In most countries you do not get to keep accidentally transferred funds and attempting to do so can constitute theft. If you receive money you know you shouldn't have, call the bank, don't spend it.
If $10M showed up in my account unexpectedly I'd be calling both the bank and the police. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think you can play finders keepers on $10M, especially buying a house with it.
9 months is well within the regular window too. Would be different if it showed up 10 years later.
Depends on how much resources you have to fight for the money accidentally sent to you. It's more complex than this case but here's a good story here on how Citigroup accidently wired $900M to a group of hedge funds and eventually lost in court trying to get it back: https://archive.ph/PJH1m
Their first reaction was mostly “well this is weird, I guess Revlon decided to pay off the loan rather than fight about it.” Their second reaction, after Citi sent them frantic notices saying it was a mistake, was to send each other Bloomberg chat messages making fun of Citi. Their third reaction, after some more serious reflection, was to say “we are keeping the money, see you in court.” All of these reactions were pretty reasonable and worked out well for them.
Surely there should be a statute of limitations on that. The idea that someone could demand money from me for a mistake they made seven months ago sounds ridiculous, no matter how big the mistake.
The statute of limitations appears to be 6 years [1]. I wonder if anyone has been unjustly enriched and then forced to pay back at the 5 year mark? Would be an interesting case.
there should be a statute of limitations on that. The idea that someone could demand money from me for a mistake they made seven months ago sounds ridiculous
It's six years in the UK.
This is why you should retain six years of bank statements...... and a 'bank error in your favour'? You had better wait six years before you spend the dosh.
[Though to be pedantic, in law you still owe the money, just that after six years without any attempt to reclaim it, the debt becomes legally unenforceable]
When the mistake in question is a sum of money orders of magnitude bigger than what you make in a year, demanding it back in 7 months sounds like the only reasonable thing to do. Especially if it's very clear that you knew it was a mistake, made no honest effort to notify them, and proceeded to spend all of it as fast as you could.
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In most countries you do not get to keep accidentally transferred funds and attempting to do so can constitute theft. If you receive money you know you shouldn't have, call the bank, don't spend it.
If $10M showed up in my account unexpectedly I'd be calling both the bank and the police. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think you can play finders keepers on $10M, especially buying a house with it.
9 months is well within the regular window too. Would be different if it showed up 10 years later.
Depends on how much resources you have to fight for the money accidentally sent to you. It's more complex than this case but here's a good story here on how Citigroup accidently wired $900M to a group of hedge funds and eventually lost in court trying to get it back: https://archive.ph/PJH1m
Their first reaction was mostly “well this is weird, I guess Revlon decided to pay off the loan rather than fight about it.” Their second reaction, after Citi sent them frantic notices saying it was a mistake, was to send each other Bloomberg chat messages making fun of Citi. Their third reaction, after some more serious reflection, was to say “we are keeping the money, see you in court.” All of these reactions were pretty reasonable and worked out well for them.
They seem to have had an actual claim to the money in this case, though?
It's precisely because of that legitimate claim that they prevailed in court. So yeah, OPs example is bad.
that's not what a true Gigachad would say
Surely there should be a statute of limitations on that. The idea that someone could demand money from me for a mistake they made seven months ago sounds ridiculous, no matter how big the mistake.
The statute of limitations appears to be 6 years [1]. I wonder if anyone has been unjustly enriched and then forced to pay back at the 5 year mark? Would be an interesting case.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09615768.2022.2...
Full-text not accessible but this seems to be discussing Singapore law, not Australia?
It's six years in the UK.
This is why you should retain six years of bank statements...... and a 'bank error in your favour'? You had better wait six years before you spend the dosh.
[Though to be pedantic, in law you still owe the money, just that after six years without any attempt to reclaim it, the debt becomes legally unenforceable]
When the mistake in question is a sum of money orders of magnitude bigger than what you make in a year, demanding it back in 7 months sounds like the only reasonable thing to do. Especially if it's very clear that you knew it was a mistake, made no honest effort to notify them, and proceeded to spend all of it as fast as you could.
Interesting, thanks.