Abbey Solictors Letter

[getitbought]

Hello people, this is my first post and this is the story so far -

Claiming £251 in charges from Abbey Business Banking and received the usual letter.

Issued a Claim date of service 22/05/06 and Abbey has acknowledged this which extends the defence file date to 19/06/06.

Meanwhile this letter received 1st June 2006 -


Dear Sir

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT CLAIM

We act for Abbey National plc in this matter. Please note that any further correspondence should be addressed to us at this office.

We are in the process of reviewing this claim and preparing the Bank's response. A defence will be filed in due course.

In the meantime, I note that you have claimed the sum of £251 in respect of charges that you say have been made on your Abbey account, but have provided no details as to how this sum has been calculated.

As you will appreciate, you will need to produce evidence to the Court of both amounts and this information should have been supplied by you when you filed your claim. We should be grateful if you would provide such details to us as soon as possible.

We should add that if you have any doubts or concerns regarding your legal position, you should consult a solicitor or Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Yours faithfully

David Cook

DLA PIPER RUDNIICK GRAY CARY UK LLP

Princes Exchange, Leeds


So, it turns out that David Piper is a trainee solicitor.

Firstly I am not claiming interest so " you will need to produce evidence to the Court of both amounts " seems to be a standard phrase.

My particulars of claim were from the Consumer Action Group Library along the lines of the charges are unlawful and disproportionate. So should I now provide "evidence" or a breakdown of charges to these solicitors? I would have thought that Abbey needs to file a defence to my claim first, and then disclosure of documents takes place seven days before the court hearing? It is worth noting that in the standard rebuff letter Abbey states " having carefully reviewed your case, I am satisfied the charges in question are valid " And of course they have the information anyway.

It looks fishy, shall I ignore the letter and wait for their defence? Many thanks.

Getitbought.

[alanfromderby]

It is Abbey's latest tactic and is discussed elsewhere on the Abbey forum. Clearly they have the information on their computer system, but it is probably better to play their little game on this occasion.

I would suggest you send a full list of charges to the solicitors by recorded delivery - and also a copy to the court.

They are just trying to sidetrack you.

[getitbought]

Thanks for the advice, sorry I missed the discussion elsewhere.

[joneshousehold]

Hi there and welcome to the site.

Have a look at my thread Another Claim. This is exactly the same letter. I only told them that Abbey already have the information. Alan's answer is however probably more co-operative. You will get an offer next, but whether it will be 50% or the whole amount I am not sure.

Good luck with the claim and do keep us posted

[getitbought]

Thanks Joneshousehold - excellent reading. Here is my reply to DLAPiperetc which I am emailing to David Cook trainee solicitor.

Dear Mr Cook

Thank you for your letter of 1st June 2006.

You are correct in that I am claiming £251 in respect of charges made on my Abbey account.

This sum has been calculated by adding up all of the charges not refunded over the last 6 years, and there is no amount claimed for interest. I refer you to Abbey's letter of 11th May signed by Jay Tyler, in which the response is "Having carefully reviewed your case, I am satisfied the charges in question are valid". Abbey is therefore in possession of all the relevant information which has also been supplied to me by way of statements of account.

If you wish to file a defence by midnight 19th June and proceed to court, then I will of course exchange documents in the usual timely manner.

Meanwhile, if you wish to settle the matter at this stage then I will accept no less than full repayment of the charges in question plus court costs, making a total of £281.

I look forward to your response.

[getitbought]

The latest from Abbey seems to be following those in front of me - so those behind take note and keep the faith.

I have supplied the breakdown of charges now and it seems I have underclaimed by £17 - but at least this will negate the defence that it cannot be correct that Abbey cannot charge anything at all.

I have received the usual offer from DLA Piper Wotsit of 50% plus court fees "without prejudice" and "in full and final settlement". This is just posturing as we all know they are settling for larger sums at 100% elsewhere.

Meanwhile back at Gotham City a defence has been filed along the same lines of "the fees are proportionate...and a genuine pre-estimate" and "in the alternative...the Claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate". (But they won't want that found!)

The allocation questionnaire has a deadline of 8th July so in the meantime I will formally reject the offer and invite them to settle in full once again.

Hope this helps as I have received enormous help reading other peoples stories.

Will update as and when.

Getitbought

[Karnevil]

Hi, you are just a couple days behind me too - my questionnaire has to be back on 4th July - I rejected the 50% offer and told them I would be returning the questionnaire on Wednesday. So hopefully something will be in the post errm.. Today ! Fingers Crossed.... They have quite a few at this stage now judging by this site, mr trainee solicitor must be quite busy !

[siterly]

I am in a similar position to others on this thread, my questionnaire is due back by 5 July.
I too rejected the 50% offer and made it clear I was disappointed that Abbey, in their defence document, had still not provided the basis of calculations to support and substantaite their penalty fee structure and as this information was pivitol to the case it should be made available for the hearing!

[getitbought]

Letter to DLA Piper etc

Dear Mr Cook

Thank you for your offer received "Without Prejudice".

Please note that I am claiming £251 out of £268 charged and that this £17, together with interest unclaimed, more than covers Abbey's administrative expenses which are around £1.20 per transaction.

I am therefore rejecting your offer of 50%, and in the absence of a 100% offer of £281 including costs by 28th June, I will file the Allocation Questionnaire with a view to Abbey revealing its actual costs in Court.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Karnevil]

excellent...tho dont think you should say more than covers Abbey's administrative expenses which are around £1.20 per transaction. quite in that way.

try 'I am claiming £251 from £268 which has been charged. I believe my not adding the remaining amount, and interest paid on these charges, to my claim, more than compensates your client for the purported breach of contract '


the first way sound like you have proof that abbeys admin costs are £1.20 - just how you've written it.

does that help ?

(sorry I keep editing it but I think thats it now !)

[getitbought]

Good point well made.