What next ?

[walnut]

About to send initial letter of request, can anyone see any mistakes?
wrong contact address etc?
Thinking about it, I used to work at the Giro bank in Bootle, Liverpool and the printer I'am using is an old A&L one that I fished from there skips.
Funny how things come around.

Here is the letter:


Mrs Julie Fogg
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx

Alliance & Leicester PLC
Personal Customer Services Centre
Bootle
Merseyside
GIR 0AA


Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxx


My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 14 months.
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations. If you say that they are not then you will pleased to demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.
Additionally it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

Your responsibilities
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.
You concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

What I require
I have included with this letter an itemized list of the charges and calculate that you have taken £1010.00.
I require repayment in full of this money.

My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

Yours faithfully,

Julie Fogg

[Spiceskull]

A couple of changes (in red):

Originally Posted by walnut

About to send initial letter of request, can anyone see any mistakes?
wrong contact address etc?
Thinking about it, I used to work at the Giro bank in Bootle, Liverpool and the printer I'am using is an old A&L one that I fished from there skips.
Funny how things come around.

Here is the letter:


Mrs Julie Fogg
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx

Alliance & Leicester PLC
Personal Customer Services Centre
Bootle
Merseyside
GIR 0AA


Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxx


My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 14 months.
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute Law and recent Consumer regulations. If you say that they are not then please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.
Additionally it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

Your responsibilities
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.
You concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

What I require
I have included with this letter an itemized list of the charges and calculate that you have taken £1010.00.
I require repayment in full of this money.

My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

Yours faithfully,

Julie Fogg

You might also wish to run through the punctuation, and add a few commas. I haven't done this myself as punctuation, whilst subject to certain rules, can be a personal preference...

Good letter, and good luck.

[walnut]

Started my claim in May for £1010 worth of charges.
On May 10th sent the letter 'Request for repayment' recorded delivery.
On 30th of May sent 'LETTER BEFORE ACTION'.
10 June A&L sent a letter of saying they would reply in 28 days.
Should I resend the LBA or just proceed to court?
Any help greatfully recieved.

[Michael Browne]

Why would you want to wait till the 8th July, when you promised in your LBA you would file a claim on the 13th June?

Stick to your timetable, not theirs.

[caro]

Definitely to court. You have given them long enough and they won't pay up without you going through the process, so just get on with it. Did my first MCOL last night and it was easier than I thought.

[walnut]

Started filling in the online HMCS Money claim form but have a few questions.
On section 4 it asks for defendant details, is this 'Alliance and Leicester PLC'?

Their address details I have used are:

Personal Customer Services Cnt
Bootle
Merseyside
GIR 0AA

When I type in the postcode 'GIR 0AA' an error occurs, 'not a valid uk postcode'.
Does anyone know an alternative postcode or address. Should I just ignore the error?

Any advice greatfully recieved.

[paulpb123]

Hi Walnut,
Maybe its G1(one)R 0AA.
Good luck
Paul

[walnut]

Started filling in the online HMCS Money claim form but have a few questions.
On section 4 it asks for defendant details, is this 'Alliance and Leicester PLC'?

Their address details I have used are:

Personal Customer Services Cnt
Bootle
Merseyside
GIR 0AA

When I type in the postcode 'GIR 0AA' an error occurs, 'not a valid uk postcode'.
Does anyone know an alternative postcode or address. Should I just ignore the error?

Any advice greatfully recieved.

[barracad]

Threads merged - please do not duplicate questions.

There is a thread at the top of this forum with contact details for A&L - including several addresses.