I have recently purchased a business and some of the existing customers have paid accounts to the old business in error. The previous owner is wanting to charge them an admin fee to refund the payment. Is this legal? They have held on to some of the payments for quite a time before refunding in a few cases.
VIC Administration fee - is it legal
- Thread starter RebeccaH
- Start date
Hi RebeccaH
It depends on what the admin fee is for. If the admin fee is a penalty, it would not be allowed. Recently, the High Court case of Andrews v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (2012) 247 CLR 205 has provide some guidelines as to whether the sum to be paid will be considered a penalty or not. You can find the case here: Andrews v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd [2012] HCA 30 (6 September 2012)
If you require any further assistance on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me via the link below or at [email protected] to arrange for an appointment to discuss your options.
Matthew Karakoulakis, Melbourne Lawyer: Book Online
It depends on what the admin fee is for. If the admin fee is a penalty, it would not be allowed. Recently, the High Court case of Andrews v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (2012) 247 CLR 205 has provide some guidelines as to whether the sum to be paid will be considered a penalty or not. You can find the case here: Andrews v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd [2012] HCA 30 (6 September 2012)
If you require any further assistance on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me via the link below or at [email protected] to arrange for an appointment to discuss your options.
Matthew Karakoulakis, Melbourne Lawyer: Book Online
Thank you Matthew, I appreciate your reply. It has helped me to compose the correct response to her.
