Resolved Question

Do I have to repay an overpayment on an invoice from an agency?

I have a Ltd company and work for IT agency. I submitted an invoice every week, however 8 weeks ago they overpaid one week by sending me x2 payments instead of 1. They never brought it to my attention until the new year and I've now left the contract and they asking me for £400+ pounds. Do I have to legally pay it back?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

If it was a simple accounting error on their part, and you are not legally entitled to the payment, the money remains very much theirs I am afraid. If you repay it, you will be no worse off than if you had never received it. And you should be responsible for your own accounting here, the overpayment should have been evident at once I suggest. Say a bank credited your account with £400 in error, then you have no right to draw on those funds and the bank have a total legal claim for repayment. Your experience is pretty much the same. Tough I know but you should negotiate repayment best you can.

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Other Answers (7)

• Legally, and morally, yes you are obligated to return the money.
  
  Even though they may not have noticed the error in the payment, you did and you knowingly accepted the money without alerting them.
  
  It is your obligation, as the owner/CFO/upper management of the company to alert your vendors/partners in errors in contract/overpayments/underpayments.

  Source(s):

• Not only legally, but morally. You clearly received money that you were not entitled to. You probably knew it at the time, but chose not to report it. They can take you do court to prove that they overpaid you. Also, they will never give you a good recommendation to another firm who might be interested in your services in the future. Why don't you just do the right thing and return the funds.
• Yes, you do. You have benefited from a mistake and your integrity (not to mention your reputation and honesty) are at stake. However, if you have received interest on the overpayment, that you can keep. Anything else is theft.
• You are not legally entitled to be paid for service that you did not render. Being inadvertently paid twice for the same service does not give you a legal right to keep the money. (I'm thinking you already know that...)
• Yes, even though it was an accounting error on there part to pay 2 times on the same invoice
  it is fraud on your part to keep this overpayment.
• Yes - it was a mistake and if they had underpaid you then I presume you would want them to stump up.
• Yes, it isnt yours to keep is it?