Thread: Lloyds have finally agreed I'm suffering financial hardship but refuse to process my claim - courts or FOS

Lloyds have finally agreed, albeit only verbally at the moment, that I am in financial hardship but are still refusing to process my claim, or agree to lift the stay on my court case that was submitted 2007, and say that within the FSA rules the stay on my case (at Cardiff small claims) will remain. They have also said that they will write confirming this but can't say when that will be ??? All I have is a name in the charges (Andover) department at the moment confirming this.

I'm unclear though as to whether they do have an obligation to process my claim, as I have a court case stayed??

I am officially redundant and on income support in a weeks time, single parent, don't get my mortage interest paid for 12 weeks, no redundancy pay, no savings, I have no funds to meet my car payment due August.

Should I just pursue this through the courts, Cardiff Court say I can just write a letter asking the district judge to lift the stay with my financial hardship reasons, or should I push Lloyds to process my claim ?

If I do write to the courts does anyone know how long it's likely to be to actually get a court date if the judge agrees to lift the stay in my case ?
Any advice much appreciated as I'm getting absolutely nowhere fast.

despite the fact that the Lloyds apparently accept that you are in hardship, they have no obligation to do anything and you have got no basis to force them to do so. I'm afraid that the hardship scheme is merely cosmetic and comparatively few people are benefiting.

If anybody was still in doubt about the hardship scheme and believes that it is a real example of the banks going out of their way to help people in great difficulty, then your story should give them a bit of reality.

I don't think there is any basis either not asking the court to lift the stay .

It is very clear that your situation is very bad. I'm afraid I have no idea what to suggest you in order to get you some money now.

It is a scandal that you are being put to this agony when it is clear that the money is yours and that it will eventually be refunded to you but not until the banks have built every opportunity to create further delays.

All I can say is to keep your claim updated. You should keep a running calculation of all the charges which you have paid the claim. Also look at the current discussions on claiming back your interest which you have paid as well. Don't forget that if the charges are unlawful then so is the interest which the bank will have charged you on those charges while you are overdrawn. You should claim all of this back as well. I think that you will find that it will make your claim worth thousands of pounds extra. Don't let them off a single penny when the time comes for repayment.

If you don't do your claim then the charges that you have suffered since 2007 and the interest on those charges which you have paid will not be benefiting from the courts statutory 8% interest.

Thanks bankfodder,

I'm going to try and appeal to the judges compassion anyway (I spoke to someone today who said I could just write a letter and take it in tomorrow with my evidence), keep pestering Lloyds for a formal response, put a complaint in with the fos and report Lloyds to the FSA for not processing my claim even though they conceded I'm a hardship case, and also keep pestering Sechiari Clarke & Mitchell, Lloyds' solicitors.........I'm at my wits end and think I'll probably lose the car which means it'll be impossible to get another job as I can't travel to childminders or for work to get any reasonable hours in (I'm an engineer, no engineering jobs in the water industry in Wales at the moment all miles away, no part-time or flexi options in male dominated professions, stupidly overqualified for part time jobs in others area's that are available), having the car repo'd means my near perfect credit score'll be ruined so no more credit for another car - I just hope I manage to keep the house through all this........sorry to whinge, thanks for your support....perhaps I'll lie for the next admin job that comes up and say I've only GCSE's

Originally Posted by Catcall9

Thanks bankfodder,

I'm going to try and appeal to the judges compassion anyway (I spoke to someone today who said I could just write a letter and take it in tomorrow with my evidence), keep pestering Lloyds for a formal response, put a complaint in with the fos and report Lloyds to the FSA for not processing my claim even though they conceded I'm a hardship case, and also keep pestering Sechiari Clarke & Mitchell, Lloyds' solicitors.........I'm at my wits end and think I'll probably lose the car which means it'll be impossible to get another job as I can't travel to childminders or for work to get any reasonable hours in (I'm an engineer, no engineering jobs in the water industry in Wales at the moment all miles away, no part-time or flexi options in male dominated professions, stupidly overqualified for part time jobs in others area's that are available), having the car repo'd means my near perfect credit score'll be ruined so no more credit for another car - I just hope I manage to keep the house through all this........sorry to whinge, thanks for your support....perhaps I'll lie for the next admin job that comes up and say I've only GCSE's

I would probably appeal to lloydstsb on the basis you have stated.
Do you have any priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
You won't get the stay lifted in court as there is no case law whatsoever to support lifting the stay.

p.s. they also know that I am already indebt with water, gas, electricity and on pre-payment budget plans, I'm on interest only mortgage with no means of repaying the actual mortgage when it's due in 12 years time and that my credit card borrwing is increasing all the time. My car is a priority debt also....I'm absolutely b*ggered

Originally Posted by Catcall9

Hi,

Lloyds know all this and are completely accepting that I am in financial hardship, and may lose my house and car if I'm not refunded charges NOW....but they're also saying that they are under no obligation to lift the stay and that they won't agree to do that. They are also refusing outright to process any claim made with them for a refund of bank charges even though I am a hardship case. They are also lowering my permanent overdraft limit by £15 every single month to try and finish me off ! I have no option but to keep borrowing on credit cards in order to stay out of debt collection and damage to my credit rating, which I think I'll definately need once this is all over.

The FSA were vague as hell about all this and I don't seem to find anything concrete that says they HAVE to process a claim made for a refund if they agree that I'm in financial hardship, the fos were even more wishy washy and have quoted me 6 months or thereabouts before a complaint to refund charges is resolved through them (and then no guarantee that they will award a refund).
That is because of the number of claimants going through the FOS for Financial Hardship. The difficulty advising is that on the very basic level someone can appear to be in hardship yet when you see an Income and Expenditure form, it can produce results vastly different from what you initially presume.
The hardship stuff is as useful as a chocolate teapot with regards to any meaningful assistance to those in genuine difficulty, it's still totally down to the discretion of the banks it seems, I'm at a loss to understand why some people have been refunded and I'm not ??? The FSA can't be seem to be able to tell me anything about forcing them to process my claim even when they fully admit I'm in hardship !!???
Have you read the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges?
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Re...sp_monthly.pdf
I have read it quite a few times to understand it. Annex 2 deals with hardship albeit there are other parts of the waiver that deal with it.

I think the courts might be my only hope, and those chances are slim to zero I think, depending on the district judge that looks at my application for the order to remove the stay and how a good a case I put forwards (p.s. none of the skeleton arguem,ent links are working, I'm making it up as I go along if someone could just post it here that would be very helpful...or cut and paste and privately message me..please).
Don't make it up or you lose the court fee you have to pay to try to lift the stay when the DJ says NO.
I've managed to get a name of someone in Cardiff county court, who'll be able to tell me

1) how many stays have been lifted due to financial hardship in Cardiff
2) how many stays haven't been lifted when claiments present financial hardship cases
3) how many claims that LLoyds have settled with no quibble once stays have been lifted
4) whether - to date - Lloyds have one a single case against a claimant and not had refund charges
5) whether Lloyds have actually gone through with a court case once the stays have been lifted

I think this'll help my case. I now realise that there is no legal requirement for any judge to rule to lift a stay once hardship has been cliamed, or even admitted by the bank, but I'm hoping to appeal to common sense and concience.

Once I have figures as mentioned above I'll repost (the chap is on holiday until Wednesday next week), in case any one else wants to use them for Cardiff County Court (Civil Justice Centre).

Any one else who has any advice or info on Cardiff or Lloyds would be appreciated, particularly those that have had stays lifted at Cardiff, or full refunds before cases come to court at Cardiff.

I'm actually wondering if I should employ a solicitor at this point.

Many thanks.

My personal opinion is that you will not get a stay lifted. However, if that is the route you are going, I am going to step aside, because I don't want to be party to a case where you will lose money which you really can't afford to spend, ie the filing fee for lifting a stay.

Originally Posted by Catcall9

p.s. they also know that I am already indebt with water, gas, electricity and on pre-payment budget plans, I'm on interest only mortgage with no means of repaying the actual mortgage when it's due in 12 years time and that my credit card borrwing is increasing all the time. My car is a priority debt also....I'm absolutely b*ggered

Have they asked for income and expenditure forms plus notice of arrears?

they've had my income and expenditure forms that showedI was in financial hardship when I was working since February this year, also they had an updated project version following my redundancy in a weeks time since the 20th May. I listed over 30 forms of evidence for them which accompoanied my income/expenditure sheets and asked if they'd like me to send it, including my priority debts and payment plans, defaulted loans e.t.c. They're not disputing in anyway whatsoever that I am in extreme financial hardship. They're just simply refusing to process my claim or agree to lift the stay, apparently they don't have to - it's still all discretionary, or to make any kind of refund, even partially to me. On top of that they are continuing to reduce my nonthly overdarft with them by £15 a month.

I'm at my wits end, I might lose the £40 but to be honest at this stage I don't think there's anything else left for me to do. Even if I do put in a complaint with the fos, I'll still have lost my house and car by the time they even look at my details.

If there's anything else you can suggest, I'd be very grateful. I'm now totally despondant.

Lloyds have an email address for charges refunds/complaints

charges_complaints@lloyds tsb.co.uk

telephone number for charges department in Andover is 01264 724214
(leave a message they get back in 48 hours)
for what it's worth......

Originally Posted by Catcall9

they've had my income and expenditure forms that showedI was in financial hardship when I was working since February this year, also they had an updated project version following my redundancy in a weeks time since the 20th May. I listed over 30 forms of evidence for them which accompoanied my income/expenditure sheets and asked if they'd like me to send it, including my priority debts and payment plans, defaulted loans e.t.c. They're not disputing in anyway whatsoever that I am in extreme financial hardship. They're just simply refusing to process my claim or agree to lift the stay, apparently they don't have to - it's still all discretionary, or to make any kind of refund, even partially to me. On top of that they are continuing to reduce my nonthly overdarft with them by £15 a month.

I'm at my wits end, I might lose the £40 but to be honest at this stage I don't think there's anything else left for me to do. Even if I do put in a complaint with the fos, I'll still have lost my house and car by the time they even look at my details.

If there's anything else you can suggest, I'd be very grateful. I'm now totally despondant.

Lloyds have an email address for charges refunds/complaints

charges_complaints@lloyds tsb.co.uk

telephone number for charges department in Andover is 01264 724214
(leave a message they get back in 48 hours)
for what it's worth......

I gotta say I am getting a little stumped on this one so I got another question, how the hell are you surviving within the overdraft if they are reducing it by £15?
Are you claiming everything, benefit wise that you can claim? Are you reclaiming any charges on credit cards as well?

After help from this site here's an extract of my original letter claiming hardship dated 3rd march, referring to Annex 2;

I respectfully request that you agree to lift the stay on the case referenced above in line with Section 14 of the Banking Code guidance, March 2008 version (‘the Code’), Annex 2 – Dealing with complainants in financial difficulty.

Please see the attached sheets for submission as evidence with form N244;

1)Statement of Hardship financial circumstances
2)Hardship spreadsheet
3)Explanatory notes for hardship spreadsheet
4)Evidence List

I am able to provide evidence if required as per 4) above. I look forward to hearing from you.


Yours sincerely,


is this what you are referring to ?

nowhere in this code does it say that they are obliged to agree to lift stays or refund any charges,

Lloyds just keep saying that yes - they agree that I'm in extreme financial hardship but, no, my case will NOT BE DEALT WITH until the commercial litigation is concluded.

They also said toady that The FSA audits them on there procedures with dealing with complainants such as me and that their house "is in order" and they are entitled to uphold the stay and not refund my charges or settle out of court.

NO, I meant how are you surviving when they are reducing the overdraft by £15 per month.
The Banking Code is voluntary so doesn't help, and the fsa waiver is regulatory so not a basis for lifting the stay.

I'm managing to pay the credit card interest, which is actually a little more than the £15 they reduce my overdraft by, I set up another account with a different bank in 2007 to actually have money to live on, I had no other option.

I'm spending a little over £17 a week on food for my daughter and I, my gas and electric and water debts are crippling me. I have to cut back the only way I can, which is on food, I am waering all of my sister's and mothers cast off's right now, and my neighbours and friend have been very kind and helped to kit my daughter out with school uniform.

Life is very grim, and getting grimmer. I felt I had a fighting chance until I was made redundant, I actually got a £500 pay rise a week before they told me to hop it.

again,

Lloyds know all of this, they just don't give a f**k.

Catcall, what I meant was you have said that Lloyds have been reducing your overdraft at a rate of £15 a month. How are you managing to remain within that limit?

the really upsetting thing is that if they paid me my charges back, I could clear all my priority debts in one go apart from £150 on my credit card...more than doable if I pay back a lttle from my benefits each month. My mortgage interest doesn't get paid until I've been unemployed 3 moths (they pay 50% after 8 weeks and 100% after 12 weeks)...what I'm supposed to do until then I don't know, I'm hoiping my mortgage company will be sympathetic, I've already written to them explaining.

But it looks like I'll lose my car in any case. Much lower chance of getting another job without it and my credit will be ruined completely once it's repo'd, so that I can't get another one, I've already paid 26 months of it off, only have 10 months to go, less than a third of the charges they owe me is left to pay on it.

I'm tranferring money from my other bank account £15 every month to Lloyds, then drawing £15 cash on my credit card to live on.

Originally Posted by yourbank

Catcall, what I meant was you have said that Lloyds have been reducing your overdraft at a rate of £15 a month. How are you managing to remain within that limit?

THis bit I don't understand and I am trying to work that out.

Originally Posted by Catcall9

I'm tranferring money from my other bank account £15 every month to Lloyds, then drawing £15 cash on my credit card to live on.

Has the other account incurred any charges and was it put on the Income and Expenditure form?
Is this savings or child benefit money(does your daughter still get this)?

yes, I've incurred both penalty charge on my credit card and my other bank account, Lloyds know all this - and agree that I'm in extreme financial hardship.

They tried to say that they wouldn't carry on with a payment plan on my overdraft, but I pursuaded them to keep letting me pay to keep it out of the debt collection process which will damage my credit rating, hoping that I can get the charges back before it all finally goes belly up....it looks like that's not going to happen.