post office lost my rent

N0mix123

Back in april 2024 i paid my rent over the counter at our local p/o, it turns out the cashier inputted the wrong acc number so the payment of £150.00 did not reach our housing association.

I only found this out when i checked online our rent account to find the payment was missing (which was approx 3 weeks later)

I went to the p/o to ask for some help , the lady who keyed in the wrong details was most apologetic and tried to help me by contacting the p/o , they said that they would look into it and forward the said amount on to the housing association.

Now moving forward the housing !!!!!! say that they had recieved the payment on 2/5 but it was debited back by the p/o on the 3/5 as they couldnt accredit it to the relevant acc.

The p/o are now saying 'no' the housing !!!!!! have been paid and the housing !!!!!! are saying 'no' we've not recieved anything......

This has been going on since end of april this year and i have been doing all the work trying to resolve this as both parties are saying that niether of them has my money, although i have my reciept.

What can i do, i get no response from the p/o and the housing !!!!!! are now saying theyv'e done all they can........

Anyone any ideas?????

tacpot12

The money would appear to have been returned by the Housing Association (HA) because it couldn't match the account. The Post Office (PO) have either refunded the money (have you checked your bank account carefully) or they still have it. 

What have the PO said about where they sent the money that the HA returned? If they say that they didn't receive anything back from the HA, have you got written evidence that the HA did return the money? (You need the line from their bank statement that shows the payment back to the PO.)

I think I would be looking to sue Post Office Counters for the money if you are convinced that they have it. You could sue both the Post Office and the HA for the money if you don't have enough evidence as to who has it. You might find that you get help with the court costs if you are on a low income. See here: Get help paying court and tribunal fees - GOV.UK

cr1mson

Been a while since involved in banking but if a payment couldn't be allocated it would normally go into a suspense account. Am assuming the HA account details were correct but reference number for them to allocate the payment was incorrect? It may then sit there or be returned to original payee. I would therefore check your own account to see if was returned. I don't think the PO would be debiting it from HA but the HA may have returned it to PO as unable to assign to an account.

molerat

I suspect as op stated "i paid my rent over the counter at our local p/o" it was a bill payment with cash so there is no "return to sender" option other back to the PO cash account.

N0mix123

molerat said:

I suspect as op stated "i paid my rent over the counter at our local p/o" it was a bill payment with cash so there is no "return to sender" option other back to the PO cash account.

Yes i paid in cash and have the original reciept as proof , PO are saying that they paid on the 2/5 but HA are saying that the PO debited it back out on the 3/5 so the HA no longer have it

Trying to actually get hold of someone from the PO is nigh on impossible, they have ignored my requests for some sort of correspondence and letters of complaints (3 times i have emailed and written not to mention numerous phones calls to a machine.....am really at a loss both mentally and monetry

N0mix123

cr1mson said:

Been a while since involved in banking but if a payment couldn't be allocated it would normally go into a suspense account. Am assuming the HA account details were correct but reference number for them to allocate the payment was incorrect? It may then sit there or be returned to original payee. I would therefore check your own account to see if was returned. I don't think the PO would be debiting it from HA but the HA may have returned it to PO as unable to assign to an account.

Thanks for your interest in this but i paid in cash and only have the reciept as proof, oh and the cashier who keyed in the wrong acc number who is beside herself for putting us in this situation, even the manager at our local PO has tried to contact the rep for our PO and said they are so hard to get hold of

N0mix123

Just a quick update on this, the apparently lost rent has now miraculously appeared in my rent account after both parties invloved swore blind neither of them had it.

Only taken them 8 months, oh well at least its been paid now by whom , who knows?????

N0mix123

Oh yes , thank you for all of your comments on this, merry christmas everyone......