illegal withdrawl?

[brunette]

If a payment has been made into a joint bank account in error, by a bank, and my ex transfers it to their account by online banking, is this illegal?

[buildersmate]

Probably not - that's the point of a joint account. The money in it is jointly owned, and normally both parties have rights to withdraw funds.
I won't enquire how it is that you and your ex still operate a joint account.

[brunette]

Its a childs account, it wasnt closed, the money was the childs, and put into the account by mistake, unfortunalely, a dishonset person has taken it.

[jackthehat]

You need to contact the bank who made the 'error' payment and tell them what has happened. Otherwise they are likely to contact the legitimate account holders for reimbursement.

[buildersmate]

Ah well, that might be different then - talk to the bank that operates the child account.
The account administrators (you and your ex) are authorised to operate the account in trust for the child, in the interests of the child. That hasn't happened.

[factor-fiction]

I disagree with eddies1- even if it's a bank error the bank is entitled to the money.and can put the onus on the person who benefited from the money (by, in effect, theft) to return it.
But of course it's more complicated with ajoint account- maybe both account holders are equally liable

[Skyline D]

Who made the error? If the bank were instructed to credit the money somewhere else and credited it in error to the wrong account then that IS the bank's fault and they are liable to repay it to where it should have gone.

How the bank then obtain repayment of the money that shouldn't have gone there is another question. I presume they will take action against the account holder of the receiving account. Unfortunately, as that's a joint account, I would imagine the two holders are jointly liable regardless of which one actually took the money. The bank will go after the easier target inevitably. That may therefore make it circuitous if that is you. They'll credit you for their error abut then chase you for the other money and you'll be no better off.

[brunette]

The bank made the error, they were told not to pay the money into that account,but they did in error, they are now investigating the matter.

[northernmonkey]

If I remember correctly, a few years back, my Uncle's bank accidently put about £2,000 into his account, and without his permission they could not do anything.

[factor-fiction]

Yes, sorry EDDIE51, i do agree with you. What I was trying to say was that the person who had received the money in error can't just keep it/spend it and say it was the bank's error so the bank must suffer the loss. I agree that based on what brunette has said it's up to the bank, not brunette, to chase it up if the bank accepts that they paid it to the wrong account.
I'm not sure why brunette still has a joint account with an untrustworth ex- it's bound to lead to problems at some stage

[brunette]

The bank said it needed both signatures to close the joint account, my ex couldn't be bothered, so it was left open with a very small amount in, until the money went in that was stolen.