Large organisation 'accidentally' paid me 100s of ££ and want it back. Do I have to repay it?

[southparkhamster]

NC for this.

I moved out of a rented house recently. In the course of cleaning it and making it nice, I used a product which made it look worse (being deliberately vague so as not to be outing). I complained to the manufacturer and said that because of their product I might lose my security deposit. I asked the company to pay to have it put right. There was a lot of emailing and a lot of stress (for me). They didn't tell me that they would put it right, instead they asked to deal directly with the landlord, so I put them in touch.

Next thing I know, I receive a cheque from the company for several hundred pounds. It came with a letter that said something along the lines of 'we hope this restores your faith in our company'. The letter said nothing about what the cheque was for - specifically, it did not say anything like, 'this money is to pay for the damage to be put right'.

I paid the cheque into my account. A few weeks later, the company contacted me to say that they sent me the cheque by mistake, and that they meant to pay a contractor that they had booked to do the work. They want me to repay the money.

My view is that they have basically given me a gift and then changed their mind about it, so have no right to demand it back. There was nothing in their communication that could have led me to think this was a mistake - their letter was, basically, 'Hi Hamster, following your complaint, here's some money to make it right'.

Can anyone advise about the law here?

Yanbu they sent it to you, addressed it to you and said they hope it restores your faith in their company, which makes sense as it was their product that did damage and that you had been discussing with them. I'd keep it🤷🏻‍♀️

Op, what product did you use, and what exactly did their letter say that accompanied the cheque?

I would be inclined to ignore the letter and wait and see what happens.

Well if it was addressed to you then it's yours! Keep it.

would i balls re pay it!!

their mistake and it reads like its for you anyhow.

if it had been a bank transfer i would pay it back but only cause it woud get you in serious shit. but nope its a cheque. f em!

What WeeDangerous says - they’ve screwed up (human error, too many ‘parties’ - you, LL, contractor) and now are trying to unscrew it.

Reply with a photocopy of the original letter that shows it was a ‘goodwill gesture’ addressed personally to you and no mention of the contractor.

Point out that your time and energy in dealing with this matter is now being used up again, definitely evaporating any ‘goodwill’. Explain you cannot repay the full amount at once.

See what they say.

Yanbu. It was addressed to you, cheque written out to you and made no mention of it being payment towards the contractor. I suspect there’s been crossed wires somewhere in their offices eg send hamster £20 goodwill gesture and someone’s read or heard it wrong and added zeros. Not your problem at all and they would get laughed out of court if they took you to small claims. Keep it Op and the letter.

@curlyhairedassassin you're talking out of your hole. Just because you think all money everywhere should go to landlords doesn't mean it is so.

you think all money everywhere should go to landlords doesn't mean it is so.

What are you on about, “all money everywhere”?? My view is it is the person whose property has been damaged who should be reimbursed in something like this. In this case it would be the landlord , but the landlord had clearly arranged with the manufacturer for the payment to be made direct to the contrActor who did the work. The landlord did not get any money. .

I would worry the contractor had still not been paid, if this was me. I’m assuming he has if this is a large organisation, but you never know. Effectively, you have spent the money meant for him and the organisation is trying to claim it back. You weren’t to know, and if it’s spent, it’s spent....a big organisation should be able to absorb those costs you would think.

It’s an interesting one....

Yeah would you be worrying like bollocks.

I'd contact your bank. I used to work in telephone banking and we had to advise customers asking if funds were available from a cheque that had been paid in that a cheque can be stopped at anytime even though the funds showed as having cleared into the account so there is a chance the funds could be recalled if the company's cancels it.

Do you still have the letter as proof?

Op, call Citizens Advice.

Personally, it's yours.

Thanks all ... a few points:

1. The company says the contractor has been paid
2. Which means the landlord is not out of pocket (on the contrary - the landlord could have expected some redecoration work at the end of a tenancy but has avoided that expense because of this)
3. The product was used in the correct way and actually the company initially tried to mess me about. Basically, I touched up paintwork using exactly the same brand and shade that had originally been used but it turned out the manufacturer had changed the colour (while using the same name) and had not provided a warning. They initially claimed that the problem was that the original paint had faded, and then that the problem was in the way I had applied the paint, but unfortunately for them I had old tester pots of the original, and so was able to provide a side-by-side comparison of the old and new paint on a single sheet of paper. Much emailing and arguing and wasted time was required to get to that stage.
4. The company has my new address from the letter I sent them along with the samples of old and new paint.

I still have the letter and this is what it says:

'Further to your correspondence with XXXXX please find enclosed a cheque for £XXX and a voucher for [new product]. We pride ourselves on being the best in our industry and making sure our customers are cared for is important to us. I hope this letter restores your good faith in XXXXX'

Actually, writing all that has really brought back how much time and stress this caused me. Loads of messages and lost sleep, and they were obviously trying to annoy me until I went away 😡

Personally I’d keep it (after getting some proper advise).
If you do have to pay it back offer a payment plan that doesn’t cause you problems. E.g £5 a week or even month. Just have it direct debit out of your account so you don’t notice it. (Although do remember to stop the dd in time).

I think it would depend on whether or not the OP could reasonably have thought that the company honestly intended to pay her the money or not.

It would be useful to know how much the cheque was for and the extent of the potential damage the contractor was asked to put right. This would help in determining whether the OPs conclusion that the money was a good will payment for the inconvenience (note NOT for loss of deposit or damage to her property because she isn't suffering either of those) was reasonable or not.

Effectively her role was to identify the problem and raise it with the manufacturer. I appreciate there were emails back and forth but ultimately it was then between the landlord, company and contractor. A good will payment to an individual is just that. It usually wouldn't be significant. It would probably be a lot higher for a contractor. If the payment was £900, say, that might raise an eyebrow. More so if the potential damage was minimal.

If they do seek repayment you may be able to argue it. They probably won't pursue it if it's a relatively modest sum and will write it off. Of course some lowly accounts clerk could face more serious consequences for the error I guess depending on the ethos of the company.

The usual case where some can get money back paid by mistake is where they sent money to the wrong bank or there was an error in the amount of money sent (eg a claim for refund of £100, they accept the claim and refund £1,000 instead).

This is completely different. Their letter was unambiguous and clear. It was a goodwill gesture which you accepted by cashing the cheque. They won't have a leg to stand on I suspect.

BTW I'm a family law solicitor - not my area of law

Given the contents of the letter, I agree with Collaborate that you had good reason to believe the money was intended for you. The only way I think they might have an argument to get their money back is if the amount was clearly excessive for a goodwill gesture, to the point where it should have been clear that this was a mistake.

@collaborate and @prh47bridge - thank you for the expert advice! I also had the opportunity to talk this through with a relative who is a lawyer, albeit not in this area, and the advice there was to keep the money.

Effectively her role was to identify the problem and raise it with the manufacturer. I appreciate there were emails back and forth but ultimately it was then between the landlord, company and contractor. No, that's not true - I was the customer, I bought the product, I raised the complaint. I was actually quite surprised that the company wanted to get involved with those third parties, to whom they had no obligations. That the company made arrangements with those third parties is not my problem, especially given that they did not tell me that they had done so!

What was the thing that was painted, OP? Was it fixtures and fittings/walls etc? How come the landlord wasn’t responsible for upkeep of those? I think it could matter what the thing was that was painted, whether it was your own belongings that you took with you or part of the flat’s fixtures and fitting and so belonging to the landlord. Also what the exact cost was to fix what went wrong.

No, that's not true - I was the customer, I bought the product, I raised the complaint.

For the sake of argument if you were a cleaner and bought the product to clean your employer's table (for example) would you think any goodwill payment would be payable to you rather than the person who stood to bear the cost of the damage? Bearing in mind that you kept your deposit and the damage was to premises that aren't yours?

If you want to say you're keeping it regardless then that's fair enough. I'm not sure your logic completely follows through tho.

For the sake of argument if you were a cleaner and bought the product to clean your employer's table (for example) would you think any goodwill payment would be payable to you rather than the person who stood to bear the cost of the damage?

I certainly don't think the OP is being unreasonable. She bought the product. The manufacturer contacted the landlord and made good the damage then, apparently, made a goodwill payment to their customer, who bought the product in the first place, raised a complaint and pursued the company until they resolved it. Why is it unreasonable for her to think the company might make a goodwill payment to her? Especially given the wording of the accompanying letter?

The OP has been quite coy about the value of the goodwil payment and the nature of the damage. The 'honest belief' is very much dependent on those two factors. For example if there was potential damage to one item of furniture belonging to her landlord (put right by them) but the cheque was for £900 that might have suggested that it wasn't for her. The OP hasn't suffered any actual loss.

As I say, they will probably write it off. But that doesn't affect whether the OP actually did think it was for her or not.