A cheque to you bounced? The clock is already running

Someone paid you with a cheque, you deposited it, and the bank sent it back unpaid. The natural thing is to call and wait — they apologise, they promise, weeks slip by. What almost nobody knows is that the law has already started a clock, and waiting politely can quietly weaken a strong case.

The timeline that's already running

From the day the bank returns the cheque with its memo, the important deadlines begin:

• 30 days to send the drawer a formal demand notice.
• The drawer then gets 15 days to pay.
• Only after that 15-day window can a complaint be filed — and that has its own time limit too.

Miss the notice window and the straightforward route can close, leaving you the slower civil path instead. So the notice isn't a formality to get to eventually; it's the thing to get right first.

What to keep, right now

The bounced cheque itself, the bank's return memo (it gives the reason and the date), and any record of what the payment was for. That paperwork is what makes the case simple later.

The one step that has to happen first

Before anything else, a proper demand notice has to reach the drawer inside the 30 days — with the right details and the deadline set correctly. Miss Lucy Lite explains all of this for free, but she doesn't draft documents. Miss Lucy Pro can draft that demand notice for you, correctly and in time, which is the part that actually protects your position.

Not sure if your case fits, or how long you've got left on the clock? Tell Miss Lucy Lite what happened and she'll walk you through where you stand.