I am going to.

They are not open at weekends but I left a voicemail with contact number and my Dad's account number saying that the reason they have sent this letter to my Dad's proper address is due to a letter sent a few weeks ago where all the charges they made were attached and with the 8% compensatory interest

the total was just under £3000, nowhere near the £500 in charges refund they are offering now and I would like to speak to someone about it,

if I don't get a call back I will be calling again on Monday to speak to someone.

My Dad is happy with the £512 they are offering but obviously wants all the charges refunded but wants me to speak on his behalf.

Is there any certain things I should say to them on Monday?

I know on the letter it said they have 8 weeks to respond and this is their response,

it's dated the 15th June,

do I say to them they have so many weeks to offer the full amount or just refuse the £512 and demand the full refund?

I called them and spoke to them about the offer and the letter and spreadsheet that was sent back.

The person I spoke to said the refund letter that was sent out has nothing to do with any charges made, this was an internal thing they did and realised they charged too much for things,

for instance if they were meant to charge £30 they charged £35 so the £5 was refunded.

Also they didn't know my Mum had passed away so the original death certificate or a certified copy has to be sent in to take her name off anymore correspondance and the refund of £512 was to be split so she said the offer I think was either to be split between my parents or the £512 was half of what it was meant to be.

She said there was two things going on in the account and one was the letter we sent about the charges.

If my Dad accepts the £512 offer the other stuff about charges will still go on as planned as that is a separate thing.

I said we weren't happy with this and she logged a complaint.

The complaints department will respond with a letter within 5 days to acknowledge the charges spreadsheet and what we are asking to be refunded but they can take at least 8 weeks to get everything done and the final correspondance can take up to 8 weeks.

I don't know what to believe.

My Dad really wants to sign and get the £512

but obviously we need to send the death certificate first,

I don't know if it's safe to send the original or not.

I also don't believe that the refund with the 8% has nothing to do with all the illegal charges on the spreadsheet I sent but she made it sound like this £512 is my Dad's anyway and has nothing to do with any illegal charges.

unlawful not illegal..

send a copy of the Dcert.

Still not heard anything.

A letter was sent about the unlawful charges but the letter said the claim was "building insurance too high" and "collection charges too high" and said they will give an answer within 4 weeks.

It took a week to get the death certificate and have that sent off so it's only been a few weeks but no letter has been sent back.

What do you think of them talking about building insurance and collections charges?

Do you think they will refund those unlawful charges?

We never accepted the £512 offer yet either as obviously my Dad wouldn't get the full £512 without them having a copy of the death certificate but do you think that will affect all those charges?

Do you they will deal with it all at once?

you want them both fully refunded as neither are lawful.

There's a lot more charges on the sheets which I gave them. The woman I spoke to was very chatty and took in everything I was saying. What she did say was If my Dad accepted the £512 offer, they would still look into these unlawful charges and make a decision on them and I was under the impression that if you signed and agreed to whatever refund they offered you, they could basically stop you getting anymore money. I think I read that on here in another thread.

I guess I can't do much until they respond. Is there anything I can do in the meantime? Is there a certain person that I could contact and speak to? Is there a person or department that I should be phoning or contacting? Do you think they will refund all of those unlawful charges?

not got a crystal balls sorry

Just need to wait and see, hopefully not much longer.

Another letter was received and this time there are 2 amounts being refunded,

they attached some spreadsheets on what they will refund and the 2 amounts equal £1600 but 20% of one of the payments has to be paid to HMRC so I think it's minus £120.

They said if this offer is not received then to go to the Financial Ombudsman and wait 6 months for a response.

Because this is far higher than the £500 offer prior my Dad wanted to accept it and he has.

Another letter has been received and it says they are very sorry for not resolving the complaints about the charges of building insurance and collections charges.

It has been passed onto a case manager who will investigate everything and all the details put forward and their findings can take up to 4 weeks.

They can contact me in the meantime about any questions they may have about the complaint and they will write to us with their findings.

So i hope they do refund all those other charges aswell.

blimey that's a result

BF are changing their spots then!!

It was definitely a nice surprise.

The letter had to be signed for and when I seen that I thought it might be good news.

Every page was double sided and the main letter was 3 sides across 2 pages and whoever wrote it went into a lot of detail.

They attached one of their price lists from 2008 and a few pages of spreadsheets which included the charges they were refunding.

I don't know what my Dad has done with the letter or I would write out what they all were but it was 2 separate payments and they mentioned that there are certain services they are allowed to charge for.

I don't remember if it was the 8% compensatory interest or not but on one of the payments by law 20% has to be paid to the HMRC and they would do it on my Dad's behalf. It still works out at 3 times the amount of the original offer.

My Dad couldn't believe it and neither could I.

He wanted me to phone them and double check it was all OK and they said it was and where actually really helpful

and they said to send the response recorded delivery so it wouldn't be lost rather than using the prepaid envelope they had sent with the letter.

I hope everything works out the same way with the other charges.

They have given a reference number for the complaint too so at least I know they have all the spreadsheets I sent

and since it's going to a Case Manager I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything else will be refunded too.

But I have you to thank dx100uk and everyone else who posted int this thread for helping me do this.

I had no idea on how to do all of this and find out about everything so I have all of you to thank.

On behalf of my Dad and myself, thank you very much

no that all appears ok.

when a firm 'gives' you compensational interest [they call it statutory interest at 8%] sadly the taxman gets 20% of it

as its an earning

but you can if earning are below rate tax rate claim it back

your thread is very useful to all BF people

as its an important win were most have been totally fobbed off and got nothing

keep up the good work

I'm glad everything is OK. I hope it also helps others who and helps answer any questions they have and helps them with what to do.

Thank you!

The cheque from Blemain has been received! I'm glad they really did pay the money

Very well done

Dx