I would be surprised if they cant do anything based on their knowledge of this long standing dispute. If you've made a complaint because you felt in fear for your safety, I would have thought they are obliged to investigate. it would be worth a follow up call requesting an explanation of what action they have taken. You should not have to endure threats of violence or intimidation from your neighbours friends , family or associates, especially if you were on your own property going about your own business at the time. The Protection from Harassment Act is intended to provide protection to harassed individuals such as yourself in such instances. Keep your spirits up.

Hi DBL, Thanks for you advice. I really would like to keep my company as their is still a demand for the service I provide. I'm not refusing to pay the penalty, only disputing that it was applied unfairly, since it was a government funded / partly owned bank that closed the company bank accounts and effectively prevented the company from trading & employing accountant to do the business accounts. I would be interested to know if there is any chance of successfully defending this action. If not and I have to accept defeat, whats the worst that can happen? I really do feel that the CH / DCA has acted wrongly in this since they have raised an action which will take up court time, incurring more costs which they will then add to the existing penalty charge, even though I wrote to them explaining company situation. Grateful for any advise or constructive comments. Cheers, SH

Thanks for quick response Martin3030, Penalties were applied by Companies House. CH = Companies House DCA = Lewis Debt Services, the debt collection agency employed by CH. Hope this helps, would appreciate any thoughts on how best to deal with this. Cheers, SH

My small ltd company has been hit with a hefty penalty charge for late filing of accounts which it is unable to pay since it has effectively stopped trading as bank closed accounts over longstanding dispute and offset available funds to reduce overdraft. CH passed matter to DCA to collect payment, I told them business wasnt trading, had no income or assets (only me) and therefore couldn't pay. DCA has now instigated proceedings against company at local CC for payment of penalty charge with costs, even though I had written to them explaining that it was a pointless exercise. Can anyone offer some advice as to how to deal with this, I'm a bit concerned that DCA threatened that once they got a CCJ, if they couldnt get the money from the company they'd expect me to pay!

Hi martin3030, Been workin away for a while, business is picking up, you'd actually think that the bank would seem reassurred by this but no, still making life as difficult as possible. Bank still slippin up regarding OH's account and making reference to it in discussions & correspondence with me, can you suggest most effective way of dealing with this. Cheers SH

Hi Martin 3030, Sorry couldnt get back to you sooner, long day yesterday. Yes business acct still open, just, however I feel they would like to close this as they have placed so many restrictions on day - day banking (ignoring letters of appropriation, returning cheques even when accounted for in appropriations & adding charges for the privilage!) that its making it almost impossible to operate and costing time / money. Charges were mainly over fairly short period, June'10 to Feb'11 and only on current account overdraft, however they are now starting to add charges for returning cheques unpaid even after writing letters of appropriation and reaching agreement with them in advance of writing the cheques. OH first advised of their mistake in telephone call to branch and this was also followed up in letter of complaint to bank regarding no response to correspondence concerning all of my accounts. Actually have a letter apologising for 'their mistake' and assurance that it wouldnt happen again.....only to receive similar offending letter a few days later. Shortly afterwards OH received letter giving notice that they are closing OH's account even though its been managed well. OH has replied with formal complaint requesting explanation / justification for their actions & insisting that account should not be closed.....no response as yet. Grateful as always for any advice or support you are able to offer. SH

Hi Martin3030, 'Tis the ever caring RBS! They withdrew o/d facility because limit was exceeded due to interest + charges on unauthorised borrowing + more interest + even more charges....... applied at a time when work was slow and not much income coming in. Went to them to explain position as soon as problems envisaged...met with a brick wall. SH

Hi, Hope someone can give a bit of advice / help with this one. Bank has withdrawn overdraft facility on my business current account and have sent a few letters now asking for proposals to repay this however their letters also include OH's bank account details incl o/d balance even though OH's has nothing to with business and we have always had seperate personal accounts. Now OH has complained over phone that this shouldn't be happening, and they've acknowledged that its a serious failure, but the letters still keep coming with OH's details. OH wants to make a formal complaint to ICO, can anyone advise best way to go about this for maximum effect? Should OH write to bank first or go straight to ICO? Grateful for any advice or opinions. Cheers SH

Bumping, would really appreciate some help with this one guys!

Bumping

Hi guys, Finally got some time to update this spreadsheet but need a bit of clarification if you wouldn't mind. Using the compiund interest calculator which Still_surviving kindly directed me to, is the interest compounded monthly or annually? Also, I was thrown off a bit because the spreadsheet which I used from the library churns out a different set of values from the compoiund interest calculator even when same dates / principal amounts are used, any ideas? Grateful as always for your help & advice. Cheers SH

Well, not unsurprisingly, no reply from RBS to letter of appropriation. I called local RBS Business Relationship Manager who confirmed she had received her copy and tried to get someone in their Business Collections Team for me to speak with. After a number of unsuccessful calls on my behalf (allegedly), her only advice was that I should phone their 'team' to discuss my proosals to settle account and whether they might allow me to withdraw some of the funds that they had mis-appropriated. She also suggested that I should arrange alternative banking facilities and when pushed on the matter, reluctantly confirmed that RBS were no longer going to provide me with a business banking facility. I've stopped any further payments from being made while I sort out another bank account. The RBS have certainly not been 'fair' or 'sympathetic' in their dealings with me and have caused so much stress, anxiety and hardship for me and my family, they've worsened our financial situation without us spending a penny! Any advice on what my next steps sould be would be really appreciated. Cheers, Sare Heid

dx100uk, Wow, thanks for such a quick response! I'm concerned that the letter of appropriation will fall into the same big black hole (bin?) as all my other letters, how long should I give them to respond, I wouldn't want another payment into the account to be consumed by them. If my experience with RBS is anything to go by, it could take weeks to get another business account up & running. Cheers, SH

Good Morning to the 16 guests, if you happen to work for the RBS, get your act sorted!

Hope someone can help me with this one. Business bank account with RBS however shortage of work over last few months meant no money paid in, o/d maxed out. Kept getting computer generated letters asking for proposals for payment but when I respond with specifics I get no response other than more computer generated letters asking for proposals. Local Business Manager washed her hands of account as soon as I could see I might need their help, passed me on to their Business Collections dept, a faceless bunch who can do nothing more than read of a screen script! Despite many written requests they wouldn't even stop charges or interest on o/d and thats what has taken the o/d beyond original limit and now I'm incurring even higher charges for 'unauthorised borrowing' ! Recently managed to secure some contract work and wrote to them to advise anticipated value, payment pattern etc and asked that they temporarily increase o/d to cover initial start up costs and that the o/d be reduced over a period of months back to original limit. They couldn't be bothered to respond. First payment went into the account recently and they kept the lot, didn't even leave me anything to pay wages, expenses, suppliers, VAT, paye/ni........not a penny. Called their business collections dept, "sorry, we haven't received any letters or faxes, nothing we can do without these, anyway its down to you as you owe the bank the money". This has really got me p****d off, isnt their some kind of regs or banking code that prevents them from behaving like this? This organisation, and many others no doubt, seem to think they are above the law. Im having to rely on goodwill and support of family, etc to get me through at the moment, I feel I'm working for absolutely nothing at the minute. Sorry if I've ranted on but my blood is still boiling, I'm probably not the first that this has happened to and I'd appreciate any helpful advice / support / comments from others. How easy would it be to open another business bank account with another bank?. Cheers SH

Hi SS & thanks for getting back so quickly. I wasn't sure whether I should use the APR or the annual interest rate compounded, and opted for the latter, was this wrong? The rate I used was from the 'original' T&C's but as you say, the 'most recent' version quotes a higher APR rate of 23.1%. I want to get this right otherwise it'll not be taken seriously and if I should use the higher then so be it. Would appreciate your thoughts / input. Cheers SH

CAP1-Penalty Chgs.pdfHi all, Received response to SAR request, pretty much all there except communications log so will chase for that. In the meantime, I've gone through the statements to check what charges have been put on the account, quite surprised at how it all adds up! I'd be grateful if someone could have a look at the sheet attached and let me know if it looks quite right or if not before I send off to Cr*pone. I've used the annual % rate from the 'original' t&c's they sent me (pot #4). Statutory interest still to be added (8%). Cheers SH

Thanks repo, Will have a look for this and start reading while all is quiet & still. SH

Hi vic, Thanks for the quick reply, I'll have a closer look through and see what other inconsistencies & errors I can find. Our objective with this one was to try and determine enforcibility of cca so OH can make an affordable and sustainable offer of payment, without the worry that OC could enforce. Clearly, this is a very poor reconstruction and wouldn't they need original to try and enforce in court due to age, was it not ruled somewher (Carey?) that when providing a reconstructed cca, the OC had to confirm whether it had the original in its possession? I may have got this confused since been reading quite a bit recently. Any ideas on how best to get them to confirm whether an original exists or not? Isn't it better to write back and say that we dont accept s.78 request has been properly satisfied or not? OC terminated by issuing formal demand for payment on back of defective DN, so OH wrote back accepting unlawful rescission. I believe this would entitle OC to receive payment of arrears at date of termination (or is it date of default notice?), does this entitlement still apply if no properly executed / enforceable agreement exists? Inevitably, Barkingmad or their tame DCA's will write back, probably ignoring the fact that OH has already accepted unlawful rescission, so want to be prepared with good response. Grateful as ever for your support and assistance. Cheers SH

mcjohnson, The relevant section of the act is s.92(1), which is quite clear when it says 'Except under order of a court...... shall not be entitled to enter any premises to take possession of goods....', this applies to consumer hire agreements also. It's quite specific & doesn't say ' unless invited' or give the owner / creditor any other options. They had already written rejecting my offer of voluntary termination so by turning up at our front door in the evening without any prior notice or invitation was, IMO, a clear indication of their intent to repossess without compliance with their statutory duty. This was confirmed by the repo agents who said that they would turn up next day with recovery truck and lift off my drive regardless. Also having issued a defective DN, I dont believe they were entitled to enforce it (repossess) = unlawful rescission! They should know better. They've since issued a 2nd equally defective notice - how's that for sheer incompetence! I tried playing fair with this bunch at the outset, even offered to pay reduced payments and extend the hire period, but no, it seems their greed got the better of them. If they have messed up in any way, I want to make sure it hits them where it hurts most...... in the pocket! I'm no legal expert though and legal interpretation of consumer law by the lower courts would appear to be a bit of a lottery from what I've read so far, so, grateful as always for opinions and comment. Cheers SH

Hi vic, After my last pots (#19), OH received another letter from in-houes DCA demanding that OH should contact and make arrangemnts to pay full amount. Sent them copy of last letter to Barkingmad and told them to return account to their client, would not correspond further with them. Lo and behold, response to CCA request drops through the door from Barkingmad (see attached scan0059.pdf ). Spotted a few peculiarities with this; - covering letter looks like a poor cut & paste effort since none of OH previous requests made any reference to CPR - letter states 'please find enclosed a copy of your original executed agreement and a copy of the latest terms & conditions.....' - despite actually providing a reconstructed/reconstituted copy which is clearly not the original since it has our current address and not the address where we actually lived at time account was opened (some 10 yrs ago), and states most recent %APR. Also makes ref to agreements entered into after 26/11/10! - t&c's provided are not the current ones, appear to be a variation of earlier / original t&c's since %APR is only a few % lower than last statement and refers to default charges of £15. - pg3 of attachment shows cover sheet which they attached to trifold type t&c's and had OH name & address type in large letters on top lh corner (which I've deleted). The cca response fails to confirm whether they actually hold, or have ever held an original properly executed agreement - I think i have read that they must do so wnen providing reconstructed versions (CPUTR?), or am I mistaken. Now surely if they have a properly executed original (or copy) it would have been easier to send a copy of that? Doesn't look like a properly executed or enforceable agreement to me however I would appreciate a second (or third, or fourth....) opinion. Cheers SH

Hi carpe73, Have a look at info in link that tingy posted (post #21), there's some good info in there. Was this an HP agreement, if so the cancellation sum should be shown on the CCA? If you dont have a copy of CCA, you could send request with £1 postal order to get a copy, which should confirm what the correct sum was. It would also specify whether the original creditor / DCA was entitled to add any charges or interest after termination. When you terminated agreement with finance company, did you put this in writing, have you kept a copy? Were all payments up to date? You say that this happened over 5 years ago and haven't heard from them since, any outstanding debt could be / or may about to become statute barred, depending on where you are in the UK. Are you happy that these 'solicitors' are above board and not just another part of a DCA looking to try and get some money out of you? Was this just a letter delivered by standard post or actual court papers delivered by registered post. If you could scan letter /docs and post up (remove all personal info, references, etc!!) it would be useful for others in helping you. Please remember - you should never communicate with these people over the phone, get everything in writing. Also, don't acknowledge that you owe these people anything (unless of course you are happy that you do!), its up to them to prove what you owe and that they are entitled to collect it. Try not to get too stressed or worry, hopefully some others will be along soon to give you more support and assistance. You might be better to start a thread of your own so that your posts / replies dont get lost or overlooked in this one. Hope this has helped. Sare Heid

Hi Dotty, Could be considered unfair practice by not referring reasonable offer of payment to OC - OFT Debt Collection Guidance (section 2.8g). SH

Bumping - sorry if I appear impatient guys but want to keep the pressure on! cheers SH

Hi vic, I don't really think its a genuine offer, not even a hint of any figures, just a lame attempt to get OH to call them. Think we'll just wait and see what sort of reply we get from Barkingmad........ assuming they bother of course! cheers SH