GLAD vs ABBEY-DEFENCE FILED-HELP PLEASE I'M CONFUSED

[glad]

Today received the defence from Abbey.It reads

1.Save as is specifically admitted in this defence,the defendant denies each and every allegation set out in the Particulars of Claim

2.it is admitted that the claimant has a bank account with the defendant,account number xxxxxx

3.At all times the Account has been subject to the applicable terms and conditions which form part of the contract between the Claimant and the defendant and to which the Claimant agreed when the claimant opened the account.The defendant will refer at trial to the full conditions but for purposes of this defence will refer to the following extracts;

(1)"You can apply for an overdraft on your account.If we give you an overdraft we will tell you your limit and the interest rate applicable"

(2)"An unauthorised overdraft occurs if without our agreement you overdraw your account or exceed the limit of an overdraft which we have agreed"

(3) If you have an authorised overdraft,you will be charged fees as set out in our Tariff of charges or specified to you and these may include fees for transactions we are unable to process due to lack of availabe funds in your account"

4.Throughout the period that s/he has had the account,the Claimant received a number of copies of the Conditions and of the said Tariff of charges as they were amended and updated(Though there has been no material amendment to the Conditions extracted in the paragraphs 3(1),(2),(3) above.

5.Any overdraft facility on the account was (and is) subject to conditions

6.The claimant has overedrawn or exceeded authorised overdraft limits on the Account on a number of separate occaisions,full details of which will be provided on disclosure.Therefore by virtue of the Conditions referred to in paragraph3 above such overdrawing was unauthorised and in breach of contract and the Claimant became liable to pay fess to the defendant in accordance with its tariff of charges applicable at the relevant time.In accordance with the conditions such fees were debited to the Account,

7.In view of the facts and matters referred to in paras 3,4,5,and 6 above the Defendant denies that the amount of £xxxx or any other amount was unlawfully debited to the Account and the Claimants claim for the repayment of that amount is therefore denied.The defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to claim interest in the sum of £xxx or at all

8.The Claimants contention that the said fees are unenforceable and/or are "penalty charges" is denied.The fees reflect and are proportionate to the defendants administrative expenses incurred due to the Claimants breach of contract and are a genuine pre-estimate of the damage suffered by the defendant.

9.Further or in the alternative,even if the said fees are not proportionate to the defendants administrative expenses incurred(which is denied),the claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found proportionate and the claimant is not entitled to claim repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the Account.

10.No admissions are made to the amounts claimed by the Claimant and the claimant is put to strict proof of the same.

It is signed Willem Basson-Paralegal-WHATEVER THAT IS

Is this a usual defence and any help as to what I do next will be greatly appreciated as i'm a bit confused by all the legal jargon.Also does it matter if I don't have a copy of the T & Cs from 1997 when I opened this as I can't get them off the archive website for some reason.
Also Abbey put £400 into my account as a GOGW which I refused and asked them to remove which has never happened.Do I declare this to the court and take it off my claim total????
Thanks
Glad

[glad]

Is there anybody out there??

[noobrider]

yes yes we're here although we do have full time jobs as well lol...

Standard defence there and more importantly still referring to a breach of contract which is the important part. No need for T's and C's at this point theres a fair bit of waiting to do first

[glad]

Many thanks for your reply. I'm starting to get worried now as things are getting serious and the legal jargon is very confusing. Do I now have to wait for the Allocation Questionnaire?

Glad

[Robdblynd]

No need to worry Glad, things are moving along the usual route.

Next step is court will send you an AQ or write and tell you the AQ has been dispensed with and tell you what to do next.

[glad]

Thanks for that.It's good to know that people are there to help.

[sf20864]

Hi Glad, it sounds like you are at the exact stage as me. I received the exact same defence yesterday. It would be interesting to know whether Abbey's defence has changed since the Lloyds case. Like you I'm starting to get a bit nervous. I'm doing this claim on behalf of my mum and when she received the defence letter she went into panick mode. I am just going wait until we receive direction from the courts. Have you got your court bundles ready? I suggest you start as it takes a bit of time getting everything together.

[JAG82]

Hi

I see you have received exactly the same defence filed as me Glad, signed by Willem Basson of the Paralegal department. I am in the process of now sending Abbey a nudge letter according to advice on here i should sent this to their solicitors but have no address for this bloke?! would i be right in thinking he's some kind of inhouse legal team? and this should be sent to Abbey?? wasn't sure if you had any more details on him???

any help greatly appreciated!!

thanks

[Berryboo05]

Hi Glad, Ive received the same as you, but have now received an order from my local court requesting to serve full particulars of the claim - when I first opened the letter I thought 'oh my god, what the?' but I called the court and they told me just to send in all evidence statements letters etc - only thing not sure about is whether I should be producing any official looking documents like the defence doc

[sf20864]

Hi there

I think Willem Basson is an inhouse legal person at Abbey. I noticed that on my acknowledgement paper from the court Abbey there was an email address of bct@abbey.com - I think you can send correspondence there in relation to your claim. If not I would send a letter to the 2 Trinton Square address and mark it for Willem's attention. Do you mind if I ask what letter you are planning to send?

Its great to be able to speak to others in the same situation!

[glad]

Hi
It's good to hear from people at exactly the same stage.
I think a paralegal is some sort of legal assistant not a solicitor(I'm not a 100% sure on that) I haven't got that email address. Did you get it with your defence paperwork.
I really don't know what the best advice is either to wait for the court paperwork or to contact Abbey itself. Perhaps someone with a bit more knowledge on the Abbey and how best to play it reads this and will let us know.
Keep in touch and let's see what happens next.
Glad

[glad]

P.S
I don't think that the defnce has changed much since the LLoyds case as I was reading Mariejaders thread and the defence Abbey had sent her reads very much like ours.

[sf20864]

Hiya Glad

I got that email address from the Notice of Acknowledgement of paper that I received from the court advising me that Abbey had acknowledged my claim. Paralegal is definately just a legal assistent and not a solicitor. I think we should definately update each other on progress/ new correspondence otherwise you panic and think Abbey have singled you out to take things further when in fact they are sending the same responses/defenses to everyone. Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will read this thread and advise us how to contact Abbey at this stage to try to negotiate settlement. I just want this to be over!!! (i'm sure you do too )

Good luck anyway

[glad]

Hiya,
yes good luck to you too- like you say you panic when you get things from the court and Abbey but at least we can compare notes and advice.Keep me posted.
Glad

[Lula]

Hi , i received the same defence today as a copy from shAbbey, now waiting for court copy and AQ

LOL

[glad]

Hi Lula
Thanks for your reply-seems we're all in it together.
Glad

[m3lavo]

Hi All

I recieved a letter of defence from Abbey today, looks like we`re all getting them. Am now a bit nervous coz things have a tendency to go "bums up" for me. :o I wish us all good luck and keep me posted