After a German property sale more money appears in your account than expected. Perhaps someone paid twice, perhaps an item is missing from your own invoice. Shortly afterwards a message requests repayment to another account. To finalise the transaction you first need the correct allocation of the money; neither the surplus nor the message explain themselves.
Reconcile the actual receipt with the settlement status
Our editorial recommendation: compare the booked receipt, sender details, payment reference and the confirmed payment schedule. Keep the original receipts separate from your own invoice. An expected net amount may be constructed differently from the amount actually designated for this account.
Initially label the difference as unresolved. Do not immediately treat it as a gift or additional purchase price. If an escrow or other professionally managed payment route is involved, the difference will be clarified with the responsible party; the contribution does not change any existing settlement instruction.
A possible claim for repayment needs the right basis
§ 812 BGB governs a claim for restitution when something has been acquired without legal ground, and other cases described there. [BGB-812] Whether an overpayment exists in the specific case, who is entitled and what defences may apply is not decided in this article.
A private message with a matching sum does not prove that the sender is the correct entitled recipient. The legal and factual allocation of the amount will be clarified before any concrete repayment.
An invented amount appearing twice
A seller expects the final payment. Two equal receipts with similar payment references appear in her account. An alleged helper asks for an amount to be sent quickly back to a new account.
She collects the booking receipts and clarifies with already known responsible contacts which payments actually belong to this transaction. The bank is involved for questions about the payment route. The article does not assume any particular fraud mechanism or any guaranteed possibility of recovery.
Do not offset against unrelated open issues
There may be parallel disputes about items left behind or a delayed handover. An unclear excess amount will not be retained as your own compensation without examination. Whether claims exist and may be offset is a separate legal question.
For your own liquidity planning the unresolved amount remains visibly outside the already determined available proceeds. This is an editorial precaution for organisation, not an account freeze and not a legal order over the money.
Document a confirmed correction completely
If a repayment or other corrective route is professionally clarified, record reason, amount, recipient and the actual execution together. Keep the completion of the purchase price and any other payment reason recorded separately. This closes the accounting difference without creating a new unclear payment chain.