Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
Hi I am someway through the process already so I will show you the story so far...
First I went through all my statements for my 2 current accounts for the last 3 years. I wouldnt have many charges before that as I was a graduate and didn't get overdrawn charges.
I marked all my charges with details of amount and date and put onto an Excel sheet and posted with this letter:[although I realise now it was probably not the correct letter for the first contact after reading some of these threads]:
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BARCLAYS BANK PLC
339 Birchfield Road
Perry Barr
Birmingham
B20 3BJ
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my current accounts in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law and contrary to Statute.
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.
I am frankly shocked that you have operated the account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
I calculate that you have taken £460 for the sum which you have taken.
Please find attached a detailed list of all the charges which you have taken from both accounts.
I require repayment of this money. If you do not return it to me in full within 14 days, I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest, plus my costs, without further notice.
When an account is opened with us, our customer is provided with a copy of the terms amd conditions.....
Despite my comments above in relation to your views, on this occasion, and without any admissions of liability, I am willing to offer the sum of £250.00 towards the total amount you are seeking. This is with cost and inconvienience inherent in a further dispute in mind and is intended as a gesture of good willm in full and final settlement of your complaint. If you would like to accept my offer please sign and return the enclosed form to the above freepost address. I will arrange for the payment to be credited to your account within seven working days of receipt of your acceptance at this office.
If you wish to discuss this letter, or you feel there are further issues....
The leaflet sent with our letter of 3 October 2006 explain our complaints process.....
In accordance with our standard practise if I do not hear from you to the contrary with eight weeks from the date of this letter, I shall assume that your complaint is resloved and close my file.
Thank you for your letter dated 22/10/2006.
I respectfully decline your offer of settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account, totalling £460
I will accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a county court claim if necessary.
Although my letter before action sent previously indicates that you had 14 days to respond before Court action commences I realise I have not responded immediately and am happy to set an extended deadline of 10/11/2006. You are reminded that there will be no extension to this timescale.
I trust this clarifies my position.
Yours faithfully
Spencer Carpenter
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They're response to which was [again addressing only one of the accounts mentioned in my letters] :
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Dear Mr Carpenter
Re:Sort Code: XX XX XX, Account number: 1XXXXXXX
Thank you for your letter received on the 3 November 2006.
I am sorry you remain unhappy following our responseto your complaint and note that whilst you are accepting the amount offered, you will be seeking the balance through the Small Claims Court.
I confirm our offer, made as a gesture of goodwill, was in full and final settlement of your complaint. As such, I am unwilling to pay you the sum of £250.00 as an interim measure. I acknowledge that you require your claim to be settled in full. However, after careful consideration, I regret that I am not able to increase our offer.
Should you wish to accept our offer of £250.00, please sign and return the acceptance form enclosed with our letter of 22 October. If you do not wish to accept our offer in full and final settlement, it would appear we are unable to reacha mutually acceptable resolution.
I appreciate this i snot the response you were hoping for, but I trust I have fully explained the situation.
Yours Sincerely
Kiran Rauli
Customer Relations Manager
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Now from reading other peoples thread it seam that I need to file a case at www.moneyclaim.gov.uk My only apprehension is that I am not 100% certain that is all I need to do.
I have heard of collating a bundle...but not to sure what this means. Also do i need to send anymore letters to the bank to let them know what I intend to do?
Another thing is that I have not included any interest on top of the actual charges and have recieved at least one other charge since I started the process. Do I know need to include the interest and the new bank charge in the claim I file against Barclays?
Should I be claiming for one bank account at a time even though I have come this far with both my current accounts simultaniously?
I would really appreciate some good straight forward advice at this stage. I promise to donate to this site once it is all over.
This is the exact same position i am now in mate.
As he stated, i will be more than happy to donate, once i have the ability to do so (ie. the cash!!) as this siter has been more than helpful so far.
First off read the FAQ's and the step by step guide etc.
I take it you didn't need to do the DPA letter as you had statements?
You seemed to send a prelim letter, which they then made you an offer you then sent another letter giving the a further deadline, before taking action. (am i right)
They then withdrew their offer.
If you are claiming for 2 different accounts are they offering you that settlement for both? I am confused. You may need to clarify this with them.
It is only when you file with MCOL that you add 8% interest (See spreadsheets in library section to help to work this out. It will calculate this from date of each charge when you enter them in and then give you a total. You then need to work out a daily rate of interest. This is worked out by the total amount of charges (before adding the 8% interest) x 0.00022
To clarify if your total amount of charges was £1000 you would times this by 0.00022 (£1000 x 0.00022 = 0.22 which is therefore 22p is the daily rate of interest) PENCE NOT % which is the mistake I made.
Hope this helps.
Correct me if i'm wrong anybody.
The court bundle is all the info you need to send in when you are issued with a hearing date. This gets sent to the courts and to the defendant prior to 14 days before the hrearing date and you will be instructed by the courts to do this when your date comes through.
Yes I had kept my last three years worth of statements so I didn't need to send the data protection act.
Whether they are responding to the settlement for both my accounts is confusing as the settlement figure they are offering is about 60% of both my accounts charges in total. 60% seems to be about the going rate for Barclays first and final offer. It is mainly confusing because their letters do not mention the second account. I would guess though that this is an admin restriction within Barclays ie. the letter templates they are using only have one account number (not that it would be hard to add the second manually!).
I will look over the faq and step by step guide. Also I will ring Barclays to check they are referring to both my accounts.
Can anyone tell me, at this stage can I add another recent bank charge when I file my claim or do I have to inform Barclays again in writing?
You can continue to add on charges until you file your court claim. After that it is more difficult and will delay proceedings. Barclays will see you have added more when they get the particulars of claim from the court. Also at some point in the future you will need to send Barclays an updated schedule of charges (spreadsheet)
Spotty
Statement request 4th May
Prelim Letter sent 24th May
LBA 7th June
Thanks but no thanks letter sent 22 June
MCOL 22nd June
Claim acknowledged 26 June
AQ sent 2nd August
17 Nov Court Date Set for 29 Jan 2007
Settled in full 12/12/06
Hi Im just in the process of filling in my claim with the MCOL and am a bit concerned about the particulars of claim section. I have read advice on this forum that it is important to include the schedule of charges with interest in in this section but there does not seem to be enough space in the text field as it states I can only use 1080 characters and 24 lines.
How am I supposed to fit my schedule into that??
I have also read that some people think its best to go with the hard copy N1 claim form but it seems that people with much larger claims than mine have succesfully used MCOL so how did they fit their schedule into the 'particualrs of claim' section. Is there an option to attach an excel file that I do not know about?
Can anyone help me with this as I am confused and uncertain at the moment?
Send 2 copies of your schedule of charges, clearly marked with your claim no. + a brief covering letter asking for them to be filed with your claim to:
The Court Manager,
Money Claim Online
Northampton county court
21-27 St. Katharine's Street
Northampton
NN1 2LH
Dear Sir/Madam
(Your Name) –v- (Bank)
Claim No: ********
Date Issued: xx/xx/xx
Please find enclosed a schedule of penalty charges taken from me by the defendant, along with interest claimed at the annual rate of 8% pursuant to section 69 of the County Court Act. The interest in addition to the amount in charges equates to the total amount of my claim, namely £(AMOUNT).
I respectfully request that the enclosed schedule should be attached to the particulars of my claim.
Yours Faithfully
When you receive the Notice of Acknowledgement send a copy to the bank’s solicitors.
Spence vs Barclays
refusals, exceeding overdraft
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Statement request 4th May
