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sam78

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Everything posted by sam78

  1. Well, I have now been to court. On my arrival I was told that the defendant had a barrister representing them, not that I was too bothered by that. The barrister came over, introduced himself and gave me some photocopied pages from a text book about 'the effects of compromise' which I read whilst waiting to see the Judge. We were eventually taken through to a room to see the Judge and he asked me tostate my case so I basically said that I believed the Abbey had behaved unreasonably by not dealing with my claim sooner rather than it having to go to court. The Judge asked the Barrister for the Abbey for their case which was that I had agreed a full settlement which had included costs for preparation time. The Judge was very fair and stated that the Abbey were not unreasonable for not defending sooner and that it is not unreasonable for a defendant to enter a defence and then offerrng settlement before a hearing. Although the Judge also understands that the banks will settle before a hearing so that they avoid having to disclose details relating to their charges. The Judge advised that as I had already had my offer increased to include preparation costs that I culd not request them again. The Barrister for the Abbey requested that their costs were considered, which the Judge said was unreasonable. The case was dismissed. At least this has now been sorted fully. My advice is that once you begin to reach a settlement that you request preparation costs at this point and incorporate them into your settlement figure.
  2. I thought as much. I've nothing to lose really. I'm looking forward to having a conclusion to this and hopefully I'll be able to set a precedent for others to go ahead and claim costs and not feel intimidated by the banks.
  3. Thanks - I just hope the '13th' is an unlucky day for the Abbey lol
  4. I only had an email confirmation abou the money they were giving me but I'm going forward with prep costs as I know that they had no intentions at all of bringing the case to court. They have wasted mine, the courts and many other peoples time - if they paid up in the first place it would never have got this far!
  5. Well I've not heard anything from the Abbey since the emails from my previous posts so I'll have to presume they will be appearing in court on Wednesday morning. I've got all my documents together and I even intend to take the copies along so the Judge gets an idea of the work I've put in and how much time has been spent using the photocopier! I'm also taking the email from Louise at the Abbey which states they have a separate ac**** with their lawyers 'for this type of claim'. Wish me luck & I'll post an update at some point on Wednesday.
  6. Thanks for that. The link is where I got the idea from so followed all the details and amended the letters. Let's hope the Abbey do a 'no show'.
  7. Can anyone help please?
  8. I haven't spoken to anyone on this yet, I'll pm one of the mods for a little guidance. Cheers
  9. I agreed a settlement with the Abbey for my claim (sam78 v abbey WON) and I've requested costs. Below is the details of the story so far. "The judge has ordered a small claims hearing for June 13th at 10.30. I have emailed my contact at Abbey to advise them of this - i think they are trying to use scare tactics on me to back out - what do you think? The emails are detailed below. "Just to update you, I sent a request to the courts for preparation costs for this case, a copy was also sent to yourselves, which also advised that the claim had been settled. I have been allocated a hearing for this of 13th June at 10.30am - the details of which should be in the post to you from the courts. I would be grateful if you could confirm that someone will be attending the hearing if you dispute my claim for preparation costs. Many thanks" "Dear Ms Holmes, Thank you for your email notifying Abbey of your plans to pursue your legal claim (7ZP00154) to a court hearing despite the Settlement Agreement reached on 20 April 2007. As stipulated in my settlement email dated 20 April 2007, settlement was agreed in "full and final satisfaction" of your legal claim against Abbey. For you to agree to that settlement and accept payment and then later attempt to pursue your claim in order to receive further costs, puts you in breach of the agreement made. Please be advised that should you wish the pursue this course of action, we will indeed instruct counsel, attend the hearing of 13 June 2007 and will in fact seek a costs order against you in this matter. We will seek to rely on the email correspondence of 20 April 2007 as evidence of our agreement and its terms therein. I hope this clarifies our position" "Thank you for your reply. I have agreed a settlement for the claim with you, though I am now proceeding to claim for the costs of preparation - this does not breech any agreement previously made with you. My letter to you and the courts dated 3rd May details that settlement was agreed between both parties, though I am quite within my rights to request that the judge sees fit to award me costs as per Civil Procedure Rules 27.14 (2)(g) (2) The court may not order a party to pay a sum to another party in respect of that other party's costs, fees and expenses, including those relating to an appeal, except – (g) such further costs as the court may assess by the summary procedure and order to be paid by a party who has behaved unreasonably. I believe that the Abbey has behaved unreasonably in their approach to defending this claim, not least because I believe the Defendant had no intention of ever defending this claim at a hearing. A list of cases that were settled before a hearing was also enclosed - copies of which you should have also received. The judge in this case obviously takes my claim for costs seriously enough to warrant a hearing." The Abbey have since emailed back to say 'we will instruct counsel accordingly' - Has anyone any experience of this please?
  10. I've had a reply to say they will 'instruct counsel accordingly'
  11. Here's an update regarding my claim for costs. The judge has ordered a small claims hearing for June 13th at 10.30. I have emailed my contact at Abbey to advise them of this - i think they are trying to use scare tactics on me to back out - what do you think? The emails are detailed below. "Just to update you, I sent a request to the courts for preparation costs for this case, a copy was also sent to yourselves, which also advised that the claim had been settled. I have been allocated a hearng for this of 13th June at 10.30am - the details of which should be in the post to you from the courts. I would be grateful if you could confirm that someone will be attending the hearing if you dispute my claim for preparation costs. Many thanks" "Dear Ms Holmes, Thank you for your email notifying Abbey of your plans to pursue your legal claim (7ZP00154) to a court hearing despite the Settlement Agreement reached on 20 April 2007. As stipulated in my settlement email dated 20 April 2007, settlement was agreed in "full and final satisfaction" of your legal claim against Abbey. For you to agree to that settlement and accept payment and then later attempt to pursue your claim in order to receive further costs, puts you in breach of the agreement made. Please be advised that should you wish the pursue this course of action, we will indeed instruct counsel, attend the hearing of 13 June 2007 and will in fact seek a costs order against you in this matter. We will seek to rely on the email correspondence of 20 April 2007 as evidence of our agreement and its terms therein. I hope this clarifies our position" "Thank you for your reply. I have agreed a settlement for the claim with you, though I am now proceeding to claim for the costs of preparation - this does not breech any agreement previously made with you. My letter to you and the courts dated 3rd May details that settlement was agreed between both parties, though I am quite within my rights to request that the judge sees fit to award me costs as per Civil Procedure Rules 27.14 (2)(g) (2) The court may not order a party to pay a sum to another party in respect of that other party's costs, fees and expenses, including those relating to an appeal, except – (g) such further costs as the court may assess by the summary procedure and order to be paid by a party who has behaved unreasonably. I believe that the Abbey has behaved unreasonably in their approach to defending this claim, not least because I believe the Defendant had no intention of ever defending this claim at a hearing. A list of cases that were settled before a hearing was also enclosed - copies of which you should have also received. The judge in this case obviously takes my claim for costs seriously enough to warrant a hearing." Any comments anyone please?
  12. You certainly know your threads inside out don't you?! I've read teebums thread, seems I am being a little generous here with 44 hours, not to worry, I'll still be happy to see that amount in my bank. I'm off to set up a savings account to put my money in - don't think I'll choose the Abbey do you? Lol
  13. I have put together my schedule of costs, stationary, printing, copying etc totalling £100.35 at a breakdown of 15p per side of printed paper, postage costs for recorded delivery etc. I have also totalled the number of hours spent on this claim at 44 @£9.25 per hour. Anyone who has done this and got this far will know it's not an unreasonable amount of time. This will be in the post today and I'll let you know how I get on.
  14. I WON!!!! Settlement cleared and funds available, woohoo!! I have just read the new costs sticky and this is the letter I am sending to the courts ad Abbey - I'll keep you posted. Please can someone change the thread to WON.
  15. They cannot speed up the clearing process so I'll have to contact the courts and let them know that a settlement has been reached and that I am only waiting for the funds to clear. Once sorted in a weeks time I can then change my thread to WON!
  16. Well, the cheque has been put into my account but I can't access the cash until next Thursday - very frustrating. I'm due in court on Wednesday for the directions hearing - think I'll try to gee up the clearing of the cheque by mentioning this.
  17. I've been in touch with the abbey again about my settlement, I thought the emails may be of interest to others: 'Dear Louise, There is still no sign of the settlement money that was agreed last Friday. Unless the funds are available in my account by tomorrow then I shall continue with my claim, and I shall be requesting the total amount, plus interest, plus daily interest plus court costs. This currently totals £3776.43. I shall also be requesting costs for preparing the documents I shall be relying on in court. I look forward to your response. Sandra Holmes --------------------------------------------------------------------- ' Dear Sandra, First of all, may I apologise on behalf of Abbey that you have not received your payment to date. I have chased up your settlement and it seems to have been caught up in the backlog of cheque requests that we are currently attempting to deal with. I have put an urgent notification on your payment and will make sure that the cheque goes into your account tomorrow. I will receive the cheque in the morning and will make sure it then goes straight into your account. You will then be able to see the payment in your account by close of business tomorrow. It will unfortunately then take the usual couple of days to clear. We have notified the court that settlement has been agreed but they will not withdraw the claim until they have received confirmation from you. Your claim therefore still stands until you have received payment. Many thanks and apologies for any inconvenience, Louise Jacobs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Louise, Thank you for your reply. May I ask why a cheque has to be raised and deposited into my account when my account is with you? I would have presumed that a payment could just be deposited into an Abbey account and would be available instantly. Thanks for your assistance. Sandra Holmes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sandra, We have to requisition the cheques from a separate legal fund which our law firm holds on trust for Abbey to enable us to deal with these settlements. All payments have to be processed from that fund which has created a backlog in recent weeks due to the volume of claims that we have received. By then putting the cheque straight into your account once we have received it, it usually shaves a few days off the process as we don't have to rely on the postal system twice to then get the cheques out to claimants. I realise that this process is both laborious and frustrating from both of our points of view but I have no other way of processing payments. Again I apologies for the delay but please be rest assured that you will be able to see the money in your account by close of business tomorrow. Thanks, Louise An honest person at Abbey - could be a first!
  18. Great, thanks Charley. Just had a read through that thread and have decided to email Louise once more (I didn't get a reply yesterday) to advise that I will be disregarding the settlement agreed as no payment has been made and that if the money isn't in my account by tomorrow morning I will be attending the directions hearing next week and I will be claiming the entire amount. Let's see what happens.
  19. Still no signs of cash in my bank and no cheque either, have emailed louise to ask that this is in my account and cleared by thursday of this week (I'm off work that day hee hee) so that I have plenty of time to send a letter to the courts closing the claim. I added that if this isn't done I'll be appearing in court next wednesday for the directions hearing and the settlement will be disregarded. What's the stance on this? Can I go ahead with the courts if necessary?
  20. Once the funds are available in my account I'll change the thread to settled - don't want to be premature lol. What a great feeling though!!!!
  21. I'm not sure why it has to take so long to clear either, I've still got an open account with them so who knows - I'm sure it will clear long before then - otherwise I'm still going to the directions hearing on 2nd May! lol
  22. Just waiting now for the cash to appear in my account!!! Wooohooo!!!!!!! Here's the last few emails: "Dear Sandra, I refer to our recent emails and confirm the terms of settlement reached whereby Abbey National Plc will make payment to you in the sum of £3,500.00 Payment is made without admission of any liability by or on behalf of Abbey National Plc. Payment is made in full and final satisfaction of your claim 7ZP00154. Payment will be requested today and will be paid into your account (if open) or posted to you. Upon receipt of the settlement monies please write to the Court and withdraw your claim and provide to us a copy of your letter. Please confirm your acceptance of this offer by return email. Kind regards, Louise Jacobs" "Thank you for your email. I agree to settle the claim once monies are received into my account: sort code xxxx, account number xxxx. I would also be grateful if you could advise me when I can expect to see the funds in my account. Kind regards" "Dear Sandra, Thanks for your confirmation. Payment takes 7-10 working days. You will see it in your account before then but it takes that time to clear. Many thanks, Louise"
  23. Thanks Phil, just waiting for a yes or no and then wait for it to be deposited in my account. It could be a good weekend after all.....
  24. Let's hope so. I'll keep an eye on my account for the next few hours.
  25. This lady is great - had the following response. "Dear Miss Holmes, Thank you for your swift response. Given that you have already spent time putting together a trial bundle for the Directions Hearing, I would be willing to increase our offer by £200 to £3,300.00. We would still expect some reduction from your total amount to reflect the fact that some charge should reasonably be taken for each default that was made. Furthermore, given that the Directions Hearing merely pre-empts a final hearing we would be settling weeks if not months in advance. Please let me know if would like to accept this offer and I will process the payment." To which I have responded with the following "Dear Louise, Thank you for your response. I would be willing to accept £3500 paid into account number xxxx. Upon the amount being received I will close the claim with the court. Many thanks" I'm getting excited now.
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