Direct debit payments for Community fees

Can anyone explain to me how direct debits work. According to our Administrator a number of people paid Community fees by direct debit just prior to the AGM. They were allowed to vote as they weren't debtors but just after the AGM the direct debits were 'stopped' & the recently made payments were refunded! Can that be right? It sounds crazy!

In Spanish banks if a payment is taken from your account, even a direct debit, you have about 20-30 days to reclaim it, ie have it paid back in to your account. Then the company/person who wants the money would have to ask for the money again.

The nerve of some people is amazing!

The retention period is the period during which the money has come out of your account but is held by the receiving bank before actually being paid into the creditor's account (in this case the community). This gives you the chance to cancel any erroneous or unauthorised payments (such as the duplicate payment of nearly 500 euros that Linea Directa just took from my account!!) and the period during which the greedy robbing banks are making money out of your money too of course. This practice caused major cash flow problems in our community, so we switched from Unicaja to Banco Popular, who do not have this retention period (but charge scandalous commissions instead!) Strictly speaking I suppose these community members would say since the funds have left their account (destined for the community account) they are fully paid up, but of course the funds were not cleared in the community account, so should they have been counted as paid? I really couldn't say. If they subsequently cancelled their payments, any vote they had made should be discounted too, but that's obviously easier said than done, especially if there was a secret ballot.

Incidentally, Linea Directa will not send out a receipt for your car insurance renewal paid by direct debit until the payment has cleared. This means you could potentailly be driving around with a renewed and paid for policy but no receipt as proof of payment, without which it is not valid, for up to 30 days. Sounds crazy? Yep.

Thanks both for your help. I'm still a little confused about where the DD payment goes when it has left the payyee's bank. Is it held 'in limbo' pending a recall or is it credited to the account for which it is intended? Also, exactly how long is the time allowed for recalling a payment? Is it a fixed time for all banks or can it vary depending on the bank?

Not sure, but I think the money is still in the payee's bank but in a suspense account (in limbo) because my bank were able to credit the duplicate payment to Linea Directa instantly. I think the payment would have showed up in LD's account as a credit but NOT CLEARED, i.e. they could not draw on it until the retention period has passed. LD themselves told me that by law the payee has 35 days to cancel the payment. I think it used to be 15 days. Not sure how Banco Popular work though because they do not seem to place any retention period on community fees received via DD. All a bit confusing...... 

Thanks, Roberto