She complained the bank had breached the mandate and asked for the payment to be reversed. The bank acknowledged its error but declined to reverse the payment, saying the payment was for legal fees invoiced to her mother and that it did not believe her mother had been financially disadvantaged by the transaction. It agreed that the error had caused Juniper stress and inconvenience and offered her $750. However, Juniper did not accept the bank's offer. She said the bank needed to reverse the transaction to put right its wrongdoing. She was unhappy about aspects of the legal fees and said the payment had taken away her right to dispute them.

Our investigation

We examined the lawyer’s invoice, and there was nothing to suggest the payment was other than legitimate, or that the invoice caused Juniper’s mother any financial loss. It was not our role or the bank’s to question the validity of the invoice. We told Juniper she should take up her dispute about the invoice with the lawyer or the New Zealand Law Society. 

Outcome

We did not uphold Juniper’s complaint, and Juniper still refused to accept the bank’s offer of $750.