Hi DS, the judgement was precipiated as a result of me sending in the N225 form requesting judgement after the court date had been cancelled (it was the court's own initiative though to cancel the date due to non submission of evidence by Abbey). In any case I reckon Abbey are settling a couple of days before the court date anyway so the quicker you can get to getting a court date, the better. Abbey will put you off all the way till then.

Thanks everyone. A post-script to my story. The money has now been deposited in my Abbey account. I'll be heading off to a branch tomorrow to draw it all out and and close it. "I feel my relationship with Abbey has broken down and I no longer wish to do business with them" (which is what some banks do to their customers who claim the charges back, funnily enough). At the same time the Judgement came through from the court! It was a "Judgement for Claimant (in default)" issued because they effectively supplied no defence. I did find it highly amusing that it contained statements such as "WARNING - If you ignore this order your goods may be removed or sold or other enforcement proceedings may be taken against you" and "Details of this judgement will be entered in a public register.." and "This will make it difficult for you to get credit". It is great to turn the tables on a bank. haha. Since Abbey have now settled I will do the honourable thing and write to the court informing them so that the court will cancel the entry on the register. I would hate to be responsible for Abbey not being able to get credit in the future. How could I sleep at night? Thanks again to all who helped and good luck to those still going through the process. Do not give up whatever you do.

Thankyou karnevil! dsilverstein - in reply to your comments - yes it looks like you are at a similar stage to me with your cases. Hopefully an order will be made striking out their defence due to the missed deadline which you can then follow up with a request for judgement. In my case it looks like abbey have settled simply becuase they thought the court date was in a couple of days time. To me it looks like they have not even realised that the date was cancelled - so I have still got a request for judgement floating through the court system somewhere.. But anyway - it just shows that sticking with it works. Never give up!

Hi everyone. Had a letter this morning from Abbey PLC at Triton Sq. - just a couple of days before my (now cancelled by the judge due to lack of evidence from Abbey) court date. Apparently, after conducting a complete review of my account, and without admission of liability, yadayada, THEY ARE SETTLING MY CLAIM IN FULL! Thats all my claimed charges, claimed interest, additional interest to date and the £220 court fees for filing the claim. Basically everything I asked for, totalling £1858.80! Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I have not got the money yet but I will be keeping a close eye on it before informing the court that settlement has been made. Many, many thanks to this forum and everyone that is helping everyone else on the way!.

Cheers ICY and Karnevil. I posted the N225 today to the court. It will be interesting to see how long it is before anything happens now. I have a friend who managed to get a CCJ registered against Intelligent Finance, uncontested by them. He was unsure if they would cough up but their legal dept eventually wrote a letter enclosing full settlement. They woke up when they realised they had the CCJ against them and it forced them to pay. Hopefully anyone else which gets to this stage needn't necessarily panic or try to get bailiffs in - I think they will have to pay in the end.

Thanks for your replies. In the end I went for a variation on the N205A - the N225 "Request For Judgement and reply to admission (specified amount)" form, which requests judgement based on the defendant not filing a defence and allows details of the amounts claimed including interest and fees to date to be entered. If Abbey are true to form and still asleep on my case then I'm hoping this will do the trick and I will finally get a county court judgement awarded against them. It's taken 5 months so far but has been worth the effort.

My court date was quickly approaching - 27 March 07. However, I have just received a letter from the court, telling me that upon reading the documents filed and of it's own initiative and without a hearing, they have made the following order: 1. The defendant having failed to file documents as set out in the order dated 12 December 2006 (as extended on 22 February 2007) by 7th March 2007 or at all, the defence is struck out in accordance with the provisions of that order, and accordingly the Claimant may enter a judgement in default. 2. The hearing listed for 27 March 2007 is cancelled. I would like to thank the judge at Leicester County Court for doing that! So I guess that looks like I'm on to a winner! It looks like I need to enter a judgement by default - not sure what that means but will try to find out unless some kind soul could tell me what I need to be doing now? Then I would assume once the judgement is passed I have to wait until they pay up or send the bailiffs round to whip the cash till out of my local branch. That'll be fun.

Hi drufcdragonno12 - thanks that looks like the right thing to do.

My case has got as far as a court date being set (getting closer!) and the judge ordered as below. I complied with my part but I called the court today (7th Feb) and they tell me they have received nothing from Abbey that they should have supplied by the 6th Feb. The court clerk said that the case would go on regardless What are my best options now? I feel I should be doing something like requesting that the court strike out the defence but not sure if that is right or how to go about doing it? Any help appreciated. The claimant shall by 26th January 2007 file and serve: a) Copies of any statement or other document relied upon as showing that each and every charge repayment of which is sought has been made. (b) A statement of the claimants own evidence , if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made, or that they are irrecoverable as penalties. If the claimant fails to comply with this order, the claim will be struck out without further order. The defendant shall by 6th February 2007 file and serve a response to the list of charges claimed by the claimant, stating in respect of each item claimed: (a) Pursuant to what contractual provision such charge was made, producing a copy of the contractual document relied upon; (b) Whether such charge is accepted to be a penalty, and if not, why not; © If such charge is alleged to be a pre-estimate of the defendants loss incurred by the claimants actions (whether or not such action is to be treated as a breach of the contract between the parties), all facts and matters intended to be relied upon as showing that such is a proper estimate of such loss, and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was. If the defendant fails to comply with this order, the defence will be struck out without further order. ps. the rest of my case is here -> http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/29369-andyk-abbey.html

Thank you davenport5 - I think you have the answer. I followed the CAG advice when I completed my AQ and it looks like that strategy has worked. I agree with you it seems that I need to respond with something along the lines of the 'Statement of Evidence" shown in http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/57707-draft-order-allocation-questionnaires.html#post450746 posted by GaryH. I can't seem to find that in the standard templates - should it be one CAG, especially as it seems the courts are responding to this strategy? Like I read, if I comply with my directions, that leaves the bank to submit proof of the estimate of their costs to the court by the given date which I would be very surprised if they do..? If they don't make it then that in itself would lead to victory?!

Hi Lula - thanks. I checked through the court bundle and can sort of see your point. However I would be grateful if you or anyone else could clarify further exactly what the court are looking for when they say: b) A statement of the claimants own evidence , if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made, or that they are irrecoverable as penalties. Does the court bundle sections referred to definately cover this?

:idea: Hi again. At last I have been allocated a court date, to the small claims track. It has been set for 27 March. The letter has requested the following: The claimant shall by 26th January 2007 file and serve: a) Copies of any statement or other document relied upon as showing that each and every charge repayment of which is sought has been made. (b) A statement of the claimants own evidence , if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made, or that they are irrecoverable as penalties. If the claimant fails to comply with this order, the claim will be struck out without further order. The defendant shall by 6th February 2007 file and serve a response to the list of charges claimed by the claimant, stating in respect of each item claimed: (a) Pursuant to what contractual provision such charge was made, producing a copy of the contractual document relied upon; (b) Whether such charge is accepted to be a penalty, and if not, why not; © If such charge is alleged to be a pre-estimate of the defendants loss incurred by the claimants actions (whether or not such action is to be treated as a breach of the contract between the parties), all facts and matters intended to be relied upon as showing that such is a proper estimate of such loss, and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was. If the defendant fails to comply with this order, the defence will be struck out without further order. I'm perfectly OK with claimant a) but unsure about b). Surely the statements show that the charges have been made? And not sure how I show they are irrecoverable penalties..? Any help appreciated - they have not given me long to submit this! Thanks. Andy.

I received a copy of Abbey's Defence, filed with the court, dated 26 Oct. I see this has been used before with other recent cases and comes directly from their "Legal Officer" at the PLC at Trition Square (so no solicitors any more then..?). I guess they might have picked up on the fact that "cut & paste" is a bit cheaper than employing a firm of solicitors!. Here it is for reference: 1. Save as is specifically admitted in this defence, the defendant denies each and every allegation set out in the particulars of the claim. 2. It is admitted that the claimant has a current bank account with the defendant, account number to be particularised ("Account"). 3. At all times the account has been subject to the applicable terms and conditions ("conditions"), which form aprt of the contract between the claimant and the defendant and to which the claimant agrred when he opened the account. The defendant will refer at trial to the full conditions but for the purposes of this defence will refer to the following extracts: (1) "you can apply for an overdraft on your account. If we give you an overdraft we will tell you your limits and the interest applicable." (2) "An unauthorised overdraft occurs if without our agreement you overdraw your account or exceed the limit of an overdraft which we have agreed." (3) "If you have an unauthorised overdraft, you will be charged fees as set out in our tariff of charges or specified to you and these may include fees fro transactions we are unable to process due to lack of available funds in your account." 4. Throughout the period that he has had the account, the claimant received a number of copies of the conditions of the said tariff of charges as they were amended and updated (though there has been no material amendment to the conditions extracted in paragraphs 3(1), (2) and (3) above). 5. Any overdraft facility on the account was (and is) subject to the conditions. 6. The claimant has overdrawn or exceeded authorised overdraft limits on the account on a number of seperate occassions, full details of which will be provided on disclosure. Therefore by virtue of the conditions referred to in paragraph 3 above such overdrawing was unauthorised and in breach of contract and the claimant became liable to pay fees to the defendant in accordance with its tariff of charges applicable at the relevant time. In accordance with the conditions, such fees were debited to the account. 7. In view of the facts and matters referred to in paragraphs 3,4,5 and 6 above, the defendant denies that the amount of £1404.00, or any other amount, was unlawfully debited to the account and the claimants claim for the repayment of that amount is therefore denied. 8. The claimant's contention that the said fees are unenforceable and/or are "penalty charges" is denied. The fees reflect and are proportionate to the defendants administrative expenses incurred due to the claimants breach of contract and are a genuine pre-estimate of the damage suffered by the defendant. 9. Further or in the alternative, even if the said fees are not proportionate to the defendants administrative expenses incurred (which is denied), the claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate and the claimant is not entitled to reclaim repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the account. 10. No admissions are made as to the amounts claimed by the claimant and the claimant is put to strict proof of the same. The defendant believes that the facts stated in this defence are true. I am duly authorised by the defendant to sign this statement Inga Kirkman of Abbey National plc

Just updating my case. I received a Gesture of Goodwill offer for £145, in response to my first approach for repayment. This crossed in the post with my Letter Before Action. I got no further response within 14 days to my LBA so I went ahead and raised a MoneyClaimOnline Claim against the Abbey for the full amount. I am subsequently wondering if I made a mistake there by not subtracting the GoGW, even though I did not accept it and I'm not entirely sure if Abbey credited it to the account. I no longer have internet or telephone banking for this acc so I am relying on the paper statement which should be sent soon so I will find out what they did in a few days. I guess if I have been given a GoGW payment by default I will need to inform the court so that they can subtract it from the claim:confused: Either way I will press ahead and see what happens next.

Sent my Letter Before Action on 19 Sept. On the basis of others experience I had better start getting my moneyclaim ready in a couple of weeks. I'll see how it goes.