OKay previous claim was posted under the Scotland forum, but this claim was complicated so thought I would post a positive thread ..... It's a bit of a long one, sorry !! I had started a very small claim through the scottish court system for our joint account, whilst proceeding with MCOL for my own account balance. The Joint account claim was logged with local sheriff court 03/08/06 with a return date of 08/09/06 and a hearing date one week later. In the meantime I have started an MCOL for the balance on account No.2. Nothing was heard from HBOS regarding No.1 claim (which is unusual) but figured they were snowed under. Friday came and went and on Tuesday (court was closed for a local holiday on monday) I verified with the courts as to whether a defence had been lodged by HBOS. No they had no so we were to proceed to gain a decree in my favour on Friday 15th .... This still seemed very odd, so I called HBOS and chatted to a pleasant girl called Sue, who advised the last notes on the account were that I had advised I would "see them in court" ... I gave her all the court information and advised I needed a response from them by 4pm yesterday or I would proceed on gaining a judgement. Enter stage left Rachel Hinchliffe, I had read loads of stories about this lady and was interested to see what she would do .... she called the courts and go them to fax a copy of the summons, which they had never received, someone in their wisdom at the local court served the summons on the local branch and I assume they filed it in the bin ...... I waited all morning for their response, but nothing, so with exactly nothing to lose, I emailed Ms Hinchliffe at lunchtime advising of contact details and that I needed to know if they wished to enter into a dialogue with me or whether I would be seeking judgement come 4pm. Minutes later she called me and we chatted about the claim and what was I looking for. I told her very simply the base costs and my court fees (as this is all which is allowed under the scottish system) and once received into my account I would deem the matter settled. She agreed and advised that they would action this asap, I told her no communication would be made to the court re settlement until funds were lodged. 2 hours later she called me again, to confirm the instruction to pay into the account had been given, by which time I was looking at the funds showing on my balance. I thanked her for her time, she thanked me for allowing them the opportunity to settle. All very pleasant and she came across as really, really nice ...... Went to the cash point to move the money to my new account and she has only gone and settled the MCOL as well on me ...... happy days ...... So they can be a pain in the butt, and they can drive you to distraction, but just now and again, they can surprise you and dealing with them was very painless. Now let's see how painless on round 2 on account No.1 and round 1 on account No.3 T

Congratulations! T

Jim I'd check again, I too was getting concerned about mine, but this afternoon it showed as being acknowledged ..... Hope you hear something soon. T

keep at it, looks like you are doing fine ...... T

Good Luck honey. Keep strong and stick to your dates ..... they will try and push you and drag it out as long as they possibly can. If you start losing faith, phone me !!!! I will soon get you remotivated to get what's yours back. T xx

I have just done exactly the same. Round 1 completed at my local Sheriff Court, however I knew by my schedule that I may or may not be in the country for completion of round 2, so grovelled slightly to a friend over the border, we buddy each other through this process, and she is going to act as my agent, I trust her implicitly should it have to go to court to stand my corner for me .... if I am here, then great I have a reason to pay her a visit and go to court at the same time , I filed MCOL on Wednesday 06/9/06 .... hehehe .... here's hoping ..... T

Hi Louise Here is the LBA template for you ... Good Luck http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/92-letter-before-action-consumer.html T xx

thanks honey. Have now filed Moneyclaim for the 2nd and final part of this account (for the time being) Friday is the return date on hubby's account and they still have not paid out or filed a defence so they are taking it to the wire. And by the skin of their teeth HBOS sent in the account statements for the final 2 accounts. So after a few weeks of nothingness we are firing on all four cylinders again ... It's good to be back ..... oh and a donation will be winging its way shortly ... T xx

Hi guys Sorry I have not been around to update, been busy with real life work stuff and nothing new happening on my claim or my husbands .... which I am quite surprised at given the return date on his claim is next Friday!! I decided to settle without the 8% interest, purely in the interests of concluding that claim and being able to proceed with the next. I am taking on an agent for the next claim as I will not be in the country when it comes to key strategic dates, and thankfully I have a good friend who has been through this process herself and she has been good enough to offer to see it through for me whilst I am away ... the bonus to this is that she is cross border so will use MCOL for the court system .... So fingers crossed we get a conclusion to hubby's claim within the next week and then we can start the final process on his. On my hit list for today is to chase up the DPA info on my last 2 accounts as they cashed my cheque 18 days ago !!!!!! T xx

thanks Charlieho..... I did think that they would be from then, but if they want to pay me more then so be it. I have an issue that they can suit themselves what is included and what is not .... T xx

Well, another day and another load of waffle and spin from HBOS. Got my letter through confirming the refund of charges and court fees, no mention of the interest. So I make a call and they advise me that there was no mention of interest on the court papers ..... stop right there! ..... I advised her to read the court papers and look specifically to section 4 where I stated quite clearly what was required from them the principal sum, court fees and 8% interest from the date of service ...... not rocket science. She advised they'd need to have a look at it, I agreed for them to do this and requested a call back once they had takent the time to read my summons, she advised that would not happen it would just be credited to my account. I then advised her that although not ideal I would accept but that I would like to remind her that the return date is in 2 weeks so they do not have a lot of time to review this. Hehehe I did enjoy that bit Following on from this I contacted the lovely lady at the Sheriff Court and we discussed my case, she advised that she had received a letter yesterday from the bank but had filed it as it had no consequence to her, the only communication she would accept on settlement of my claim is from me. She advised me that they are taking the mickey somewhat as it was perfectly clear I had demanded interest on the amount. We also went on to discuss the Summary Cause pros and cons for the balance and she is now sending out the summary cause papers to me, we did discuss the whole charges issue in greater detail, and I wad very encouraged by her comments .... so, we shall see what will happen next, but in the meantime I am getting my next round of letters done ready for posting. T xx

claimitall Many thanks, that was my gut feeling, but knowing they didn't pay fruitycar theirs either, I wondered if they were using a loophole I was unaware of to get out of paying it. Thanks again for taking the time to reply on my thread too. T xx

Claimitall, I am in a similar position to you, and I have decided to go for summary cause next time, just to get the whole thing moving, and there are people out there who are being settled on summary cause. I decided to dip my toe in the legal waters using small claims, however I now think that by settling out of court (I'll come back to this in a minute) they have weakened their position when I go for summary cause. Now back to the small claim, can I ask you a question ..... I received an injection of funds into my easycash account yesterday, but it is minus the interest payment, did you have to push for the interest, or did they just pay it separately? I am disinclined to advise the court that this is settled without the interest being paid back. thanks T xx

Woohoo ...... BOS have paid into my account today my charges and the court fee only ... no interest payment received, not surprised but not impressed either! No letter has been received yet, but hey I can wait, so can anyone tell me can I still pursue them for the interest outstanding? T xx

Good Luck tomorrow, hopefully they'll be able to adjust your dates for you. T xx

Hi Jolly, If you pop over to the Scotland board, Scotia has kindly posted a sticky thread with all the wording already done to use as a template for your claim. Good Luck T xx

Nice one, Enjoy your trip to the court today then!! LOL I only wish they settled as quickly here too ...... my claim has been filed since 31/7 and nothing heard yet, but a friend In England took HBOS on a week later and has been settled in full already .... lucky mare ... T xx

Good for you ...... now onto the next batch T xx

I agree, I would discuss it with the courts, when commencing proceedings on my husband's case I informed the court clerk of the dates we would be out of the country and she noted it and then entered an earlier return date and consequently earlier hearing date, as had she done it for the original date the hearing would have been on the day we leave ..... T xx

When I went with my papers to my Sheriff Office they advised me to use the wording : BOS, The Mound, Edinburgh, also having a place of business at: enter local branch details : T

It is your choice, you can either do a small claim for max £750 OR you can go for Summary Cause for up to £1500 The only difference I can see (May be wrong on this) is that small claim you are 100% protected from footing the banks legal bill, summary cause IF you lose you are liable for at least some of their costs ..... Of course you would need to lose the case for this to be a concern.... but it is entirely your call. I totally agree, there appears to be very few of us up here taking the banks on, so it is difficult to see any timeframes ...... T xx

dundeechicken, was your last correspondance your LBA? If so then go to the Scotland sub-forum in General, and Scotia has a sticky post which has links to the court system and form 1 and 1b for you to save and input the info into. You then take a wander down to your local sheriff court and pay your £39. They will then get the summons raised and serve it on the defender. You then have to sit tight for 6 weeks as this is the time allowed up here for the banks to lodge a defence your hearing will be 1 week after the return date. T xx

Hi guys I am in the Perth area, I have followed the prodecure laid out here and it has been great, I am now just over 2 weeks into the 6 week wait period in my small claim, whilst I wait and see IF HBOS are planning to defend my action. keep the faith and you will get there. T xx

well done honey ........ T

Good Luck if you do hand deliver yours, I tried to and they refused to accept it ...LOL Guess they knew what was in the letter . Told me it would take longer on internal mail and to just post it myself ..... don't you just love their customer service??!! T