Thread: Please help, more charges whilst my claim is on hold, do I pay them?

Hi,

My claim is currently on hold at the courts.

Unfortunately, (don't tell me how stupid I am, I know) I went overdrawn by 20p and I have accrued another £268.53 in interest and charges.

I have been running my account very well but I made a mistake and went 20p over so I now have a letter from Sechiari, Clark and Mitchell solicitors telling me that if I don't pay the £268.53, they will take me to court.

So, bearing in mind that this is made up of charges that I am refusing to pay...and bearing in mind that I am already taking Lloyds to court for the other charges that I have paid, what is my best way forward?

I am thinking that if this goes to court, surely, as the test case is on hold, they can't make me pay the charges as the legality has not been established yet?

Your help is appreciated as always

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Any ideas anyone?

Might be worth ringing collections on 0845 6006283 and setting up an emergency overdraft to cover what you're overdrawn plus any new charges they will add on this month or next.
Arrange to reduce it at £10 a month or whatever you can afford and then start a claim for your charges back.
When the claim finally gets sorted then your charges will be refunded into the account and you'll get to keep anything over what you owe them.
Help this helps.

Lloyds won't deal with me anymore. I could afford to pay it all off in one go but I really don't think that I should have to. The lawfulness of these charges has not been established, so surely they cannot enforce them until after the test case. So, rather than me paying up and then getting refunded after the test case, Lloyds should defer a claim for payment until the test case establishes that the fees are lawful - or am I missing something?

They should, but they wont.
The case isn't finished yet, only parts of it have been decided. You could always write to them, put the account in dispute and start a claim but expect it to fall on deaf ears. They may well default you on the account if you refuse to pay it for a few months and then you could appeal that too.

thanks for the help honestknob, I have sent letters back and forth explaining that the amounts they are claiming are all charges but they did not reply (except with standard auto generated demands) it is now on brink of them taking me to court, does anyone know how i'll stand bearing in mind I've already taken them to court for other charges and that claim is on hold?

I say... let them take you to court for the £280-whatever in charges. They barked, it's up to them to bite. You might need to open a parachute account to operate with in the meantime.

Your defence, if they bother to do so, would probably be in the form of a counterclaim, similar to the claims in your existing case.

If they don't bother to actually take you to court (have they got the nerve?), perhaps you could consider claiming financial difficulty to the court, as grounds for lifting the stay on your original case.

That's exactly my thinking Chromatix. To be honest, I have the money to pay if I wanted to but it's the principle, how can they demand money for charges whilst the case in on hold? Do you know how to put in a counter claim or how to prepare if it does go to court - there are guides on here which I followed for making a claim but nothing that deals with this situation, so I'm a bit stuck.

Assuming they follow the correct procedure...

If they file against you in court, you'll get court papers informing you of their POC's, and giving you the ability to Acknowledge and to File Defence. You would put your counterclaim in the Defence.

Those more knowledgeable than me should advise on the precise details to put there. I imagine however that you would advise the court (through the defence) that you believe the debt they are claiming is solely made up of penalty charges, and then outline the legal basis for your belief in the same way as if it were a POC sheet.

You could also reference your existing case in your defence, noting that the same principles of law apply. You could even use the banks' own tactic against them and apply for a stay, suggesting that you'll lift your stay when the bank lifts theirs!

I assume you've already repaid the original 20p overdraft. If not, perhaps you should do so to make things simpler.

Note that as the defendant, you wouldn't have the luxury of breaking off the action if the bank decides it wants to settle. Instead you will have to press to win your case, and maybe the bank will get nervous and break it off themselves. You will also have to be particularly well-prepared if it actually goes to the courtroom.

You might even be able to make things interesting by talking about "vexatious litigation". However, this is an area I am totally infamiliar with, and you should ask an expert about it.

Thanks so much for that Chromatic, it's a great help. I have offered to pay off my agreed overdraft in full and call it quits with them, I also offered to pay the interest on the charges as a gesture of goodwill but they declined. I am now in the frame of mind where I'll fight them all the way. I agree totally - the basis of their claim is underpinned by the issues that are currently being reviewed by the high court so they are in no position to demand money via a potentially unlawful method, so it's either remove the stay on my case and judge it all together or put a stay on them both and see what the high court says.