That is the problem. We signed the Check in inventory because we were told we had 7 days to check the property and inform them of any mistakes.

I'm going to send another email now and then follow it up in a couple of days with a letter if I don't hear anything. Should I contact the deposit holders though?

My partner and I have recently moved into a rented accommodation, and as part of that process we paid money into a TDS. When we went to check-in and pick up the keys we were running late due to a problem at the agents, the third party Check-in Agent was in a rush so quickly explained the layout of the audit. She told us that if we had any amendments we could contact her within 7 days. We were still in the process of packing up from our other property as we were not moving in for a number of days. I went back to the empty property a couple of days later and went through the audit. I ended up making a large number of changes and additions, some of which were, in my opinion, hard to miss. I emailed my many points to the Check-in Agent and cc'ed the agency who were managing the property. They told me they would get back to me but after I didn't hear back from them after 28 days I emailed them again, sending a copy of this email once more to the managing agent. I was sent reply stating that due to the number of points I had raised, a further visit would be required. I have sent another reply, requesting a suitable time and date for their visit but I have at this point still not received a reply. We have now been the tenants for about 10 weeks. All my correspondences have been by email, and have been copied to the managing agent, however should I be doing anything else? Should I send copies of the correspondences to the company underwriting the TDS? If nothing is done by the time our contract is up and we decide to leave the property, will our correspondences be acceptable evidence against the original audit? Thanks in advance for any advice. Just Joe

Thank you for replying... OK, I kind of hit a slight hitch in the process... and oddly the delay is my end and not theirs... must be a first... Anyway I sent off my Prelim Letter about the beginning of April demanding just over £1300. I then got the standard... "We're sorry your not happy" blah blah "we take complaints very seriously" blah blah "we'll respond in our own time" blah blah blah blah blah blah... you all know the one... I then sent the LBA off mid April. If it sounds like I don't really know when they were sent it's because I lost my files when my HDD on my old PC failed, although I have sent it off to get the data recovered so I should get them back soon hopefully. Date wise I can back the dates up with the postage receipts. Anyway, I've ended up delaying sending my Small Claims documents to the Court, because of the PC, but about two days after I was supposed to send it I had a reply from Woolwich offering me just shy of £1000.00 as a "courtesy"... Now if I ask "Should I accept it?" you're going to say "No! Nail 'em to the wall!" or something similar... but what I would like some advice on is; 1. The letter said "full and final settlement", however as I haven't submitted a claim to the courts yet, should I give the Woolwich a second opportunity to settle in full? Would this not look better in a small claims court? 2. I've also recently been put on a long case for jury duty, which will probably last till the end of August, so should I forward the claim to the courts anyway, and then put the date off till I'm released from service? 3. Will I have problems because of the delay I've caused? Thanks in advance...

22/3/07 Received a letter today from the Woolwich. :o Firstly, I'm impressed that they actually replied within their own deadline, and secondly I'm surprised that they provided me a breakdown of my charges instead of sending me six years worth of statements for me to plough through. I suppose they have started to see that people are going to claim whether they make it difficult or not so they might as well save on the postage and just send out a statement with charges only. I'm just transferring the data to Excel so that I can work with it, but I have one question which I'd ask someone to please answer. QUESTION: I noted from the FAQ's that an "agreed overdraft fee" cannot be claimed back, but what is an "agreed overdraft fee"? The Woolwich have a code OD which is an "Unauthorised Daily Overdraft Fee", is this the same thing? They come out of the account at the same time each month for different amounts, anything between £6 and £60 on my statement. Are these actually reclaimable "Total Charges"? Any help would be appreciated...

That's what I forgot... Janet-M is correct about the time and date thing when used in a court of Law. I have had this pointed out to me once when a CCTV camera wasn't changed after the end of British summertime. Basically, the video would not be admissible as the time would be different to the actual time of the offence.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure that if you want to use a taped conversation as evidence in a court of law then both parties must be made aware at the beginning of the conversation that it is being recorded, anything said before disclosure is inadmissible. You don't need their permission, you just need to make them aware. For personal use however then it's fine that they don't know. As for CCTV I believe a similar thing applies. Again you don't require permission but you do need to show that you have tried to make people aware of the fact. As long as you put up clear notices that your premises our under surveillance then the video is admissible. Remember, there have been cases where people have recorded neighbours "from hell" committing a criminal offence, but have then been unofficially cautioned themselves when they'd handed the video to the police because they did not make the offenders aware they could have been under surveillance. I believe only the police and customs can obtain and use surveillance footage without obviously making people aware... I'd need to double check that last bit though. Police can only use surveillance tapes in court that do adhere to this rule, it the same with taped conversations. While anything will be accepted that will help in their enquiries, I doubt they'll attempt to submit it as evidence, because it'll be chucked out and weaken a case.

This happened to me some years ago... I arrived at the car park near the station as usual, tried to buy a ticket but the money just kept coming back out. Soon there was a little group of us trying the machine... but it just wouldn't take. So I put a note on my dashboard to say the machine wasn't working. Came back later to find my car and quite a few others had been ticketed... the warden must have thought it was Christmas... which if I remember rightly it nearly was. A couple of us from that morning arrived on the same train and weren't very pleased. Anyway I sent a letter explaining the situation and received a response from the council that they'd had no report of the machine being faulty and that I must pay. Luckily, a few days later I met a few of the people I'd met that morning in the same car park, and they'd all said they'd got a similar response. So we all co-signed a letter to the council together with some of the people I'd seen again on my return journey, asking again for the tickets to be cancelled. They contacted us individually, cancelling our tickets and making the excuse of "administration error".

Round 1 - Subject Access Request 21/2/07 Sent the SAR, which I had to make a few changes to, because I don't like standard letters. Says exactly the same thing just more in keeping with the way I write letters... look, I'm fussy like that OK? Be thankful you don't have to live with me... Deadline: 3/4/07 - Approx. 40 Days 23/2/07 Received a standard letter today, thanking me for taking the time to tell them about my dissatisfaction, which is odd as my letter said nothing of the sort. Maybe it's just me but I'm starting to get the feeling that this isn't the first time they've had to deal with a customer wanting to reclaim unfair bank charges? ;-) Anyway, they aim to deal with my "complaint" by the 23rd of March... which is nice... The letter was "signed" by Michele Wallis, who is a female Jazz singer, and a very good looking one at that. I never knew she also worked for the Woolwich. Where does she find the time? I think she secretly likes me though, as she's returned my £10 cheque. Maybe I should ring her up and ask her out on a date? Their Aim: 23/3/07

I'd say that the Woolwich would not be happy to disclose the actual financial cost of a single Admin Fee, because I doubt they'd be able to substantiate the £35 charge. If shown that it was greatly inflated, then there is proof of it's unlawful nature, and should the Judge then decide in your favour, a precedent would have been created which could prove very costly for Barclays T/A the Woolwich. Good luck, and prepare yourself as much as possible.

or is it all Barclays now? I have been a long time customer with the Woolwich for well over 20 years. Unfortunately, our relationship broke down over the past few years when I found out she was sleeping with another bank... damn that Barclays... On a serious note though, I have been with them for a long time but was getting really frustrated with the service (or lack there of) and had a number of issue with charges they had issued me because they held on to my paychecks a couple of days longer to benefit from the extra interest. Although I recently moved banks, I still have the Woolwich accounts open and after reading on this site and on the Martin Lewis one, I've sent a letter for information of charges under the terms of the DPA. Hopefully, I should have read most of the information on this site a couple of times by the time they send me the information, so I can make an informed decision. Then I can move on and forget this unsatisfying relationship. I'll even tear up the photo of my branch that I look at longingly from time to time.