English unjust enrichment law

Okay, imagine you have a pack of cookies and you're eating them all by yourself. But then, your friend comes over and asks if they can have one. You say yes and share a cookie with them. Later, you realize that your friend ate two cookies instead of just one. In this situation, your friend has been unjustly enriched- they got more cookies than they were supposed to.

Now, let's apply this to English law. Unjust enrichment law is about what happens when someone gets extra benefits (like extra cookies) without a good reason for it. In legal terms, this is called a "windfall."

For example, imagine your neighbor accidentally pays your electricity bill for the month. You didn't ask them to do it, and you didn't do anything to deserve it, but now your electricity bill is paid. This is a windfall, and your neighbor has been unjustly enriched. In this situation, English unjust enrichment law would say that you need to pay your neighbor back for what they spent on your bill.

The law recognizes that sometimes windfalls happen by mistake, but it also wants to make sure that people don't keep benefits they didn't earn. So, if someone gets a windfall that they shouldn't have, the law will say that they need to give it back.