I am appealing for advice in this case in which Barclays has failed over a 2 year period to put right errors on my mortgage account and now refuses to abide by the binding settlement terms.

To confuse matters, the Ombudsman provided misleading information which led to me agreeing the terms and the complaint being closed while the issues are unresolved. Ombudsman has now washed its hands of the case and told me I need to sue Barclays.

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000) makes an Ombudsman’s decision legally enforceable in court, but I can find no solicitor to take on my case on a no-win-no-fee basis and I am not in a position to incur legal fees. It is an obvious winner with loads of political mileage for any law firm.

I assume I need to sue once for the statement which they were supposed to provide under the settlement terms and then again later for my losses- which I can only work out once I see the statement.

The complaint relates to Barclays’ failure to credit my account with several thousand pounds of overpayments, even claiming the balance had INCREASED after said overpayments. This was my 3rd consecutive complaint regarding Barclays’ mismanagement of the same account.

Under the settlement terms finalised 2 June 15 by the Financial Services Ombudsman, Barclays was to provide “a full breakdown of my (mortgage) account from June 13, showing when each overpayment was applied and a clear and accurate explanation for any amendments made to the account”.

Barclays has failed to provide the above documentation, but not before lying to the Ombudsman claiming it had!

A misleading letter from the Ombudsman claimed the account was now in order (Dec 14) and I thus agreed the settlement terms, which included a nominal payment (which the bank has made).

However, the documentation that Barclays was to provide is obviously central to the complaint, particularly since I now have documentary evidence proving the anomalies on the account have NOT been corrected by Barclays. This may be why the bank now refuses to provide the documentation.

This documentation was only made available to me by the Ombudsman AFTER I had agreed the settlement terms, believing the account to be correct, and AFTER Barclays had failed to comply.

The Ombudsman provided me with documentation the bank provided to it during the course of the investigation, including a calculation (not a statement) which states “this calculation has been provided to assist with the resolution of the complaint”.

This documentation does not tally with an independent audit of the account I was obliged to fund. The document makes it clear NO remedial action has been taken, ie it contains a heading “steps required to rectify the account” as opposed to “steps taken to rectify the account”.

Nevertheless the Ombudsman told me in writing the account had been corrected!

The document is virtually impossible for a layperson to understand and abruptly ends March 14, giving no clues to the current balance and states “the balances shown on this calculator do not represent the actual balance on the account”, so the information is of little use, hence the instruction from the Ombudsman that Barclays provide me with “a full breakdown of the account from June 13, showing when each overpayment was applied and a clear and accurate explanation for any amendments made to the account”.

So I have no idea how much interest I have been and continue to be overcharged by the bank on the incorrect balance

I was a diligent overpayer until Barclays mismanaged the account. Based on my previous pattern of overpayments, I have been prevented from overpaying at least 10k to date.

I have written to John McFarlane CEO asking him to ensure his staff provide the documentation as per the binding settlement terms, to clearly show how much interest I have been overcharged, what steps have been taken to correct the account, and what the correct current balance is, however, it is highly unlikely I will receive a response based on the bank’s attitude thus far.

The FCA said they could not assist. I wrote my MP who says he has written to them but won’t show me a copy of the letter. I made a formal complaint about the Ombudsman, but that won’t rectify the account issues. I contacted BBC watchdog and various consumer columns and got no reply. I guess no one dares take on the establishment.

I have posted on Barclays FB page and would now like to post the above letter online as widely as possible – any ideas as to where and how would be appreciated. Also any advice on where to find a law firm to represent me on a no win no fee basis would be appreciated.

Making the waters muddy after the Ombudsman decision is not a good idea. This wont be resolved by posting on Facebook.

You do not need to use a NWNF lawyer... You can do this yourself.

Please bear with me as Ill get the site team.

Barclays have loads of money to throw at expensive Barristers, which is why you are not getting help easily.

If you don't have all information from the FOS or Barclays, you can send them Data Protection subject access requests. You might uncover helpful info.

Another point to make as gently as i can. Some Solicitors may be put off having a client who is on a personal mission, who has already written to so many people to try to gain progress. They might be extremely put off if you are not getting anywhere with it. They might think they would be getting involved in something complicated and time consuming. Therefore you might not wish to tell them everything you have done. Just tell them what the issue is and Barclays are refusing to honour an FOS ruling. You just want Barclays to honour the FOS ruling. Keep it simple and see whether a Solicitor will look at it on a no win no fee basis. There is a firm of Solicitors in Brighton I think who specialise in Consumer Credit Act cases. CAG rules don't allow me to name them, but have a search for Solicitors that specialise in consumer credit cases.

Threads merged, please keep this issue to one thread

Hi Havelaar and welcome to CAG

Please give us brief answers :-

1. What were the settlement terms were.

2. In what ways have Barclays failed to comply with this.

3. What did the FOS say about the banks failure to comply.

Your story sounds very strange. Why would you agree to a 'settlement' if you didn't have any idea how much the charges were? What exactly was this 'settlement' and what does it say?

Hi all, thank you for your interest

As stated in the original message:

The Ombudsman told me the account had been corrected. This was stated to me in writing. On that basis, since I had no reason to doubt her, I accepted the settlement terms which were a nominal payment and a detailed statement covering 2 years, showing exactly what they had done with the money. Ombudsman wrote "the account is now in order", implying the statement was just a formality to show it was now correct.

Barclays failed to comply by failing to send me the statement.

Reported it 3 x to Ombudsman who says they have no power to enforce and I now need to sue the bank.

Evidence recently provided by the Ombudsman- as outlined in my original post, would indicate that the account is still incorrect and that I continue to be overcharged on an incorrect balance.

Hope that is clearer?

The bit I don't understand is why you would agree to accept a 'nominal payment' without having seen the statement? If you agreed to accept a settlement of a nominal amount only in return for dropping your complaint, it would be very difficult to go back on that.

I agreed it on the written advice of the Ombudsman, which states: the account is now correct. Ergo, I agreed it on the basis the account had been corrected. The Ombudsman Service appears to be in the pockets of the bank- I had no reason to think the Ombudsman would lie - the whole thing is highly irregular and stinks to high heaven

Any ideas on where i go from here would be welcome

SAR the FOS. What info did they have on file.

What form did this settlement take. Was it a formal agreement which you signed?

SAR the FOS and Barclays. If you want the SAR on priority then you will need to email the Anthony Jenkins.

He will tyen pass it through to the execs team who should beable to help.

Anthony Jenkins was given his marching orders earlier this month so I'm not sure that's a good contact any more.

I honestly didnt know Thanks Slick...

Your next step of call is then [email protected] - Head Of Compliance

Hi all

I already wrote to John McFarlane CEO and gave a deadline of tomorrow noon for receipt of the statement. Very much doubt i will get a response. Thanks to the person who mentioned the law firm in Brighton, the contact is not there till next week

Sorry but i don't understand the posts about "SAR the FOS"? A Sar is what a bank submits to the UK FInancial Intell Unit if a transaction by a customer is deemed to have links to money laundering.

The agreement was one of those standard forms you get from the Ombudsman where you sign to say you agree the terms.

Shall I email a copy of the letter i sent the CEO to Michael Roemer as well?

To the poster who suggested i should just push for Barclays compliance with the terms ie providing the statement. Unfortunately that won't solve the problem due to the cock up made by the Ombudsman- the account remains incorrect regardless of the statement they (won't) provide as part of the settlement terms

To solve the issue, i need them to correct the account and refund me whatever i have overpaid on interest, obviously that goes up every month the balance remains incorrect.

After fighting this for 2 years i feel the only way is through a law firm - there is a great deal of political mileage for any firm that takes it on, especially in the current climate where the banking sector has an awful reputation in terms of poor ethics and the govt is allegedly looking to clean it up

Hi Havelaar,

SAR = Subject Access Request, a request that obligates the recipient, under the Data Protection Act 1998, to supply to you with copies of all data that they hold about you.

See here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387306-Full-Subject-Access-Request

The agreement was one of those standard forms you get from the Ombudsman where you sign to say you agree the terms.

A signed settlement agreement is legally binding. Unless the bank has breached the settlement agreement in some way, I don't think there is anything you can do.

If the settlement agreement says that Barclays will refund you a specific sum of money I do not think it is possible to ask for more money now. If this is the case you should have checked your account before signing the agreement. I'm not sure a SAR (meaning a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998; not Suspicious Activity Report under money laundering regulation) will help.

I am still very confused about why settlement terms would be agreed before you have a statement of account. I don't see how you could know whether the amount offered is correct unless you have seen the statements. It is very difficult to say any more unless you are happy to post the exact content of the key provisions of the settlement agreement (without any personal information).

Hi all

The SAR wont solve the problem as it will just show the account balance is incorrect. I am not looking for money on the settlement, i just want them to correct the account

The Ombudsman procedure is a total farce; they are just as incompetent as the bank. Getting them involved made it far worse.

So banks can steal your money and there is JACK you can do about it.

This is really detrimental to me- i have made no overpayments in 2 years because i dare not with an incorrect balance and Barclays' ability to steal my money and then claim the balance went up! It's insane.

If anyone has ideas on how i can get this story highlighted in the media i would be grateful - it think it's the only way the bank might correct the account.

First i was screwed by Barclays, then screwed by the Ombudsman

BTW - the bank HAS breached the settlement, as I keep saying. They were to provide a full statement but they refuse to do so.

The first issue is they refuse to provide the statement as per binding settlement terms

Second issue- the account remains incorrect whether or not they provide statement (thanks to ombudsman's incompetence) but I need the current statement to see how much i am owed

Do you have a rough idea how much money you are owed?

No, because they refuse to provide statements. Obviously the amount is going up all the time as long as the balance remains incorrect.

I got no response to my deadline for receiving the info yesterday.

I guess i could do a subject access request for a statement but they will charge me for it and it's INSANE since they were told to provide it by the Ombudsman

Saying that, there has been clear collusion between Barclays and the Ombudsman

You must have an rough idea? Is it over £10k?

No, i don't believe so, not my "actual" losses. However as a result of their incompetence/false accounting I have been prevented from making at least 10k overpayments, based on my pattern of overpayments before they started their bullsh*t

Ah ok, thanks.

Well at least we've gotten to the bottom of why no solicitor would touch the case.

If you could post the content of the decision notice it would assist

If its genuinely failed in complying with a term or terms within the notice then its a simple matter of a part 8 application and a £40.00 fee to 'convert' the tribunal decision to a judgment and pursue enforcement.........unless the other side objects its usually a straightforward matter decided on the papers alone. One would assume if its just a matter of providing a corrected statement for the period in question it would act fairly quickly to resolve without the need for further enforcement [specific performance]