Finding the Money

[Hotpend]

I manage my father's affairs under Power of Attorney. He is a leaseholder. Last September I paid £350 to the Management Company the owns the freehold. This was part payment of the annual service charge. The lease provides that an upfront payment be made and the rest be paid at the end of the service charge year. I made the payment by transferring the money from my father's bank account to the Management Company's bank account, which is controlled by agents employed by the Management Company.

The agents had given me the bank account number and sort code. Last week a letter was sent to all leaseholders by the agents informing them that the wrong bank account number had been given. My father's money has therefore been sent to the wrong bank account.

I am hoping that the account that now holds my father's money is one that is controlled by the managing agents -i.e. one of their client's accounts. I am worried that it may not be and that I will then have the problem of finding who has my father's money.

Please could someone offer me advice as to what I should do.

Many thanks in advance.

[Richard Webster]

Write to the managing agents that you have sent the money to the account they originally specified (and provide proof of this) and suggest they sort it out.

[IFA]

Have they actually stated that they didn't receive the money, or are they just contacting you out of courtesy and for your future reference?

If the money was paid into an account that belongs to the managing company then this mistake should be easy for them to resolve internally, they may just be notifying you that any future payments be made to the correct account as supplied in their latest letter.

If the money was paid into an entirely different account owned by another person or company then this doesn't seem to be your responsibility to sort out as you acted in good faith and upon the instructions of the management company that the money was to be paid to and it seems unreasonable of them to expect you to invest time and effort correcting their error.

It's their mistake, not yours, and they should therefore put things right.