national irish bank draft out of date

Hi new to this.I hope someone can answer my question.My mother had a draft on demand draft made out to another name from the national irish bank and never used it .so it is out of date now she went back to the bank to cancel it to be told it could not be canceled and it would have to be given to the person it was made out to.So my question is where is the money ?it is no longer in her account is it in the out of date draft? and how to retrieve it.It is no longer needed for the person it was made out to.Thanks for any replies.

National Irish bank has the money, they took it out of your mothers account when they wrote the draft.

I suggest she go bank to NIB and explain that she cannot pay the draft to the person it was made out to as

1 She no longer owes them the money, and
2 The draft is out of date

She should then demand that the draft be cancelled and the money returned to her account. If the person she is dealing with will not, or does not know how, to do this she should ask to speak to someone in authority.

If this is not done she should not leave the bank without making clear that she will be making a formal complaint. Ask for the name of everyone at the bank she is dealing with.

All this is based on your mother having the actual draft in her possession. If that has been lost,it is a different story.

I don't believe you can legally cancel a bank draft. It is not a cheque under the legal defintion in the Bills of Exchange Act. Normally, if a draft was lost or missing, instead of placing a stop on it like you would with a cheque, the bank would issue a replacement but only if you signed an indemnity saying that you'd accept laibility if the original turned up.

If the draft is not crossed AC payee only, then she could endorse it over to herself and lodge it to her bank account. In the circumstances, the bank may decide to ignore the date issue (especially as legally, a cheque can never go out of date, 6 months is banking practice but is not prescribed in any law)