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 need some urgent advice as I believe I have been the victim of circumstance and need all the support I can get right now.
Going back six months, before I was aware of this site or any other DIY bank Charges support, I made contact with one of the numerous solicitors offering their services.
I had a long hard think about the fee's they charge (25%), but given the estimated size of my claim (I was thinking of over £10K) and the fact thay my work takes me away a lot and I wouldn't necessarily be around at crucial times to act on letters from the bank and have the time to cajole the bank (Abbey) into some action, I decided 75% of something was better than 100% of nothing. I, of course, now know this was the wrong thing to do.
Anyway on 29th November 2006 I instructed this company to act on my behalf and within a few weeks Abbey had deposited £1,540 in my account. I assume this was the usual "good-will gesture" but I was never copied on any correspondence between Abbey & the solicitor. I paid up 25% of the £1,540 glady and sat back to await news of my six years of statements.
In the first week of February I received the last 14 months statements, all in separate envelopes. I called the solicitor immediately and was told to forward these and wait for the remaining ones. I duly obliged, but sent them without opening the envelopes and making copies for my reference. Within a week, the remaining statements came through as a printed resume of all transactions. I took a copy of this paperwork and forwarded to the solicitor as instructed. Aside from the £1,540 already received there was another £9,870 of charges on these new statements, excluding any interest.
On the 22nd February the solicitor wrote to me confirming that that they had prepared paperwork for submission and to contact them to discuss. They explained that they would submit two claims, one for £5K and one for the balance. No mention of any interest, but I asked about it and was told that they would raise the issue with the bank as part of their strategy to secure the full amount. Fair enough I thought.
The next letter I received was on the 29th March asking me to complete the enclosed aq, which needed to be submitted by the 14th April. I returned this immediately and spoke to the solicitor asking if this meant that Abbey would defend the claim? "They may do, they may not" was the only response I got.
About this time I discovered this site and M/B and started to question why I was using a solicitor when all the resources are here. I then instigated my own claims against MBNA, Capital One & Barclaycard (early days yet).
Anyway, fast forward to this morning and after still not hearing anything regarding a court date, I decided to call the court directly (I had copied the AQ) and ask what stage everything was at? I was informed that the claimant "had not returned the AQ of the processing fee" and that the case "had been referred down to a judge" who would then set a deadline for the AQ to be re-submitted.
I have not been able to speak to anyone at the solicitors office regarding this and have left numerous messages for one individual there to call me urgently.
Has anyone any ideas why they would do this?
Please, no lectures about using solicitors. What's done is done. I just want to secure my money and am considering picking up the case myself, but am worried I do not have everything for the court bundle if required?
First of all, have you signed a contact for these "solicitors" to do the work? If not then you are within your right to tell the court you are now dealing with it yourself and that you will be sending the aq and the fee within the time noted on the letter you will receive.
If you have signed something to say they are working on this for you, then write to them and tell them you no longer want them to work on your case. My concern is that even though these "solicitors" are working for you, you have done the work. You have completed the AQ..which they should have completed had they actually been solicitors.
As you are already receiving the paperwork directly from banks and then sending it on then they have no direct access to your account. You would have had to sign a declaration to say you give authority for them to go into your accounts. So just write a letter, send it recorded delivery so you have proof they have received it and tell them to bog off. Tell them you are disatisfied with their conduct, they have not compkleted the work as you had been lead to believe and that you will be delaing with it yourself.
All advice is based on my experiences. I am NOT qualified and as such cannot be held responsible for any mistakes. If in doubt...get professional help.
If you like what i have said then make me a star!!
Thanks for your assistance, mrsfoot. It's appreciated to get a swift response. In answer to your initial question, yes, I did authorise the solicitor in writing to act on my behalf. I guess the crux of question, is do I have the resources to continue this claim or should I start all over again?
The QA was actually forwarded to me by the solicitor, and so can I inform the court that I am now acting as the claimant, and request that the judge contacts me directly with a new submission date?
I have not received any correspondence directly from the bank, other than the second set of statements. Are these and a photcopy of the aq sufficient?
Are the second set of statements a full history of all the charges you are claiming? If not then i would suggest you send a further SAR for those that are missing.
I would still write to the "solicitors" and tell them you are not satisfied, get them off the case.
You have the resources...ask the bank, you have the knowledge...ask us, you have the time.....do all work on the claim at the weekend. There you can do it!!
All advice is based on my experiences. I am NOT qualified and as such cannot be held responsible for any mistakes. If in doubt...get professional help.
If you like what i have said then make me a star!!
Thanks again. No, I am missing the fourteen months that we're originaly mailed to me in February in individual envelopes and forwarded to the solicitor. However, I would assume (hope!) that the £1,540 returned was covered by this.
Another concern is that if I start the procedure all over again, it may be:
a) looked on unfavourably by the courts
b) take another six months before a court date is set in which time the OFT ruling may make my claim substantially weaker.
I'm having problems downloading any of the spreadsheets available on this site. I don't have Excel, Works or Open office. Are any of these available free to download anywhere? Excuse the IT nature of this post, but I can't find any of them available cvia a quick google search.
Of course, if there's a way round it, I'd be pleased to hear that too.
Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
I see the campaign to get hold of any old T&C's from banks & CCC's is gathering pace. I can't help but have asked friends and family members to supply whatever they can.
My concern though is that I am proceeding with four claims at present against Abbey, cap one, MBNA & Providian, none of which I have the T&C's for. Is this going to provide a major stumbling block if & when I have to prepare court bundles? I am close to that stage with Cap One.
T&C's didn't seem to be an issue until recently and other sites (maybe less informed than CGA) do not seem to raise the point. What is the necessity for these T&C's that has come about recently?
Can anyone point me in the direction of a thread or provide a simple explanation.
Re: Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
Originally Posted by Camdenite
I see the campaign to get hold of any old T&C's from banks & CCC's is gathering pace. I can't help but have asked friends and family members to supply whatever they can. Thank you for this, it all helps.
My concern though is that I am proceeding with four claims at present against Abbey, cap one, MBNA & Providian, none of which I have the T&C's for. Is this going to provide a major stumbling block if & when I have to prepare court bundles? I am close to that stage with Cap One.
T&C's didn't seem to be an issue until recently and other sites (maybe less informed than CGA) do not seem to raise the point. What is the necessity for these T&C's that has come about recently? Some other sites are not as advanced as we are...and having looked at recent cases it seems these are becoming more and more important.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a thread or provide a simple explanation.
Many thanks.
An explanation is that in a previous case a claimant was asked if they had the T&C's for the account to which he replied no. It is my opinion that if he had them it would have been very clear that the charges were for a breach and not for a service, which is what happened.
So if we can get a range of T&C's for the banks, we will then have crossed off that next tactic by the banks.
T&C's are, if you like, the contract to a mortgage. They show the clauses for the account and therefore hilight the clause which states you will pay XX amount in pounds should your account not have the money in to clear a DD / cheque. So it will be needed as evidence.
To be fair, I wouldnt be too concerend at the minute, as there are more claims being settled without them than those who are asking for them. It is just a precautionary measure and to be one step ahead (for all those banks who are reading this lol)
All advice is based on my experiences. I am NOT qualified and as such cannot be held responsible for any mistakes. If in doubt...get professional help.
If you like what i have said then make me a star!!
Re: Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
Thanks Once again MrsFoot. I figured that may be the case. I guess I'll just keep scouring the board for now until some kind soul posts the one's relevant to me.
A whole seperate argument would be how fair is it to ask the claimant to supply something, given that many will be at least six years old and probably updated by the bank/CCC during the time-frame of the claim? Have we the right to claim the T&C's along with the list of charges?
Re: Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
That is a good point and I am sure if it was requested they would have to supply it if it was relevant to our accounts. Great point!
All advice is based on my experiences. I am NOT qualified and as such cannot be held responsible for any mistakes. If in doubt...get professional help.
If you like what i have said then make me a star!!
Re: Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
Why dont you pm a mod / helper and give them the link to here or give them your thoughts...you just dont know it might be the elusive answer!
All advice is based on my experiences. I am NOT qualified and as such cannot be held responsible for any mistakes. If in doubt...get professional help.
If you like what i have said then make me a star!!
Re: Terms & Conditions - How vital are they to our claims?
hello.... just seen your pm (I get hundreds )
we are trying to get together our list of T&Cs, its taking a while.
You should request the original T&C with your data request, but I think its going to be problematic getting them TBH.
GE capital (5 accounts) WON link HERE
Lloyds bank account WON second claim starting! link HERE
Budget insurance cough up WON linkHERE
Principles WON link HERE
A&L (Mrs Crusher's account) claim link HERE
Barclays claim link HERE
I've just received a list of charges from Abbey (Jan 04 to the present date) and a promise that the remainder will follow shortly. It was pretty quick, under three weeks since my request, so perhaps they are getting on top of things?
Anyway, the way the charges are summarised on the single sheet of A4 and are displayed in the following (example figures only) way:
Month&year/total sum of cleared charges/total no of charges/total Unpaid DD charges/ total no of Unpaid DD charges.
I hope that makes sense?
They also add the fields: Unpaid Standing Orders & Unathorised overdraft charges.
My main concern is that they have not put a specific date for each charge (5th of the month for instance). Should I calculate any interest due from the 31st of that month just to be on the safe side or would I be within my rights to ask for it from the 1st as they haven't bothered to give any more detail?
I know Abbey will fight this all the way and so I don't want to give them a way out when it comes to the particulars of my claim being misleading or just plain wrong.
As long as you sent the SAR as per the letter in the library, they have not complied with your SAR. Bang off a non-compliance letter to them (also in library). I am at exaactly the same stage !!
Good luck
11.05.07 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)
29.05.07 Spreadsheet received
29.05.07 Non-compliance letter sent
31.05.07 Statements back to 30/1/01 received
01.06.07 Prelim sent requesting £2996.50
Hi GetEven, Thanks for your prompt response. Have they been non-compliant with the SAR though? The SAR does not ask for specific dates that charges were taken, only a list of the charges themselves.
The fact that Abbey have so chosen to supply the information in this way should not be to the detriment of my case should it? I can, after all, provide a list of charges and the month they we're taken from my account. My question was really to do with what date I should charge interest from, the 1st or 31st of the month concerned?
Did the list of charges sent to you resemble mine and did you get the same list, back to Jan 2004 and then a promise of the remaininder to follow?
Bank Charges failure!?!?!?
) into some action, I decided 75% of something was better than 100% of nothing. I, of course, now know this was the wrong thing to do.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Camdenite
)