I have a joint bank account with my sister that requires both signatures to withdraw money. She recently opened a personal account at the same bank. She transferred all the money into her personal account. Is there anything I can do to get my share of the money back? Can I take legal action against her?
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4How did she do it if it takes 2 signatures?– TomTomCommented Jul 27, 2018 at 6:12
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2@TomTom It could be a mistake by the bank; it might have been done through online banking. I don't have a joint account, but I seem to remember something in the Ts&Cs for my UK bank that for a dual-sign joint account both parties need to agree to the use of online banking, but once done, either party can initiate transactions (in other words: online reverts to either/or signing). I don't know if this is what happened here, but it's one possibility.– TripeHoundCommented Jul 27, 2018 at 6:40
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1It is to check. Bank mistake: Talk to bank, get your moeny back from them (and they contact your sister). Otherwise... willing to take the sister possibly to court?– TomTomCommented Jul 27, 2018 at 6:41
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2Why would you have a joint account with someone you don't trust? Can you ask for the money back? If not, you may want to count this as a costly lesson learned.– Pete B.Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 11:34
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1Legal questions should indicate which country, state, etc.– Chris W. ReaCommented Jul 27, 2018 at 21:21
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2 Answers
You're going to need to talk to your bank, or at least check the terms and conditions of the account. There are then a number of possibilities:
your sister shouldn't have been allowed to do this transfer. Then the bank is in the wrong, and one would hope they would reverse the transfer without any fuss, though in practice maybe you'd have to make a fuss
or, the account wasn't as restrictive as you thought, in which case your sister was perfectly entitled to transfer her money (in a joint account the money is both people's money) from one account to another
if this is the case and the bank mis-sold the account to you, representing it as restrictive in the way you wanted when in fact it isn't, you may have the possibility of obtaining redress from the bank for this mis-selling. But this seems like a long shot.
In any event, this is all rapidly approaching the point where you might want to consider a lawyer. I'm not one of those.
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2There is another possibility, which is that someone forged the OPs signature. Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 19:13
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it is not the bank's fault if the mandate was that either of them can sign and withdraw money. But if it was stated that both were to sign before money can be withdrawn that is where the bank can be held accountable.
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This doesn't seem to add anything of value to the better answer already provided by AakashM. Commented Jul 30, 2018 at 13:55