Thread: first plus/central trust

Originally Posted by buddybutweiser

Hello all, i am new to this forum and would be very gratefull of any advice on my claim for a PPI refund.
I took out a secured loan for £38,000 in august 2001 with firstplus, during the aplication i was told by the sales person on the phone that if i didnt take out their ppi i would not be able to get the loan.
I then settled the loan in full in november 2004 and had to pay a whopping £49,000 back. Thats £11,000 more than i borrowed over 3 years before.
Now having sent my first template letter to them i have today had a responce from a company called central trust who claim to be be the broker responsible for arranging the loan. their letter is long winded but i will quote a few points they stated....
From the 14th january 2005 the sale of general insurance came under the remit of the FSA. Any sales prior to this date are known as pre-regulation and the regulations are not applied retrospectivley.

Regretably we are unable to listen to the original sales call as we did not record sales calls in 2001

It is your decision wether to approach the fos however i would advise you that due to the time scale that your application was completed your complaint may be outside of their jurisdiction and not an issue that they will deal with.

Apart from the usual replies they give people like "you signed to say you understood our terms and condition etc etc" their main reason for getting out of it seemed to be the fact that it was took out in 2001.
My question is are they correct or do i still have a case to pursue?
Many thanks in advance

Hello and Welcome,

Yes they are correct in what they state, but they did omit to inform you the bit where you can pursue via a county court claim

Just send them your lba and give them your timescale before you take them to court. You have to show them that you are serious and will pursue them for the mis-selling

Originally Posted by buddybutweiser

Hello all, i am new to this forum and would be very gratefull of any advice on my claim for a PPI refund.
I took out a secured loan for £38,000 in august 2001 with firstplus, during the aplication i was told by the sales person on the phone that if i didnt take out their ppi i would not be able to get the loan. Mis-selling
I then settled the loan in full in november 2004 and had to pay a whopping £49,000 back.What was your total charge for credit??? Thats £11,000 more than i borrowed over 3 years before.
Now having sent my first template letter to them i have today had a responce from a company called central trust who claim to be be the broker responsible for arranging the loan. their letter is long winded but i will quote a few points they stated....
From the 14th january 2005 the sale of general insurance came under the remit of the FSA. Any sales prior to this date are known as pre-regulation and the regulations are not applied retrospectivley.

Regretably we are unable to listen to the original sales call as we did not record sales calls in 2001

It is your decision wether to approach the fos however i would advise you that due to the time scale that your application was completed your complaint may be outside of their jurisdiction and not an issue that they will deal with. So they think that they are home and dry now???????

Apart from the usual replies they give people like "you signed to say you understood our terms and condition etc etc" their main reason for getting out of it seemed to be the fact that it was took out in 2001. I have successfully reclaimed back to very large sums of mis-sold ppi from 2001 without the need to go to court.

What did you say in your preliminary letter what did you ask for. The lba letter stands for letter before action, that is the one you send them warning them you will take them to court.


My question is are they correct or do i still have a case to pursue?
Many thanks in advance

Your claim may be a little more complicated, because it was sold via a broker and they will of course blame each other. That is probably why you letter was passed from the lender to the broker, but bear in mind the broker would have received commission from the lender to sell you the ppi. All their fingers in the same pie. Please read this relevant court case

This makes interesting reading

visit: FLA E-Recruitment System
Decision in Hurstanger v Wilson
[2007] EWCA Civ 299
This is may be of relevance to all members who pay fees to brokers.
Case Summary
The borrowers (Mr Wilson and Ms Burton) obtained a loan through a
broker. The broker had a fiduciary relationship with the borrowers and
received commission from the lender.
At issue was whether the broker had received secret commission from the
lender and whether informed consent had been given by the borrowers.
The borrowers signed a form which indicated that commission might be
paid but they argued that informed consent had not been given because
they did not know the amount of the commission.
It was held that the broker may only receive commission if the borrower
consented to this with full knowledge of all material circumstances. The
Court of Appeal held that the commission, in this case, was not “secret”
but informed consent had not been given as the amount of commission
had not been disclosed. (Accordingly they awarded the amount of the
commission plus 1.29% simple interest from the date of the agreement’s
inception).
The Court also held that in cases where the broker does not disclose
that she is in receipt of commission from the lender, the commission will be
“secret”, the broker potentially guilty of fraud, and the entire loan liable to
be rescinded.
Implications
The legal teams of all members who pay commission to brokers should
consider the impact of the decision on their business.

Originally Posted by buddybutweiser

Many many thanks for the info hellasnofury, much appreciated.
As i am very inexperienced in this type of thing but really want to claim what was wrongfully taken from me can anyone recomend or advise if i will be better letting one of those no win no fee type companys take the reighns?

Hello Bud,

Please, please do not consider letting one of these companies reclaim back your refund. They will take some of the money for their fees.

In my honest opinion, they are the lowest of the lowest and are preying on the vunerable, who lack confidence in these matters. But honest you will enjoy the fight.

You are more than capable of doing it yourself and with the help from the site, well you will get all off your refund. You will have to read around the thread to educate yourself and if you don't know what to do, just ask and you will get help

Please don't go down that road, we are all here to help.

But I respect its your call at the end of the day

Originally Posted by buddybutweiser

Thanks again I would much rather pursue it with the help of you guys and i intend to do so if you dont mind helping me out please.
Can somebody give me some pointers in what to include in my next letter please, i will get down to educating myself on the other posts made asap.

Hello,

As I have explained before, it will not be the easiest of claims, because the broker and the lender will deny the mis-selling, so we have to take advise on this. so bear with us at the moment.

Thanks

Originally Posted by buddybutweiser

Any ideas yet? will it be advisable to apply for a S.A.R before i go any further? If so can i just use the bank template one on this forum?

Hello Bud,

I have pm'd one of the Mods for more advise on this, so we have to be patient I'm afraid.

As regarding the SAR, I would certainly send one to start the ball rolling and get info on the account.

Their are a few SAR kicking about on the forum, the one on the bank template letters is suitable, but I would definately mention the words payment protection insurance. because they have a habit of not sending any info about it.