I am so glad your courts are carrying on, my judge unfortunately has decided to stay all cases at Southend until the end of the test case (he has taken the motion to do this himself)

*****UPDATE***

We received the letter yesterday from Abbey and the court order from the judge (stating all cases at southend are being stayed until the end of the test case)

As claim is in hubby’s name, he said he wont bother trying to get the stay lifted as it was the Judge and not Abbey that put the stay there in the first place and therefore is unlikely then if he will then remove it/set aside the stay. (cant persuade him otherwise).

If it had been Abbey that had requested the stay, he would of applied to get it set aside, but as the judge has done it off his own motion, then he cannot see that the judge will then lift it. He is now prepared to wait for the test case, and in the meantime, we have both bombarded the MP’s MEP’s and OFT & FSA to get them to remove the waiver/stay on everyones claim, and also signed petitions.

Hi Dancegirl

We got exactly the same thing through the post yesterday as you. Claim is in hubby’s name and he said he wont bother trying to get the stay lifted as the Judge was the one who put the stay there in the first place and therefore is unlikely to remove the stay anyway.

If it had been Abbey that had requested the stay, he would of applied to get it set aside, but as the judge has done it off his own motion, then he cannot see that the judge will then lift it. He is now prepared to wait for the test case, and in the meantime, bombard the MP’s MEP’s and OFT & FSA to get them to remove the waiver/stay on everyones claim.

Did your standard letter have the paragraph “if you are unsure wherever you have an open offer or not, please contact us “ blah blah blah.

Rosemarymadder

If Angela Smith is your local MP, you must live reasonably close to me. Both me and hubby have sent her letters. Both have been read by a Lynda Gordon. I only work around the corner from her Constituency Office in Basildon, so maybe I will stand outside with a placard. Shouting at the top of my voice

(I know not very good, but rhyming was never one of my strong points) hee hee

Lee

Re Inga’s email saying a counter offer is in rejection of an original offer, I did a bit of research just to see if she was right or if it was Abbey trying to wriggle out of paying people and unfortunately she is right.

I came across this.

Hyde v Wrench (1840) 3 Beav 334

Wrench offered to sell his farm to Hyde for £1000.00. Hyde said we would pay £950.00. Wrench turned down the £950.00 offer, and Hyde wrote back saying that he accepted the original £1000.00 offer. There was no contract. This is the classic example of a counter-offer which amounts to a rejection of the original offer.

Heres another good link to a petition

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/109178-petiton-fsa-demanding-removal.html

Keep up the good work guys.

This is a petition to get the FSA to remove the waiver

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/109178-petiton-fsa-demanding-removal.html

this petition has been set up to complain to the FSA re the waiver, so far there has been 3000 signatures, please can you sign it if you havent already.

thanks

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/109178-petiton-fsa-demanding-removal.html

Signed petition and letters sent to MP and MEP's

Keep sticking to the court orders as they will strike it out otherwise. i know its a pain and they will probably get the stay, but stick with it.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/108984-list-all-mps-written.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/108220-fsa-review-waiver.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/107861-courts-cant-suspend-all.html

Has anyone had any reply from the FSA - I have't heard a peep from the rabble. They've battend down the hatches, has anyone complained to the FSA, I did but not a peep.

kog

this is what I received yesterday from the FSA when i emailed them.

]many thanks for your email which has been passed to the Chairman of the Consumer Panel, John Howard[

Jackie Allen[/

Consumer Panel Secretariat

how about writing a letter to the OFt and FSA complaining about the banks being allowed the waiver and request stays yet are allowed to carry on charging. the letter that has been sent to the MP's / MEP's can be adapted slightly to be sent to their OFt and FSA. I fired letters off and they have now been passed to the relevant chairmans. If we all write then maybe they will remove the waiver or a least make a ruling that the banks cannot charge whilst the test case is in progress.

if anyone wants a copyof the letter, PM me and I will send you it.

good luck and keep up the good fight.

check these threads out they are SO Helpful

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/108984-list-all-mps-written.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/108220-fsa-review-waiver.html

Did the MP back you up? I have had a response back from 2 MEP's and one local councillor, all backing and supporting us.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/108984-list-all-mps-written.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/108220-fsa-review-waiver.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/107861-courts-cant-suspend-all.html

Spence

Apparantly halifax CC are also staying all claims aswell.

I dont honestly see that the judge will set aside the stay if it was him that put it there in the first place. over in general forum we are trying to get people to lobby their mp's stating it is unfair to stay claims whilst still allowing banks to levy their charges. We have had some good feedback from MP's so far.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/108984-list-all-mps-written.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/108220-fsa-review-waiver.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/107861-courts-cant-suspend-all.html

DJ Dudley at Southend is also staying all claims.

here are mine then so far

Tom Wise

UK Independence Party MEP for the Eastern Region

Cllr Linda Williams (lib dem for basildon)

Steve Marshall

Casework Officer to Andrew Duff

Liberal Democrat MEP to the East of England

NOTE 2 ARE LIB DEMS.

This has just been posted, looks like the cases at southend are all going to be stayed (as per my letter received last week0, so my order wont be far away in the post.

if the judge has used his own initiative to stay the claims i cannot see that he will lift the stays, if people do object.

Re: Claims transferred to Southend...

Through the post this morning from Southend Court

Upon Proceedings having been issued in the High Court to determine the legality or otherwise of Bank Charges;

Before District Judge Dudley sitting at Southend County Court at Tylers House, etc.

An Upon it to the Court that this claim will be affected by the outcome of those proceedings;

IT IS ORDERED THAT

1. This claim be stayed until determination of the proceedings in the High Court.

2. Liberty to either party to apply on notice under CPR23 to lift the stay

3. The hearing of any application to lift the stay be reserved to District Judge Dudley

This order was made of the courts own initiave pursuant to CPR Part 3.3(4). You may apply to set aside, vary or stay Order but such application mustbe made within 7 days of receiving it.

Comments please, one and all, seems I got the first Southend Letter again.

If Macboy is in agreement, if we receive a reply from an MP, Local councillor or MP that agree with our cause, we could PM him the details for a list to be compliled.

I wasnt sure whether local councillors had an clout, but it might we worth lobbying them aswell. the more the merrier in our corner I say.

If you take a good luck around the MSE site, you will see numerous threads linking to this site for templates etc... Some links put there by MODs.

This friend has PM'd a MOD about this and had no reply, which I find to be extrmely arrogant and ignorant!

And this thread was pulled- so links to the templates etc... are OK but links to our little campaign are not it seems

I pm's martin personally to ask for this thread and link to be put on the MSE website, only to be told that he is going down a slightly different route. He will complete the bank consumer charter then speak to the MP's. I told him we would continue to plug away so that when he finally got around to talking to the MP's they knew what he was talking about and where already doing something about it.

Will do, keep up the good work everyone.

Just received the following encouraging reply from a researcher to Evan Harris. Does anyone have a link to the Times article? Let's keep the pressure on!

 

Muggy

 

"

Dear Richard,

 

I shall bring the matter to the attention of Dr Harris. Your letter makes an excellent case for the bank customers. Could you send me a copy of the article from The Times 27/07 which you refer to – if you are unable to do this I could try and find it myself.

 

Yours,

 

Nat"

Link to article Watchdog accuses banks of lying over charges - Times Online

This is the message I have received from Cllr Linda Williams (didn’t really know whether local councillors had any clout, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to send it to them as well).

Dear xxxxxx

You have my full support as I think that the whole situation is iniquitous

and the banking world will try to ensure that they carry on making the

obscene levels of profit in one way or another.

Linda Williams

I also received this today from Steve Marshall.

]Dear xxxxxxx

thank you for your letter

]The basic issue seems to be the need for a definitive ruling on whether or not the charges are unlawful. In principle, the banks cannot be expected to behave as if a ruling exists, until it does

However, in situations where the economic power on one side of an argument is vastly disproportional to that on the other, there is a real possibility of injustice occurring simply as a result of the time taken, and I will certainly make this point to the appropriate authorities

As far as the Human Rights dimension is concerned, it is the UK Act which is relevant at present. There can be no recourse to the European Court until all stages of the UK process have been exhausted. To achieve this you would need access to specialist legal advice, so the best approach is undoubtedly via one of the pressure groups established to help people take on the banks

The Court, incidentally, is not an EU institution, but depends on the Council of Europe. Britain’s adherence to the Convention came via the Council of Europe, and pre-dates our entry into the EU

Steve Marshall

Casework Officer to Andrew Duff

Liberal Democrat MEP to the East of England

Lee

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Just to clarify things once and for all for people, this is what I sent to Inga to put everyone’s mind at rest, and save them wasting their time.

“Without Prejudice”

Abbey’s website says it will honour any offer it made to a claimant prior to the OFT announcement for two months.

I am interested to know if the statement by Abbey on their website to “honour any offer”, includes an offer made to a claimant by Abbey who replied by letter/email without actually saying the words “I REJECT YOUR OFFER of 65%,” but who instead offered a counter offer.

Regards

And this was her response

"Without prejudice"[

Dear xxxx[

The making of a counter offer is a rejection of our original offer even if words such as "I reject your offer" are not used. Abbey will not be honouring original offers in circumstances where counter offers have subsequently been made. I trust this clarifies the position, however if you would like to discuss please do not hesitate to call.

Kind regards,

Hi Stranger (Kev)

Not enough people have sent the letters. I even tried asking martin lewis at MSE to put it on their website asking for them all to write to their MP’s but to no avail (got a reply but he is getting the consumer charter together first then speaking to the MP’s). I told him we would all persevere so by the time he contacted them, they would be in receipt of loads of complaint letters.

I have sent a letter to my 3 local councillors , local MP & 7 MEP’s plus a complaint to the OFT (received automated reply that it will be answered within 10-20 days) and FSA (read by a Jackie Allen). Will let you know what their response is if any.

So far, I have had a response back from one local councillor and from 2 MEP’s. All three support us even though there is not a great deal they can do, one is going to make the point known to the appropriate authorities.

Massive thanks to you for sending a letter to your MP. Abbey thread has gone quiet quite so its good to look in the general forum and see that people are busy working away, and they seem a lovely bunch, and some good ideas are being banded around.

I have PM'd people and have even put a thread in the abbey forum asking people to look in the general section and not just their bank forum, a few have listened and have now subscibed, we need help from the MOD's to spread the good word even further, we cannot do this ourselves without physically going into every bank forum. it is so frustrating isnt it?

I put this up on M Lewis's site. NOT ONE! NOT ONE has bothered.

Some people on this thread are doing a bl***y marvellous job!

I just don't understand we we are not getting the 'joining togehter of like minded souls'

DOS

I PM'd Martin Lewis at lunchtime and this is the response I have got.

Hi

Im working a slightly different way _ I plan to launch the bank charges customer charter - which i know is on CAG and will then speak to MPs once that's settled

martin [/end quote]

We claimants will keep the flag flying.