Hello all, I understand that many of you have had the same problems as us - Halifax have refunded the charges and the 8% on the charges, but submitted a defence for the compound interest. Although, the defence seems to be that they 'don't understand' how we have calculated the figures. Glad we've got competent, numerate people working in our bank, at any rate... :o/ Anyway! So we need to respond to Halifax' so called defence, so this is our letter, for your perusal - does this sound OK? Thanks WendyN "Dear Sir / Madam, Thank you for your letter dated 23/10/06. In the interests of resolving this matter without either party incurring further court costs etc, and without unnecessarily taking up the court’s time, I would like to take the opportunity to make the following comments and proposal regarding the current situation. Halifax Plc state that they do not understand how the figures I have provided have been calculated. I have provided a schedule of charges to them on a number of occasions, and attach another copy to this letter. As stated on this schedule, I have been charged £---.-- in penalty charges in the last 6 years. These sums can be supported by the copy bank statements kindly provided by Halifax Plc. The removal of these charges from my account has cost me £---.-- in compound interest over the last 6 years, as shown on the schedule. I have then added 8% in statutory interest to these amounts. I am claiming this s69 interest only because Halifax Plc have forced me to raise a court claim by refusing to refund my charges earlier in the process. Halifax Plc also state that they have paid me £---.-- to settle this claim. In actual fact, they made this offer in their letter dated --/--/--; which I only accepted as partial settlement of my claim in my letter dated --/--/--. Despite this, Halifax Plc paid this amount into my account on --/--/--. In the spirit of reconciliation, and in order to resolve this matter at the earliest opportunity, I am happy to accept in full and final settlement of this claim the further sum of £---.--. This sum comprises the unpaid overdraft interest, plus the daily S69 interest to the date of the previous payment. We trust this letter will clarify any previous misunderstanding or misinterpretation by Halifax plc regarding our claim. We look forward to receiving your favourable response to this letter, in order that we can inform the court that an amicable settlement has been reached. Please do not hesitate to contact us as above, should you require any further clarification or explanation. Yours faithfully"

Thanks for this, Bill K! That's what we thought, just making sure. The claim is now being 'defended' by Halifax. Initially we think this was just to get the extra 14 dyas to respond, however they did say that they would defend the extra money should we not accept their offer. I suppose we just wait to hear from them at this stage - the ball is in their court!

Hello, sorry to butt in! Am writing about this thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank/43392-halifax-offer.html We are following Vampiress' compound spreadsheet: England - Advanced - Excel which allows you to list charges & interest for prior to MCOL, and then charges + 8% & interest + 8% for MCOL. This means that we are claiming compound interest + statutory interest on MCOL. Is this correct? Can we claim both? I have already taken HSBC to court using the same spreadsheet and won. Now that I have managed to convince my flatmate to do the same thing with Halifax, a couple of people have said that you can't actually claim both, and we're starting to doubt ourselves. Apparently Halifax are disputing the interest on interest, and refusing to pay. Do we know best or do they?! Would really appreciate a hand with this. Have searched many threads about this and am just getting more confused...!

Well, good luck arguing for the rest with them...! Keep us all posted!

Hello, they have told MCOL that they will defend, but I think that's so that they can get the 28 days. Claim date was 23/10/06, so we have 13 days left, and 2 days left of their ultimatum. We will be accepting the money as a partial settlement today I think. We're sending the schedule of costs again, although they've had it before... :o)

Hi Neilbass, looks like we have the same problem - Halifax have agreed to pay the penalties back, and nominal 8% interest, but not the compound interest as per the advanced spreadsheet, and the 8% interest on that. We have 7 days to reply. We will be accepting the amount in part payment of the total, sending copies of our advanced spreadsheet with all the calculations on, carrying on with the court claim, and hoping for the best. Any advice gratefully accepted! WendyN

Hello, how did you get on with this? Did you get the whole lot back? We might be having the same problem... WendyN

Hello, just checked the figures again - it's the advanced spreadsheet that we are using to calculate interest, as per Vampiress' page. The figures are all correct - PENALTY CHARGED £525.00 INTEREST ON PENALTIES £365.59 8% ON PENALTIES £125.28 8% ON INTEREST ON PENALTIES £71.24 Has anyone else had this problem? A partial offer of payment AFTER the MCOL claim has been submitted? Just need some reassurance with turning it down - if this has happened to a lot of people, then it's just Halifax trying it on... Thanks for your help! WendyN

Did they make this offer before or after you started your claim through the small claims court? WendyN

Our only concern is, that Halifax say that they will defend this £433. We're a bit worried that Halifax knows something we don't, and will try to pick apart our calculations. We've checked them, and they seem to be fine - the issue seems to be with the interest calculations. We are claiming £525 penalty charges, then ~17% EAR compound interest on these (~£365), as per Vampiress' spreadsheet. We are then claiming 8% statutory interest on top of these amounts, now that it's gone to court, so it's ~£640 + ~£433. Is anyone else having this problem? We only have 7 days to respond either way. Thanks! WendyN

Hi Prancing Pony! the next stage is this: put all the charges into a spreadsheet to calculate the interest: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html and write a letter to your bank, including the total figures, and a copy of the spreadsheet: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/671-2-letter-preliminary-approach.html NB: only put the stuff in about default notices if you have had one. If you need a hand with any of this, let me know. I got ~£1500 from HSBC a couple of months ago, so it does work!! And it feels great to help other people get their money back too :o~ WendyN

That's exactly what is happening with our claim: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank/43392-halifax-offer.html The letter we received from the Halifax states: "The Halifax does not consider that you are entitled to the further £~433 that you are claiming. Unless you can provide evidence of this further loss the Halifax will file a defence in respect of this part of your claim. " Up to now, I was under the impression that Halifax were just paying up where they couldn't fight it, and defending when they thought they could pick holes in a case (faulty calculations, etc.) However, we think ours is fine. Is this Halifax starting to bite back, and send threatening letters to cause problems? WendyN

????? I claimed, and got, both from HSBC not above two months ago. I just followed the guidance from the FAQs, and from Vampiress' spreadsheets: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html Surely that's not right?! Kind of want to fight for this if we're entitled to it. WendyN

Good luck Sacha911 - it takes a while, but it's well worth it! Got ~£1500 from HSBC after ~8 weeks. WendyN

Hello, hope the formatting of the figures works this time...! (First column of Vampiress' interest calculation spreadsheet) Original Penalty Charges for last 6 yrs 525.00 +8% interest on claiming through MCOL 122.63 MCOL court costs 120.00 Total: 767.63 (Second column of Vampiress' interest calculation spreadsheet) Compound Interest on Penalty Charges over last 6 yrs 365.59 +8% interest on claiming through MCOL 69.39 Total: 434.98 GRAND TOTAL: 1,202.62 Halifax Offer: TOTALS: Actual Penalties 525.00 Nominal Interest Payment 124.44 MCOL Court Costs 120.00 GRAND TOTAL: 769.44 (Disputed: 433.18) Thanks WendyN

Tried again, sorry :o)

Sorry, figures got mangled - have tried to edit them!

Hi guys, I need some advice on behalf of a friend of mine who is going through this process! He has: a) got his statements, b) compiled his spreadsheet, c) sent off LBA1 & LBA2, d) got a stupid offer from Halifax which he refused, then e) made a claim on Moneyclaim Online: TOTALS: (ORIGINAL CHARGES) 525.00 (+8%) 122.63 COSTS 120.00 767.63 (INTEREST ON CHARGES) 365.59 (+8%) 69.39 434.98 TOTAL: 1,202.62 He has now received another offer from Halifax, a bit less stupid than the first, but still considerably less than he asked for: TOTALS: (ORIGINAL CHARGES) 525.00 (+8%) 124.44 COSTS 120.00 769.44 TOTAL: 769.44 (Disputed: 433.18) They seem to be paying him for the charges, and 8% interest on the charges, but not the original interest & 8% on that (if that makes sense!). (NB: for my HSBC claim, I got the lot.) The letter states: '...we do not consider you are entitled to the further £433.18 that you are claiming. Unless you can provide evidence of this further loss the Halifax will file a defence in respect of this part of your claim'. Most people on this board seem to agree that Halifax only dispute charges at this stage if they think they can win - do you think that they have a point with this and that he should just settle? Or are they trying in on and he should hold on for the lot? Or, third option (as he needs to respond within 7 days) - should he ask WHY they are disputing the £433.18? Any help and advice very much appreciated! WendyN

Hello, 1. No, they just said that if we did take the landlord to court, he would probably counter sue - although with what evidence, remains to be seen, as no final inventory check was taken. 2. Yes, we have it in writing from the landlord in a letter from April 2004. This is why we are seeking more than £50. Wendy

Hello, we also had an overseas landlord (Overseas Landlord post for for more info). He also decided to hold onto our deposit, for no reason whatsoever, and we didn't think we could do anything about it. If you did not let through an estate agent based in the UK, did you use a power of attorney in the UK? Who did you pay your rent to? Here's the legal stuff you need, from someone a few months further on in the small claims process to you :o) Residential Landlord - Landlord regulations Section 47, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 This legislation requires that every demand for rent carries the address of the landlord and if that address is outside England and Wales the demand for rent must also carry an address in England and Wales where notices in proceedings can be served on the landlord. Failure to comply with section 47 means that any portion of the rent which is attributable to service charge is not lawfully due. The address of the landlord on such a written demand could be the landlord’s office address, rather than home address. Section 48 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 This requirement is very similar to section 47 but with a subtle difference – it requires that the tenant must be given an address in England where notice of proceedings can be served on the landlord – it follows that this address does not have to be that of the landlord. Until section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 is complied with rent is not lawfully due. What this basically means is that it is illegal not to have an address in the UK to pay rent to, and serve papers on. The person you pay the rent to is the person you can take to the small claims court to get your deposit back. If this isn't the case then they have taken money from you unlawfully and you can claim all of the rent you've ever paid back from them. Good luck! Don't let him get away with it. WendyN

Hi chaps, here I am again. OK, so we sent an LBA to the company director, and copied in the local office. Got a letter back from the local office saying that they had sent a copy of our letter to the landlord in Thailand for his instructions, and his power of attorney (thought he didn't have one any more ?!). Wrote back saying that they had only been copied in as a courtesy, and that we were taking it up with head office. Sent another reminder after 14 days, and eventually had the following offer: of our total claim £1000, plus costs plus interest, they offered us £550 plus £50 as a goodwill gesture. We wrote to them to turn this offer down, and re-served the papers on them 11/09/06. Strangely, head office then sent us two cheques for £300 yesterday anyway, so we can't decide whether they crossed in the post, or whether they are planning to defend the claim by saying that they have paid us off. I'll be drafting a letter over the weekend saying that we accept the money only as part payment for the claim and will still be taking them to court for the rest... So again, will keep you posted of progress! I think we must be on the right track though! 13/04/05 - One month's rent promised by landlord (£450) 04/06/05 - Damages deposit retained by landlord on leaving property (£550) 05/06/06 - MCOL claim served on overseas landlord (£1000 + interest + costs) 01/08/06 - Letter Before Action sent to his UK estate agent 11/09/06 - re-served papers on UK estate agent

Yikes! Didn't realise that about the overdraft charge... thanks for the warning. As for the £510, I noticed that you had an offer from HSBC - could you accept a partial offer in the interim, but take them to court for the rest?

Hi again, just DG Solicitors putting a defence in straight away that they had settled out of court. They were quick off the mark - the money only went in that day! Cheers for your help everybody! Wendy HSBC HSBC Letter sent: 19/06/06 - £1,330.14 LBA Letter sent: 10/07/06 - £1,330.14 MCOL claim submitted: 25/07/06 -£1625.19 + £120 costs HSBC Settled in full 17/08/06 - £1745.19 - yay!

PS good luck with everything! You're going great! I had all my money, in full, this last week, so there's not long to go! HSBC HSBC Letter sent: 19/06/06 - £1,330.14 LBA Letter sent: 10/07/06 - £1,330.14 MCOL claim submitted: 25/07/06 -£1625.19 + £120 costs HSBC Settled in full 17/08/06 - £1745.19 - yay!

Hiya, Alliance & Leicester are pretty good, they say they will match your overdraft level wherever possible, and they have a switching over service: Current accounts - Alliance & Leicester