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.
I sent my letter (as per bank templates) to the Bank of Scotland requesting that all my bank charges from the previous six years be refunded. I sent it by registered post and gave them 14 days to respond but they never did. I then sent them the lba letter (as per template) again with 14 days to respond.
What should I do if they fail to respond to the LBA? I know what I should do because it's in the letter but should I write to them again?
I worried about the next course of action incase I get it wrong and I'm confused about starting the small claims proceedings and who pays for it!
Also, how do I find out what interest I should be charging should it go to small claims?
Where are you ? If your in Scotland you can only go back 5 years.
How much are you claiming ? If your in Scotland you can claim between £750 (Small Claims) and £1,500 (Summary Cause ) The small claims will cost you £39 and the court will serve the summons for you. It will also cost you £39 if you use summary cause, then the court will send you back your forms and you will have to get a sheriff's officer to serve your claim.
This cost me £15.97 last week, the cost varies depending on what sheriff officer you use. You will find out about interest on the interest calculating spreadsheets.
Hope this helps.
Give me a shout if your toiling.
Regards.
Scott.
Any advice I give is honest and in good faith.
If in doubt, you should seek the opinion of a Qualified Professional.
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Help keep it up and active, helping people like you.
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Many thanks for your useful advice and yes I am in Scotland. I am claiming just short of £1000. What do you think is the best route to take - small claims or summary cause? - if it comes to that of course!!!
Can I claim back all the additional costs such as lodging the claim, etc, etc? I did not charge any interest on the spreadsheet that I sent with my preliminary letter nor the lba which I subsequently sent... I hope that is correct!!!
You don't add the interest untill you file your claim with the court. You can also claim back your £39 court fee and whatever it costs you for the sheriff's officer if you go the Summary Cause route. You can either claim 2 small claims or 1 Summary cause and one small claim. The good thing about the Small Claim is that the only thing you could loose is your £39 court fee. If you go Summary Cause you could loose somewhere in the high hundreds. Also with Small Claims the court does everthing for you, just pay your £39 then sit back and wait for your cash.(hopefully)
When I went small claims I got £720 plus £39 court fee and £230 interest.
Remember you can only do 1 claim at a time, wait till 1 is settled then do your second.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
Scott.
Any advice I give is honest and in good faith.
If in doubt, you should seek the opinion of a Qualified Professional.
If you can, please donate to this site.
Help keep it up and active, helping people like you.
If you no longer require help, please do what you can to help others
Hi Scott
I'm new to all this game, but I'm now at the small claim / Summary Cause stage.
I've got 4 claims in total, 1 one of which is about £935. Your post here has made me certain I should claim this as two small claims, rather than one Summary Cause, mainly because of your "high hundreds" statement.
However, I'm curious about your comment above:
> Remember you can only do 1 claim at a time, wait till 1 is settled then do your second.
Do you mean "you can only do 1 claim at a time"
for the one bank?
So if RBoS owe me £935, I should do the first £750, wait until it's resolved, then claim for the balance?
Secondly, for the other 3 claims (each under £750), can I submit all 3 (along with the first RBoS one) all at the same time?
It's just the second RBoS one that I need to wait for?
Hi. Bank of Scotland have failed to respond to my lba letter and I will have to proceed to the small claims stage. Can anyone please tell me where I get the forms that I need to complete for the court and is there a code for them. I live in Scotland.
Don't give up hope yet. My above email has a typo in it - it's not RBoS I'm chasing for £935 - it's the Bank of Scotland. (RBoS do owe me but not as much.)
Anyway, I sent the lba in December, and they responded saying they were looking into it. They phoned last week to say they'd be refunding £950 (which I checked using the spreadsheets, and it's more because of the additional interest.)
So, how long ago did you send the LBA, and did they acknowledge it, saying they are considering their response?
Many thanks for your response. I sent my lba 2wks ago and the 14 day deadline was Monday 22nd February. I have never received any form of acknowledgement for the preliminary letter I sent first nor the LBA letter. both letters were sent by registered post. How bad is that for them not to reply!!!
I have today spoken to the court and they gave me the site for downloading the necessary form to lodge my small claims but I have a few queries that I would be grateful if you could advise me on as follows:
1. Is it enough to enter on the form the full address of my branch of Bank of Scotland or do I have to enter the name of a specific person?
2. I have to include details of the money that I am claiming so I guess that I attach a copy of the spreadsheet that I included with my preliminary and LBA letter. Am I correct in what I am assuming?
3. I am totally lost with the interest that I now need to apply. I believe it to be 8%. I am claiming £926 in bank charges but I don't understand why I now have to add on interest
4. On the spreadsheet detailing all my bank charges do I then add the £39 small claims fee?
I appreciate all your help and i'm sorry that I am not grasping this whole concept!!!
Not great that they didn't even acknowledge the prelim or lba letters. We sent ours to the BOS Branch itself, recorded delivery and got responses fairly quickly. You'll maybe need to search the forums to see how often folk do get any response at this stage. Good that you sent registered though.
Regarding your queries, I phoned the Sheriff court to get some answers, and they were fairly helpful.
1. Regarding the name on the court forms - when I phoned, I was informed that it could be the business name itself rather than an individual. Having said that, there's other threads in here that do give people's names to put as the contact.
This 1b form actually includes forms 1 and 1b. You actually need to attach your spreadsheet to EACH of those. FORGET form 1a at that site - it's for sueing individuals.
3. Re the interest - I was lost here as well. I even downloaded the mp3 podcast, but I still wasn't clear on where to add the second 8% interest, so I didn't add it.
4. I didn't add the £39 to the spreadsheet - I was under the impression the courts would account for this, but I may find out I'm wrong on this one.
Don't think by any means I'm an expert - I'm not, and I had very similar questions to yours. I think you should phone the Sheriff court to get answers, at least for 1, 2, and 4.
Lba
requesting that all my bank charges from the previous six years be refunded. I sent it by registered post and gave them 14 days to respond but they never did. I then sent them the lba
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