Money paid by mistake to a solicitor

[chiiky]

I am having a problem with a solicitor. They are holding some money that was paid to them by mistake by one of my friends. they agreed verbally and in writing to return it but now they are changing their mind and refusing to pay it back.

This in a bankruptcy case. They made me bankrupt and to go for annulment order, I have to pay all their cost.

 

Their initial cost was £7,xxx (where 2k is the petitionning debt)

After I made comments on their cost, they offer a settlement figure of £6xxx which I paid in full. They confirmed in their letter to OR and for the court that this satisfy entirely their cost.

On top of the £6xxx we found out that one of my friend has paid £1xxx by mistake into their account with no reference attached to it. They agreed that the money will be returned to him. now they said because the money was paid, they are not going to return it and they will no more consider the settlement figure we agreed on of £6xxx but the are reversing to their original bill of £7xxx.

 

I consider that it is not right for them to do that as they know about this money before writing their report to the court and before they agreed for the bankruptcy order to be annulled and they agreed to return the money before we went to court.

I have the full detail story.

 

Please, I come for advice, how do I make them return the money to the owner?

Moorhead.doc

Edited September 3, 2009 by 42man

[MARTIN3030]

Site team looking into this.

[42man]

I can only presume this is with 1st Credit and Connaught.....was the payment of their costs made by the court or did you sign a consent order ? Can you give us some more background leading up to this ? Have the Official Receiver requested their costs also ? If you have in writing what was agreed then you could possibly send them a letter before action, give them 7 days to repay the money or issue court papers....you paid what was agreed, then they changed their mind against the settlement.....please don't let them bully you...

[42man]

On what basis was the annullment order ?, I can only guess that they agreed to an annullment because you didn't want to be made bankrupt as oppossed to fighting it on an abuse of process possibly or because the original creditors no longer had the paperwork........

 

Have a look at these threads here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/dca-legal-successes/104409-bankruptcy-order-twice.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/dca-legal-successes/154693-1st-credit-connaught-bankruptcy-2.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/146718-urgent-1st-credit-bankruptcy.html

[42man]

It is also likely that there are penalty charges on the accounts too.

[42man]

Have you considered sending SAR's off to the original creditors ? Any chance the debts were statute barred ?

[42man]

If an annullment has been granted have you had notice of the re-hearing of the bankruptcy petition as yet ? as once it gets annulled they will have to hear the petition again....I would send off CCA requests to the original creditors and SAR's too....also how was service of the statutory demand effected ? how was service effected of the petition ?

[42man]

You will find the SAR request here - you need to enclose £10 for each request and send to the Data Compliance Manager at their head office (this is the original creditor)..... - http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/576-subject-access-request-debt-a-dca

 

Did you ever receive a notice of assignment either from the original creditor or the debt collection agency....

 

Can you tell me please what is in the Particulars box on the petition / statutory demand ? (don't be specific with the numbers though)....

[42man]

I will also move this to the Legal Issues forum too...