Payments Not Recieved

[cassa333]

Hi,

If you have a standing order for a regular amount to go out of your account to pay for something, such as rent, and it doesn't reach the receiving bank account, who is responsible to pay?

What I mean is if the rent payment doesn't go to the right account but still goes out what happens? Can the LL still say that the rent has not been paid and ask for it to be paid?

From the tenants point of view they have paid it but from the LL it hasn't!!

Thanks

[bednobs]

why didn't it go to the LLs account? If it hasn't the LL is perfectly entitled to ask for it

[cassa333]

Thanks Bednobs,

I don't know why it didn't but the tenant has said the payments have gone out of her account but they haven't arrived in the LL account.

[Peter Pedant]

Tenant - you tell them you have no power at all to trace their payments - and that they have to.

first time off is the difficult one - you MAY have given them the wrong number remember the banks ONLY work on numbers and not your name. Otherwise I would say it is impossible for a payment to be wrongly directed.

I have had this and went to court over it- the tenant was lying
I imagine your seven month defaulter has said she has always paid.

[Buenchico]

The bank that misdirected the payment was acting as the agent of the tenant, not of the landlord, so the bank's error has got absolutely nothing to do with the landlord and he/she still has the right to demand payment. It's up to the tenant to get things sorted out with his bank.

As an analogy, if you sell something to someone online and then send it by post (with Royal Mail or your chosen courier service then losing the item) the buyer has the right to demand his/her money back from you. The fact that you posted the item in good faith is irrelevant; you had a duty to provide the goods and you didn't, so you have to pay up.

Exactly the same applies when it's a bank (rather than a courier) that messes things up.

[Peter Pedant]

you need to check that the numbers you gave her were the right ones

then she must do the tracing - you cant

[Peter Pedant]

BC good answer
but we dont know that the bank has misdirected the payment

all we know is - the tenant has said she paid

[Canary42]

Of course it's the tenant's responsibility. Otherwise the tenant could deliberately misdirect the payment (to a friend say) and then claim to the LL that the payment had been made.

[cassa333]

The reason I am reticent to believe her is that the payments have been by standing order for three years from her same account to my same account. Nothing changed but the payments suddenly stopped.

I know it is my fault for not checking earlier and tbh I only did because I had to pay for the gas certificate.

I have said that although I will see if there is anything my bank can do, she needs to check with her bank Monday.

Even if I believe her that the money has gone astray it doesn't mean I can afford to loose it and that it will still need to be paid somehow.

[Peter Pedant]

// I have said that although I will see if there is anything my bank can do, //

No your bank cant do anything, and you shouldnt imply it is your responsibility- it isnt - a failed payment gets sent back to the originator

The only timme I have had standing orders mysteriously stop
is when the tenant has given instructions to the bank to stop and lied about it

[cassa333]

I tell you this gets curiouser and curiouser.

Three days after I realised something had happened and until then I hadn't asker her about it, I had a mysterious man knock on my door asking if the tenant had paid rent!!

Secret squirrel stuff for a job or something!!

[Peter Pedant]

// Question Author.
I tell you this gets curiouser and curiouser. , I had a mysterious man knock on my door asking if the tenant had paid rent!! //

she is planning to do a runner
has to have somewhere to go
has named you as a a previous landlord
but NOT as a referee

I would have said: " no she hasnt actually o ! o! hush ma big mouth ( in an innocent manner - memo practise in mirror ) I shouldnta said that because of day-ter-pro-tection !
Heavens ! what have ah said and who are you sir ? "

your problems may soon be over

give her the boot - and say 'if you poss off now I wont pursue for the arrears - butcha have to go ! soon "

I can tell you if someone else knows she has not been paying rent
then she is lying to you about the rent being wrongly routed.
In fact she said not to pay - as I predicted above because I have had an ickle liar as a tenant so I know about this

get her out

write off the debt

and get someone who pays in ....

result... paradise ( or at least a balanced book )

Do NOT give a reference or if you do make sure it says somewhere
1) the rent account is currently in arrears
2) I would not give her another tenancy

if you give a good ref to get her out then you stand to pay the next landlord's losses as a result of statements you have made