Does anyone know what liability financial corporations have when posting cheques to you?

Question

If a cheque is never received, does the financial institution that allegedly posted it have any sort of responsibility/duty of care to ensure that it is safeguarded? If posting a cheque is not a secure method then why would they do this? If anyone can point me in the direction of any sort of legal stuff on this would be most appreciated - thanks!

Thanks - the cheque has been cashed (not by me!) is high value (10K) and the police are not interested in the least as they don't believe a crime has been committed because the institution that posted it are not filing the complaint - mad isn't it? - am not sure where to turn next.....

Answer 1

i'm an American. We inherited most of our laws in this area from Britian, since drafts on banks and trade houses pre-date the founding over here.

the safeguard is on the cashing end, not the posting (mailing) of the cheque. the bank or firm that takes a checue in guarantees to the maker of the cheque that they did cash it for the correct person.

so what happens when a cheque is lost in the post, or stolen out of the post, is that the person who was to receive it (you) complains to the sending party that it never arrived and the sending party then looks to see if it was cashed, etc.

Eventually, they conclude it is lost, cancel it (which may require a bit of signed paper from you), and write a replacement cheque.

For high value transactions, the usual means of transmission is via wire transfer directly from bank to bank. This isn't done as a routine measure because the bank charges can easily be 15 pounds or more.

Btw, if the 'lost' cheque has been cashed, but it wasn't cashed by the correct person (you), you'll likely be required to fill out a police report (called an affidavit of forgery over here) which the cheque's writer then sends in to his bank and results in the cheque being sent back to the firm that cashed it for them to try and recover their money from the crook.

As you'll guess, this is time consuming. You'll also not get a replacement cheque issued until after you've filled out and returned the affidavit (at least here in the US you won't).

GL

Answer 2

if they have a record of the check being posted, it is a matter between you and the postal service
Ask the company to cancel old cheque and cut a new one. this will cost you the cost of canceling the old cheque, this can be as much as 20 pounds
good luck

Answer 3

it all depends on there insurance to whether or not it is a safety issue.

ring them up and enquire. dont think for one moment your hasseling them. i work for a company that deals a lot with sending out cheques to customers. and you'll be suprised the amount of times the cheque hasnt actually been processed, recorded and posted out to the customer

Answer 4

They are not themselves liable, but the bank that converts the cheque to the wrong person will be.