I recently stopped going to college and I was told that the billing people would work out the details of my balance in a few weeks. Time passes and I eventually get a refund check in the mail for $1000; I looked at my remaining university balance at the time and it said zero, so I assumed I was in the clear. Woohoo! I spent it all paying off bills.
Then a week later, they suddenly email me and say that due to a Financial Aid miscalculation, I actually owe them $1500. But the money’s already gone Am I legally obliged to return the money they already gave me due to their mistake? If so, are there legal procedures that would allow me to pay it back over time, or is that something I just have to negotiate with the uni directly?
Do I have any protection against them calling back another month later and saying “Oops, it was actually $2500 that you owe” – am I at their mercy forever?
I think there was a thread about Microsoft overpaying its employees recently, but I couldn’t find it in a search… so I’m sorry if this is a semi-repost.
Well, I’d suppose that they’d have to explain to you how they arrived at the $2500 figure, which you could then dispute.
If you have records, and you are confident that you have paid whatever you need to pay, then No, you are not at their mercy forever. As long as you can document your case, I don’t see any problem.
Negotiating should be your first option, not your last. Call them up, and ask how they arrived at this $1500 figure. If it doesn’t make sense to you, tell them so. If it does make sense, then explain that you don’t have the money any more, and that they screwed up big time. I’m confident that as long as you tell them that you’re willing to pay back over time, they’ll accept any reasonable terms you ask for.
Heh. I work in financial aid. Ask them if they can offer an institutional grant to cover all or some of your balance because you don’t have the money to cover this unexpected expense, the financial aid office was in error, and you didn’t anticipate this was going to happen. I have no idea if your uni offers those, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
I can tell you that when my university makes a mistake like that, we offer what is called an institutional grant to cover as least a portion of the tuition. I haven’t encountered your specific situation, but a few have been similar and without exception the financial aid department has stepped up. Here’s a link that will give you a brief description of these grants: http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/InstitutionalGrant.jsp
IANACalifornianL, but if you received the money in good faith and altered your position irrevocably on foot of it then you may have an argument that the University cannot claim it back from you.
Paying outstanding bills, however, is not altering your position irrevocably; you would have had to pay those bills whether or not the University owed you any money. Now, if you had incurred new obligations in the belief that you had $1,000 to play with, or had used the money to buy goods or services which you cannot now return . . .
Am I legally obliged to return the money they already gave me due to their mistake? If so, are there legal procedures that would allow me to pay it back over time, or is that something I just have to negotiate with the uni directly?