Lost cheque - who is liable?

Dave O'Hara secured a place in history by writing:

I'd get her to ask her branch to trace it - they will have the computer entries which may allow them to do so pretty quickly, failing that they will be able to get a copy of the cheque and credit that were submitted to clearing.

If they don't want to play ball, ask your branch to do it - they will check the crossing on the cheque and contact their branch etc etc

Not sure what you mean by liable - certainly I don't see that you are responsible for issuing a duplicate, since the original has been debited, they need to sort it out.

Do you know if she paid it in on a pre-printed credit? It's highly unlikely that it would have got misposted if she did, my money would be on them paying it into the wrong account and not realising....

If the bank couldn't read the slip they'd credit their suspense account and pass it through the system.

As always with these things, nothing like a bit of suspense ...

(sorry - couldn't resist)

Robin

If the suspense kills us, would it be manslaughter or murder?

Well clearly the club isn't liable - (I assume the cheque was made payable to the named winner). The winner was presented with the cheque and it has hit the club's bank account. Not your problem, although you might want to offer as much reasonable help as possible - like photocopies of the paid cheque and the appropriate page from your bank statement, for the club member to use in his/her discussions with their bank.

Rgds

It's not easy to get paid cheques out of banks and I wouldn't let anyone have a copy of my bank statement.

Just giving full details of the transaction as it appeared on the bank statement and the details written on the cheque per cheque stub is enough.

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Hi there, this is what i've discussed with the club's bank. I'll be providing the winner with a photocopy of the cheque. They're gonna send me this as soon as they can. They said that a complete 'cheque trace' would take approximately 2 months! I'm presuming that when the winner's bank see the cheque photocopy they'll credit his correct account? Will he need any more information than this? The details of our account will be on the cheque, shouldn't that be enough without sending them copies of bank statements?

Cheers

In message , Dave O'Hara writes

That should be enough, but make sure you get a photocopy of BOTH SIDES of the cheque, 'cos the back should have the details of the account it actually went to. No statements will be required. The winner should just go to his bank (the one where the envelope was posted) show them the copy of the paid cheque from your bank, point to his name as the payee and say to them "My wife paid this cheque into my account. Why have you not credited this cheque to my account? If you dot do so right away, I shall sue for Conversion."

That should do the trick.

On second thoughts, that Would've done the trick in the old days 'cos every bank clerk was trained to do anything to avoid a suit for 'conversion', but as banks dot rain staff anymore replace 'conversion' with 'theft you thieving bastards'.

Yes, I merely suggested a copy of the bank statement as absolute proof for any Tracy or Wayne at the winner's bank, involved in sorting this out. More importantly the details of the bank branch receiving the credit should be stamped on the cheque, although probably not the account into which it was paid. They'll have to trace this from their internal records for that day.

I find it somewhat ironic that when we're constantly hearing of the difficulties in opening bank accounts, due to all the (IMO) over the top money laundering regulations courtesy of Brussels, that banks can be quite so cavalier in sending money to accounts where it doesn't belong.

Rgds,

That seems a little excessive to me - most traces, assuming they are for cheques relatively recently presented, take no more than five working days.

Assuming date & location of presentation, issuing bank, & payee bank acct details are known it really is not that difficult!

Talk to someone sensible at your bank. Of course, if it is not a clearing bank it could take two months, simply because they cannot do the trace themselves and the clearing bank they pay to do it for them would not regard such a request as a top priority case!

When I'm complaining about bank staff talking rubbish their supervisors always respond by saying it's "a training issue" - never that they are incompetent idiots!

Easier said than done.

In message , Peter Saxton writes

Ah Ha! That sounds like they've been on a course in order to learn that!

In message , Peter Saxton writes

You never know who may be in the queue though!

Peter Saxton secured a place in history by writing:

I generally find their supervisors don't have a clue either. Knowledge of banking law seems to be a pre-requisite for the career several rungs furher up the ladder...

What does "suing for conversion" mean and why were banks so afraid of it?

Steve

In message , Steve writes

'Conversion' means 'to deprive the true owner of what is really theirs'.

A bank that was successfully sued for conversion normally had to pay out a wodge in damages and got a reputation for shoddy work.

That explains why it's an "old days" phenomenon. In modern times, all banks have repuations for shoddy work already, so they have nothing to fear on that front, and the occasional damages payout is chicken feed to them.

In message , Ronald Raygun writes

Quite right. Its cheaper to lose a few law suits than train staff to avoid them.