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Metropolitan Collection Services - Action on a stayed claim


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Its been suggested to me this could be of great interest to a lot of people and therefore should be a bit more obvious to people browsing threads rather than hidden amongst the general chit chat on my thread so I've copied it onto its own thread :) and made it a little more serious.

 

I had a letter off Metropolitan Collection Services despite the fact my county court claim has been stayed and therefore my bank account and the outstanding balance is well and truly in dispute with HSBC themselves. here is what I have received;

 

 

Metropolitan Collection Services Limited

Debt Recovery Specialists 56 St James Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham

 

Mr Castlebest

Castlebest’s Castle

Hilltop

Birmingham

 

 

28th December 2007

 

 

Dear Mr Castlebest

 

Your account with HSBC Bank Plc

Account number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Outstanding Balance £xxxx.xx

 

 

We have been instructed by our client to recover the outstanding balance on the above account

 

We now formally demand immediate payment of £xxxx.xx

 

You may make payment

 

By returning this letter together with your cheque, postal order or cash to the above address,

 

Or

 

Securely online at www.paymcs.com by debit or credit card.

 

Our offices are open between the hours of 8.00am and 9.00pm (Mon – Thur),

8.00am and 8.00pm (Fri) and 8.30am and 1.30pm (sat).

 

Failure to contact us could result in further costs being incurred and your account referred to debt collection agents who may call on you to collect payment.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Metropolitan Collection services Ltd.

 

 

Its actually not a bad letter as letters go but this being my week to give up smoking they have got it with both barrels :rolleyes:

 

 

Metropolitan Collection Services Limited

56 St James Road,

Edgbaston,

Birmingham

 

Dear Sirs

 

My account with HSBC Bank Plc

Account number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Outstanding Balance £xxxx.xx

 

 

I note with interest you have been instructed by your client to recover the outstanding balance on the above account and the fact you now formally demand immediate payment of £xxxx.xx on behalf of your client following their own failed attempts to ignore the legal process and in my opinion extract money with menaces.

 

I draw your attention to my own county court claim number 7QZxxxxx which has now been stayed subject to your clients’ legal representative, DG Solicitors application to the court to await the outcome of the Commercial Court proceedings between the OFT and the Defendant (and seven others) comprised in Claim No. 2007 Folio 1186. I suggest you do the same, I’m sure as HSBC’s Debt Recovery Specialists you will be well aware of this situation by now.

 

I confirm any further costs you incur in this matter will be your own fault for being too stupid to read my correspondence and take heed of the current legal situation that exists and therefore will be at your own liability.

 

I further confirm if my account is referred to debt collection agents who try to act without the required legal backing and attempt to call on me collect payment I will contact the police to have them removed from my premises and commence harassment proceedings against them, you and your client.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Castlebest

 

 

to anyone with a stayed claim who receives this type of letter I would say there is very little the bank or any collection agency can do. If they are serious about recovery they will have to raise legal proceedings against you and all you will have to do is use your stayed claim as a defense :)

 

pete

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I confirm any further costs you incur in this matter will be your own fault for being too stupid to read my correspondence and take heed of the current legal situation that exists and therefore will be at your own liability.

pete

 

Wonderful - treat them with the contempt they deserve:D

BANK CHARGES

Nat West Bus Acct £1750 reclaim - WON

 

LTSB Bus Acct £1650 charges w/o against o/s balance - WON

 

Halifax Pers Acct £1650 charges taken from benefits - WON

 

Others

 

GE Money sec loan - £1900 in charges - settlement agreed

GE Money sec loan - ERC of £2.5K valid for 15 years - on standby

FirstPlus - missold PPI of £20K for friends - WON

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Brilliant pete , and you moved quickly to set this up . I think I'll bookmark it so I can re-direct anyone who seems to be in this position. :)

Nemo me impune lacessit

 

 

Advice & opinions given by johnnymitch are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

 

 

If you think I've helped you please feel free to tickle my star :-D

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As ever I have to agree with Lattie, I can see Metro sending out a few of this type of letter over the next few weeks in the hope they can recover some of the stayed claim account money.

 

Being little better than a DCA they wont particularly care that the accounts are in dispute and therefore should not be passed on by HSBC.

 

Interesting to note Metropolitans address... ring any bells? HSBC obviously like their pet solicitor and pet DCA in very close proximity to each other

 

pete

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apparently they all share a lovely building in Birmingham Pete, so a friend of mine told me.........

 

well you have to admire them dont you:):):)......givne the test case is days away this to me is an indication of how desperate they are.........

rockin all over the world

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I had one of these letters too, though I'm not yet at the Court stage; HSBC acknowledged the claim but refused to deal with it until after the OFT case. I have told HSBC that I will be happy to deal with their request for repayment of the overdraft just as soon as they are ready to deal with my claim for refund of their unlawful charges.

 

This is my reply:

 

 

 

Thank you for your letter dated xxxx. I do not acknowledge any debt to you or any company you claim to represent. All communication in this matter must be in writing.

 

I am surprised, not least because you are part of the same company, that your ‘client’ did not let you know that this account is disputed because it consists partly of unfair and/or unlawful penalty charges. Although I have raised a formal complaint and claim against your client, they have refused to deal with it until the forthcoming legal action brought against them and others by the Office of Fair Trading is heard. You will not need to be reminded that the Office of Fair Trading guidelines on Debt Collection states that continuing collection activity whilst a dispute is unresolved is an ‘unfair practice’.

 

In the circumstances I regret that I am unable to assist you further unless your client is willing to resolve the dispute.

 

Take notice that any legal action will be robustly defended and a counterclaim made; I look forward to placing evidence of your client’s attempts at unjust enrichment before a judge. Any further breaches of the OFT guidelines will be reported to the appropriate enforcement authorities.

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This is great pete, new cases are coming in , so it must be widespread this 'new strategy' (to poach a phrase from Auburn) ;-) . It makes this a worthwhile thread if even one potential victim is hauled back from the brink........:)

Nemo me impune lacessit

 

 

Advice & opinions given by johnnymitch are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

 

 

If you think I've helped you please feel free to tickle my star :-D

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Thats a good letter SP they will have to think long and hard before they do anything else with the balance on your account :).

 

I don't know if this is a new strategy as such or just Metropolitan trying to find something to do.

 

If they are in the same building as DG they will be on the HSBC computer network and are therefore probably just picking up accounts from that, I doubt very much if anyone at the bank actually refers anything to Metro.

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  • 4 months later...

Nice one pete, thought i was being a bit pushy, but love the bit about

contacting the police to have them removed from my premises and commence harassment proceedings against them, you and your client.

 

(Im afraid i might have got some moss on your castle, terribly sorry about that ;) )

 

At least i would have, if it didnt say 'you cannot comment on that post' ?!?!?

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After the full shooting match of letters from MCS, and my bugger off letters I've not heard from this bunch for about 3 months - I no longer feel the love!

 

With that said I'm pleased to say that as of Friday I've had a couple of phone calls from them demanding that I pay at least 50% of the outstanding balance or a bailiff will be round tomorrow morning with a locksmith to remove my goods. It was at this point I started laughing and explained that not only had the person not asked any security questions but the account was on hold pending the outcome of the test case. He then went on to accuse me of being a thief as I had stolen money from HSBC and the Police will be pounding on my door with in 20 minutes if I did not make a payment of 30%. At this point I was laughing again which he did no like at all. What annoyed him more was when I asked for his name, then advised him that the phonecall was being recorded.........:D. The conversation ended and the phone went dead.

 

Desperate for money, unsure of the outcome of the test case or just trying to hit month end targets, take your pick!

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Hi CB, i currently owe HSBC 950 pounds from an original debt of 2k. I have been paying this off but missed the last 2 payments. DG solicitors have now issued a warrant of execution for £168 (the arrears), my question is that i have a claim on this very account that has been stayed in the Norwich Court, so do i have to pay this or are they acting illegally. DG told me that i have to pay this regardless of my claim (claim value is 2.5k). What do you think. Thank you in anticipation of your reply.

Its better to live one day as a lion than a thousand days as a lamb!!!;-)

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To recover any debt legally they have to take you to court and get a CCJ against you. If you have a county court case pending for the same debt or even if you have written to the bank asking for your penalty charges to be repaid they will not do that.

 

If they do start county court proceedings just quote your pending case in the defence document or use the letter you have written to the bank as a basis for your defence and counter claim (we can and will help you do this).

 

Personally my (now closed) HSBC account has an overdrawn balance of about £300 under my claim value. I want to go to court to get this resolved but DG Solicitors applied for a stay on the claim. If the bank want to sort it out I am happy to go to court and let them pay me the difference between my claim and my overdraft until then they can whistle.

 

pete

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They have a CCJ for this debt but can i stop payments because of the stayed court case. DG issued a warrant for unpaid arrears on the account of £167 so do i pay or kindly request that they take a flying jump?

Its better to live one day as a lion than a thousand days as a lamb!!!;-)

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So if I have this right...

HSBC have a historical CCJ against you for a debt of around £2,000.00 you have been paying this off by installments until recently..

 

Did you admit the debt or just ignore the paperwork?

 

The same account that this debt came from has around £2,500.00 in penalty charges which you now have claimed back and your case has been stayed.

 

I think there may be grounds to get the CCJ set aside and your claim to be brought into the whole proceedings but let me see if I can get some clarification on that...

 

pete

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johnny

 

To supplement pete's questions - what sort of account was it?

personal current

business current

personal loan

business loan

credit card

 

It makes a difference to how you might approach the stay

 

 

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Thanks for the replies guys. Just to clarify it was a personal current account. I also had a CC with around 4.5k owing and they had placed a charge on my house for this amount so when i re mortgaged they took this amount instantly with the proviso that i pay the O/D off around £100 a month. I then found this site and put a claim in for my charges but i still kept getting letters from DG saying that if i did not pay they would get a warrant of execution. I currently need to pay £167 before the 30th may or the bailiffs are coming round.

Its better to live one day as a lion than a thousand days as a lamb!!!;-)

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Here is the National Debtline factsheet for setting aside CCJ's

 

National Debtline England & Wales | Debt Advice | Factsheet 12 How To Set Aside A Judgment In The County Court

 

You need to complete an N244 form for the case number of the CCJ and in part A state at the time of the judgment you were unaware of the probable unlawfulness of the penalty charges included within the debt. You have since learned of this situation and commenced proceedings for recovery in case number (your court claim number) which has been stayed pending the outcome of the test case. You respectfully request the CCJ is also set aside pending the outcome of the test case as the sum remaining outstanding is now substantially smaller than the sum being claimed back.

(or something like that :))

 

If the court agrees this should put you in a "stale mate" situation with DG Solicitors.

 

pete

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Thanks for the replies guys. Just to clarify it was a personal current account. I also had a CC with around 4.5k owing and they had placed a charge on my house for this amount so when i re mortgaged they took this amount instantly with the proviso that i pay the O/D off around £100 a month. I then found this site and put a claim in for my charges but i still kept getting letters from DG saying that if i did not pay they would get a warrant of execution. I currently need to pay £167 before the 30th may or the bailiffs are coming round.

 

How do i go about getting the charge set aside?

 

Was the CCJ for both the credit card and the overdraft debts?

 

You have repaid the credit card debt when you remortgaged so any charge against your property for this debt should have been removed when this was done.

If both debts were rolled up into the same CCJ and charge then I think the charge should also be set aside with the CCJ.

 

pete

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Have a look at this link johnny........

 

How to set aside a judgement in the County Court (CCJ)

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=12_how_to_set_aside_a_judgment_in_the_county_court

 

Oops _ I see pete's already given you that one - Oh ,well better two than none , eh LOL!

Nemo me impune lacessit

 

 

Advice & opinions given by johnnymitch are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

 

 

If you think I've helped you please feel free to tickle my star :-D

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