Penalty charge on photocopier lease **WON**

**stephc1959** · 12th June 2008 14:12

Claiming for overdue charges on a business lease with BNP Paribas

Does the same rules apply for this type of claim.

We were charged £280 for a one month late quarterly payment on a photocopier machine lease rental.

Also noticed that Paribas have not signed up to the FSA agreement so assume we can go ahead with a claim straight away?

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**steven4064** · 12th June 2008 14:31

Hi steph

Welcome to CAG icon

I would say that is clearly a contract penalty - you breach the contract, they charge you a fee greater than any conceivable loss they incurred as a result of your breach - classic contract penalty.

Send them a letter saying they're conatrcat penalties and request that they repay them. Give them 14 days to comply. After that send a lba icon

with another 14 days. After that, take them to court. If you want to post the letters here so we can give them the once over before yousend them, please do.

I'm going to move this to a new thread icon

to keep it from getting lost in the general discussion on this thread.

**JOSH_IOU** · 12th June 2008 14:34

Yes steph.

You can not use consumer law on claims from a company that has ( 10 employees or more).

The penalty charge structure still applies.

They might say this is not a bank claim so this dose not apply. Just laugh if they do lol.

**stephc1959** · 13th June 2008 11:26

Thanks for your replies guys.

Can you point me in the right direction of a template for this initial letter, bearing in mind it is a business claim.

**steven4064** · 13th June 2008 12:11

There is no template letter that exactly matches your case and it has now been deemed that business bank charges are not penalties. However, this clearly is a penalty. Perhaps you could write something along the lines of

Dear Sirs

Re Lease agreement xxxxxxxxxx for xxxxx photocopier

As you are aware, the [May] payment by [company name] on the above lease was paid slightly late. As a result of this late payment, [company name] have added a late payment charge of £280. Since this charge is directly related to our late payment and far exceeds any cost you could have incurred as a result of our late payment, it constitutes a contract penalty contrary to common law.

I therefore request that you [refund][remove] this unlawful charge. I will give you 14 days to comply.

If you fail to comply within the 14 days, I will end a letter before action icon

giving you a further 14 days. If you still fail to comply, I will commence proceedings in the county court icon

.

Yours sincerely

You

**stephc1959** · 18th June 2008 08:55

Pleased to report a result following letter.

The Ops Director of BNP Paribas called me and although they said they were within their rights to make the charges (yeah right!!) they agreed to refund. They confirmed yesterday by email.

Thanks guys for all your help. You rock.

**steven4064** · 18th June 2008 08:58

A result - well done

Thread: Penalty charge on photocopier lease WON

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