Cheque into different account?

Cross out the name and insert yours and intitial the changee with cheque signers initials

All alterations should be made by the drawer of a cheque not the beneficiary. As we do not know the amount of the cheque it is difficult to assess whether a bank would take the trouble of contacting the drawer to see if the alteration is genuine/acceptable. Eric

£12k plus

I would suggest that you have a problem! A Bank cashier would have to be blind to miss a cheque of that size, and I would suggest that any alteration to the cheque would be checked out by the paying bank. If you knew that transactions were outstanding why close the account off? You could understand forgetting say a transaction of say 120 but Twelve Thousand Pounds!!!! I don't think we have all the details here and something looks amiss to me. Eric

Why can't you just ask for it to be reissued - tell them you left it in your jeans and washed it...........ask them to stop it......oh and by the way could you just ask them to make it payable to you.

Maybe he didn't know a sum was o/s. It happens.

I'd go along with what someone else has said. Just pay it in without any alterations. I really can't see Wayne or Tracy at the paying in bank paying too much attention. They never seem to do any checking when I pay cheques in.. To be on the safe side I'd perhaps pay it in at a busy time with several other cheques, and make sure it's somewhere in the middle of the pile.

Rgds

__ Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

Try READING my post , I was suggesting he altered the cheque and used the 'drawers' initials as a cover for the change, fraud probably but so what. Most banks ignore the cheque detail unless a query arises afterwards. In the case in point, the writer did write a chq for X to Fred Bloggs of XYX ltd. and would only note anything wrong if a different amount was collected, or if the payee complained about not receiving it.

This post x posted to uk.legal to ask 'How legal/trustworthy are initials

- hardly anyone 'initials' anything so how reliable are they as 'signatures'?

A "signature" is only a person's "mark". Whether that "mark" comprises first name and surname, first initial(s) and surname, just the first name, just the initials, or a doodle of an elephant is irrelevant. Whatever it is, it's the "signatory's" "mark".

AFAIAA, there is no legal definition of a signature.

IANAL

The money came from the sale of a piece of land.In 2001 I bought the assets of the company and the property was to be transferred into my name ,this portion was not ,although the lawyer conserned charged and was paid for this work.About

18 monthes ago I decided to sell it unaware of it still being in old company name ,the payment should have been arround dec 2003 .However new lawyer would not change it into my name as the bargain had been concluded(not withstanding late payment,for which I received interest).Now the problem to issue the cheque to my is ,to cause the lawyer to breach the Law Society (Scotland)money laundering guide lines(scottish lawyer staying withing the rules ,must be a first ) I have got one cheque and they will not issue an other.There is nothing hidden ,I just did not want to go into it as it really upsets me thinking about the money paid to the first lawyer for work not done.However on researching the Law Society rules I discovered he breached them 10 not doing an I.D check,and 2) took cash when I bought a flat (I don't have a cheque book,and he didn't take switch and wanted paid that day) ...........Ian

For £12,000 it is worth re-opening the company bank account.

Generally speaking, a cheque made out to an individual can be deposited only into an account of that individual. That is not the law: under the Cheque Act, though, cheques in the UK are NOT negotiable instruments (as they are under the Uniform Commercial Code in the USA, and in many other countries). So they can't be endorsed as a matter of right.

That said, a bank can allow you to deposit a cheque, properly endorsed, into the account of a different person. A bank (and less often a building society) will often allow that if they know both parties or at least the account holder, well and if they have recourse. BUT neither in the UK nor the USA is it normally possible to put a cheque made out to a company into a personal account. The opposite is normally possible. So if you have a company account you can usually deposit in it a cheque made out in a business name, or even (usually) a different company name. That's because factored invoices frequently involve depositing cheques made out to one company into the account of another.

You should not have had to accept a cheque made out otherwise than in the name of the person or entity that contracted for the sale. Under the circumstances as I read them, though, it seems to me you should go to your old bank, explain the trouble, and open a deposit account. If a limited company has been dissolved, you may need a workaround. Registering a business name and opening an account in that name (without the "Ltd" of course) might work: few banks will worry about the presence or absence of the Ltd.

Another possibility is to seek a letter of authorisation from the money laundering enforcement authorities in London and/or the Inland Revenue. Or, perhaps, endorsing the cheque over to the Inland Revenue (they can cash anything) as prepaid taxes. Get the advice of your tax accountant first, however.

Good luck.

It is quite possible I will be sueing old bank , I have a full of bank errors ,seriously it is a box (approx 500 pages) I wouldn't trust them with a piggy bank.so thats not an option..............Ian

I'm sure they would if it was a cheque for £12,000. Remember if it's payed into a personal account a cashier will be considering money laundering.

Don't be stupid. Banks don't check details on cheques for small amounts, but for £12,000 they will certainly look at the cheque. If they have any doubts about whether the alteration is correct they could always contact their customer to confirm it before paying the cheque.

My chequebook states that any alteration should be signed. Initials are not sufficient. Whilst it may not normally pose a problem, on a £12,000 cheque someone will notice.

For the bank's purpose, a signature is whatever appears on the bank mandate.

In message , PropertyBargain writes

Then get the liquidator of the company to sue the bank for conversion and get the money back from the Bank.

The company did not go bust,so there is no liquidator I just closed it ( I got that I hated employing people) to the person who said get the law firm to change payee name ,they refused citing "Law Society Rules"..............Ian

In message , Ianhre writes

A wound up company should have had a liquidator whether it went bust or not. You cant just 'close' a company but you CAN put it into voluntary liquidation. The existence of a 'liquidator' does not imply anything went 'bust'.

From what you say, the company appears to still exist.