Afternoon all,

This is a good bit of brinkmanship between myself and RBS... sequence as follows:

22/01/07 Write to RBS asking for £310 to be refunded within 14 days.

06/03/07 6 weeks, no response. Commence claim via small claims court.

09/03/07 RBS respond to letter offering to settle the £310.

15/03/07 I refuse, asking for the cost incurred in raising the summons + interest to be included, else I would see them in court.

21/03/07 Hear from the court that RBS intend to appear at the hearing.

Oops. Didn't expect that one. Perhaps I should have settled? Anyway, anyone actually got to the stage where the bank has shown up in court?

not come across a bank challenging, but you are in your rights to intrest and costs (postage, copying etc), but these MUST be reasonable.

The legal fees incurred by RBS far outway the effort on your part and these costs cannot be recovered in the smalls court.

Have faith and endeavour to the end.

Thanks for the advice & support .

The cost incurred in raising the summons is the £39. That is all I would claim, plus interest at the judicial rate.

It seems I'll be spending most of this weekend trawling websites such as this very good one, and preparing a watertight case....

Hi dgm, I really don't see them defending for an extra £39 odd quid, they'll settle before you're due in court. When is the court date?

Hi there,

The court date is this Monday (26th) at 10am.

We'll wait and see what the postie brings .

the cost to the lawyer preperaring the case cannot be levied against you in the smalls, win or lose. you recover the charges and costs,(reasonable), and the £39. court costs. They WILL settle, because they cannot justify the excessive and unfair charges against your account and to prove they are they must produce evidence which is the basis of your claim, and what all us cosumers wish to see (if only).

the cost to the lawyer preperaring the case cannot be levied against you in the smalls, win or lose. you recover the charges and costs,(reasonable), and the £39. court costs. They WILL settle, because they cannot justify the excessive and unfair charges against your account and to prove they are they must produce evidence which is the basis of your claim, and what all us cosumers wish to see (if only).

Well, that's the brinkmanship isn't it. It's interesting to see their tactics here... I closed my account in 2005 and transferred all of my banking elsewhere (including insurance policied underwritten by RBS) so I'm not in any danger of having my account closed as has happened in similar cases. I'm also quite willing to represent myself in court armed with the details of exactly which laws have been transgressed (e.g. Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999).

Of course I hope it doesn't come to that, but it's about time one of these cases did come to court and be argues before a judge (or in my case Sheriff).

I think they will pay up at the last moment... ;-)

i can assure you a sheriff, is waiting with glee for one of these cases to come before him, as us Scots know, towing/clamping of vehicles was deemed as theft, by the contracter and local authority. Salute the scottish law system (based on French law) and use the full facilities to your advantage. delay if needs must, request appearance of tellers and Managers of your branch etc etc. A sheriff will demand to know the justification for charges andif RBS fallshort in thier explanation, he will strike them down.

Rbs just trefunded me £3170 as a gesture of good will

Rbs just trefunded me £3170 as a gesture of good will

I think you will find it is more likely to be in full and final settlement.

Alec this refund is it the full amount you were expecting. if not place it in a high interest account and continue for the rest DONT accept anything less than best

I think you will find it is more likely to be in full and final settlement.

It is likely to say both. The letter to myself states:

"... and as a gesture of goodwill and without admission of liability of error, in this instance we are prepared to offer you the amount of £310 paid direct to your account..."

"To accept this full and final offer..."

This seems to be a new, standard, letter which customers of RBS have been receiving recently. I know this becuase the letter goes on to state, "...then we may need to consider if we are prepared to provide you with your existing banking facilities." A nice veiled threat I thought, especially since I no longer hold an account with RBS...

dgm, you'll be getting a better (full) offer before the court date. I can smell it

only accept the full amount, they are relying on consumers to take a hit the more that do the less they pay. FULL AMOUNT ONLY.

Update - 26th March - Preliminary hearing heard at 10am.

I attended court this morning, where a solicitor representing the bank was also present.

It was argued that whilst I had lodged a summons with the bank requesting £310 to be repaid, I had not provided a breakdown of the costs with the summons. (Whilst I had previously provided the bank with photocopies of the relevant statements when I initially wrote to them, but had not done so with the summons). I provided a copy of the breakdown of the charges at the hearing.

It was also argued that this case was brought too soon due to an administrative error (Sheriff Clerk's office) and more time was requested to prepare the case. Therefore a request was made to defer the hearing to a later date.

The hearing was re-scheduled for Thursday April 12th. The sheriff made it quite clear that he expected the matter to be dealt with before the new date, and he hoped that the further hearing would not be necessary.

The whole hearing took under 5 minutes.

Comments:

I was told by the representing solicitor that 'Brodies of Edinburgh' would contact me. A quick google reveals that Brodies are a commercial law practice based in Edinburgh. It may be that the Royal Bank have now adopted a new strategy by defending these cases.

Your thoughts as ever are appreciated...

DGM17

I dont think they have adopted a new strategy, i think due to the overwhelming number of cases, they have made an @rse of your claim, and are trying to buy time, i reckon you will receive your settlement around the 10th of April ;-)

Hi DGM

Worth looking in here before you attend court again. Ther's a lot of very helpfull advice on what to take with you

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/33060-basic-court-bundle.html

I dont think they have adopted a new strategy, i think due to the overwhelming number of cases, they have made an @rse of your claim, and are trying to buy time, i reckon you will receive your settlement around the 10th of April ;-)

A final update.

I sent copies of the bank statements, together with a revised breakdown of the charges to the solicitors in the middle of last week. On returning from an easter break on Tuesday, I received a letter dated 4th April offering me SOME of the amount I had initially claimed. I contacted the firm today (11th April) to ask whether in light of the revised breakdown whether I could expect to receive an amended offer.

Lo and behold, they offered me (via e-mail this morning) the full amount I claimed plus the costs of bringing the case against them. I have therefore instructed the court case to dismiss the case.

11th hour stuff. But it just goes to show if you stick at it long enough, they're bound to cave in. Perhaps the fact I had already appeared once in court to pursue my case made them think twice about bluffing this time. I was quite prepared to go all the way.

It just goes to show that if you stick at it, read up, stand firm, and don't blink, that at some point before the case comes before a judge or sheriff they will pay up.

To all those yet to commence a claim, good luck.

Blinkin' fabulous! Congrats and well done

how was that for a prediction, i was only one day out!!!!!

Well done never the less ;-)

outstanding behaviour

these banks are getting their knickers in a twist

did the sheriff actually hear any of the evidence as i would be very intrested to hear his view

outstanding behaviour

these banks are getting their knickers in a twist

 

did the sheriff actually hear any of the evidence as i would be very intrested to hear his view

Actually no - the defence solicitor was instructed to move for deferral on the grounds that 21 days had not elapsed since the service of the summons due to the scheduling error I mentioned above. In that situation the sheriff had no choice but to defer the hearing to another date suitable to both parties. That meant I didn't ever get to present my case to the court as the whole hearing lasted 4 minutes.

But he did make it clear that he fully expected RBS to settle the claim before the next hearing. They tried it on a bit by offering a partial settlement, but when I declined that offer, they went on to offer the full amount. Why they couldn't have done that in the first place I don't know, as the claim was under £350, and I'm sure the cost of sending a solicitor to the hearing and generally dealing with my case would have been more than that.

Reading threads like yours really helps boost ones confidence and will be encouragement to many. WELL DONE