Ex-employer overpayment

[Gowland77]

Hi all

 

My ex employer overpaid me a months wage at the end of last year, thinking it was bonuses/holidays I was entitled to at the time, i spent the money. They contacted me a week later to confirm that it wasn't and that I had too pay the £1000 back. We reached an agreement to pay back the cash in 3 installments and i requested they send me over the Direct Debit details.

 

They eventually sent me the details, 9 days after the first payment was due to be paid, and due to my working schedule I informed them that i would have to wait till towards the end of the month to put the money in since I didn't have access to online banking, which they were satisfied with.

 

However when I went to get the DD details to pay the money in, I noticed that the name of the company they requested me to pay too had been slightly altered, after looking at companies house the company I had worked for had gone into administration.

 

Now here's the thing, I didn't pay them any money, since as far as I'm aware (I appreciate I may be totally wrong) that when a company goes into administration, they are effectively writing off their losses or that the administration would follow up on any debts/credits, and whilst I have no issue with paying back money that wasn't due to me I also don't understand why I should be paying a new company money when I might still get chased up off the administration team.

 

I received a letter off a solicitor today, informing me that if I did not get in touch within a few days (which had already passed by the time I got the letter) that they would be starting legal proceedings and I would incur all the costs, interest etc and the letter even stated that he was representing my ex employer with their new company name(not the company I had a contract with).

 

Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

Paul

[mariefab]

Did you pay the administrator instead?

[Gowland77]

No, I haven't heard from them yet, nor have I been informed of any information relating to this by my ex employer.

[steampowered]

I think you need to write back to them explaining that your employer was the old entity, not the entity mentioned in their letter ... and if they would like you to make payment to a different company, would they please provide evidence of the new company's entitlement to that money, bearing in mind that the previous company is in administration and you do not wish to be involved with any possible attempt to defraud creditors of the previous company.

 

The important thing is to keep a paper trail. Keep a copy of the letter.

[Gowland77]

That sounds like great advice steampowered, thanks.

 

One question, you said about sending a letter and keeping a copy, is correspondence via email acceptable for a paper trail?

[steampowered]

Yes, email is acceptable (provided you don't delete it by accident. More common than you would think ....)

[Gowland77]

Sent the email this morning, have had no response yet, so now it's just waiting too see what they reply.