. If he’s made purchases using the money from the solicitors that he otherwise wouldn’t have made, he shouldn’t be worse off as a result. Equally, he shouldn’t be any better off, at the expense of the solicitors. The solicitors are going to have to take any loss, but that must be minimised. Here are two hypothetical situations.

1. grantham received £500. Because he received the money, he spent £300 on a family day out. The solicitors can expect to receive the £200 difference back. They cannot expect him to pay back the £300 he’s spent, either immediately or over time. grantham would say that he didn’t willingly put himself £300 into debt, and would simply not have had the family day out.
   
   
2. grantham received £10,000. Because he received the money, he bought a new £10,000 car. The car needs to be sold, either by grantham or the solicitors, to try to recover as much of the £10,000 as possible. The solicitors cannot expect grantham to pay any short fall. If it wasn’t a complete cash purchase, but grantham traded in his old car as part of the deal, it’s even more complicated. Taking the car off him would leave him without a car.