Taking my first steps towards making a claim - **IT'S WON!!!**

[Robertxc]

Don't panic Tim, I have all the letters you got, plus the ones that will be coming your way next. I bet I can even predict what their letter of defence is going to say...

 

See my signature.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

I have received a form N10 'Notice that acknowledgement of service has been filed' from the court today.

 

It states on the form: -

 

"The defendant responded to the claim indicating an intention to defend all of the claim"

 

Looks like I might have a fight on my hands.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Robertxc]

Don't panic, that's the next letter on the list. In a short while they'll send you their defence, possibly with an offer to settle for half. Thereafter, when you reject that, they'll probably settle in full.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

I have today received a letter from a firm of solicitors called 'DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary'. The letter states: -

 

" We enclose a Notice of Change of Solicitor on behalf of the Defendant in this case. This notice has also been filed at court."

 

Is this significant or not ??

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Robertxc]

No, I doubt this is significant. All it means is that it has been passed to a different solicitor. when they entered their defence they will have had to put on their forms the name of the solicitors. Since this has changed, they need to inform everyone.

[Chardonnay123]

Hi Tim

 

I am following your thread with great interest and am about 3 weeks behind you - I understand you too have an overdraft which has been passed to Abbey's debt recovery dept. I just wondered have you ever received a 'Notice of Recovery Action - Oustanding Debt'. I've received one today - I've started a new thread but just thought I'd ask you.

 

Thanks and sorry to bother you.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi Tim

I just wondered have you ever received a 'Notice of Recovery Action - Oustanding Debt'.

 

Hi Chardonnay123,

 

No I have never received one of these, will let you know if one arrives in the next few days.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

Just a quick update.

Abbey do not seem to have responded to my claim.

The filed an acknowledgement of service which gave them until 18th May to file a defence or admit the claim.

Tomorrow is the 18th and as yet nothing.

 

I will phone the court tomorrow to see if they have heard anything.

 

What happens if they don't do anything by tomorrow ??

 

Any advice.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Robertxc]

Don't be surprised if they do it at the last minute. This is standard proactice. If they don't file a defence you'll be able to get a default judgement (which is a good thing). Come back to the forum if this happens and someone will be able to advise you further.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

Postman knocked the door this morning at 8.45am with a Special Delivery letter from Abbey's solicitors.

Enclosed was a copy of the defence that Abbey are filing against my claim and a covering letter.

 

The covering letter had an interesting paragraph in it : -

 

"You will see from the Defence that Abbey takes issue with your claim on a number of points. For the purpose of this letter, though, I should like to mention in particular that your claim seems to be based on an argument that you should not pay any charges at all. I would, however, ask you to consider that it cannot be correct that Abbey cannot charge anything at all. Even if it is correct (which is not accepted) that the charges are greater than Abbey's actual loss, Abbey would be entitled to charge something."

 

The next paragraph was an offer to settle: -

 

"Taking into account this and Abbey's Defence generally, my proposal to you is as follows. Your total claim is for the refund of £3841.00 in charges plus overdraft interest of £151.44, interest on charges of £292.42 and court fees of £120.00. I would suggest that (for the purposes of this letter only) as matter of goodwill, Abbey reduce the figure for the charges by 50%, giving a new total of £1920.50. In addition if this is agreed, Abbey would pay you £221.93 for interest and refund your court fee of £120.00, making a total of £2262.43."

 

So this is an offer to settle at 50%, I am quite tempted to take this offer as I am getting cold feet. The banks seem to be getting quite serious and mine is a big claim compared to some of the smaller ones that have been settled in full.

 

I think that I will write back to the solicitors and offer to settle at 75%, what do you guys think ? My overdraft with Abbey is £2180 and the settlement they are offering would enable to pay of this overdraft (although this is not a condition of their offer) but would not leave me anything spare. I am currently paying the overdraft back at £120.00 per month so it would save me making this payment each month.

 

Your replies please.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Robertxc]

I have a word for word copy of this letter. I wrote back as follows:

 

Dear Mr Squires.

 

Thank you for your letter of xxx. I note all that you say. I do not accept your offer.

 

Yours sincerely.

 

A couple of weeks later, I got settlement in full. This is a good time to hold your nerve.

[whizzkid001]

I agree with Robertxc Tim, hold your nerve - you'll get the full amount if you follow his advice & just refuse!

[Odd Fellow]

Absolutely. Tell them to go to hell - nicely

 

They know full well that they have no legitimate defence in the vast majority of these cases and would not offer a bean if they thought they could defend your claim successfully.

 

Wait for the next letter with anticipation.....

[covers22]

Tim,

 

i'm watching your thread with great interest as i have an almost identical claim with Abbey (just waiting for statements).

 

£3950 overdraft, which they informed me last week that it wouldnt be renewed when it expires next month. like you i have managed to agree a £120 per month pay down, and the claim will be for approximately £4k.

 

If i were to receive the letter you have today (obviously i'm not in that position yet so my feelings might be different if i did receive it) i would reject the offer unless they can provide a breakdown of their 'ACTUAL' costs (of coarse before the hearing)

 

Stand your ground, there are plenty of us in the same boat and lets face it the banks need us to be doing this to make them change their charging regime!

 

Best of luck fella!

 

Dean

[Yorkyclaims]

It is entirely up to you. letting them have 25% is a bit much, though (costs involved work out at between £1-2/transaction). However, dont expect Mr Squires to reply to your negotiating. I haven't

[stebiz]

Craig,

 

Are you saying that you have tried to negotiate and they refused??

 

My 2nd 14 days letter is up tommorow and a summons is due to be issued in the morning - I'd like to know what to expect??

 

Regards

Stebiz

[joneshousehold]

Tim

We are a little behind you in our claim against Abbey. We have had a letter from the solicitor saying they were acting and we were naughty not to have given more details of the claim. I was quite anxious about it as it looked a bit serious. Dave reassured me when he basically posted to say 'Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!'

 

So now I have written back I feel brave again and it seems this is the cycle we all go through. I would say stick to your guns because it seems to work every time. Even though your claim is larger than most, it's still nothing to the bank.

 

Having said all that I know how nerve wracking it can be. It is your decision in the end and whatever you decide to do is up to you. However just remember that they haven't gone to court yet and if the defence was so good they would have done wouldn't they. If it was that reasonable, they wouldn't just pay out. The bottom line is they should prove the actual costs. If it makes you feel better you could say something along the lines of 'if you prove to me the genuine cost I will consider a realistic offer based on that but otherwise the full amount is all I will accept'

 

Whatever you do I wish you well. If you want to have a look at Dave's response to us it's here

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1889&page=2

It doesn't answer you in particular as we are at an earlier stage but you can see the spirit of his approach. He is quite uncompromising and that is reassuring (and at times amusing too). Good luck!

[Chardonnay123]

Hi - have you decided what to do yet?

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

I have e-mailed Abbey's solicitors and told them that I am not willing to accept their offer, I have however told them that I am willing to settle out of court for 75% of the claimed amount plus the court fee.

 

I e-mailed them (DLA Piper) on 18th May and got no reply, I have e-mailed them again on 23rd May and as yet I have not had a reply.

 

Heres a copy of the e-mail I sent: -

 

"Dear Miss Bilsland,

 

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

 

In reply to your letter dated 17th May 2006. I have reviewed your offer and I must decline your offer of £2262.43 in full and final settlement.

 

Obviously it would benefit both parties if we can settle the claim quickly and prevent taking the claim any further but I will refuse any offer below 75% of the claimed amount of £4284.86.

 

Unless the amount of £3213.65 plus £120.00 court costs (making a total of £3333.65) is offered then I have no option but to continue my claim in the County Court.

 

Kind Regards

 

Mr Tim Dunlop"

 

I will post here if I receive any correspondence from them.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Robertxc]

If you don't mind a wee bit of advice... It's always best to do these things by post, preferably recorded delivery. The problem with email is that you have no idea what sort of filters they have, and you have no idea how the recipient him/herself treats email (maybe he never gets anything particularly important, so rarely checks it). If you stick to traditional methods you will be using the medium which they will be expecting, which means you have an extremely high certainty that they will get it.

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

I have always traditionally used snail mail, but thought this time I would try e-mail. They obviously are not replying so I have tonight printed the letter and will send it 1st class recorded tomorrow morning.

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[caro]

I can see where you are coming from with this Tim, although I think you are being rather generous to them. The only thing I wonder is if you should have any time scale for them, or maybe that you are still continuing with the claim, so they need to get their finger(s) out - or words to that effect.

[Movingon]

Would you accept the damaged, thrashed engine mess the thief made of your car as full and final settlement of his part in the theft? Or would you want your car returned to you EXACTLY as it was before he stole it?

 

Would you accept the pick-pocket returning your wallet to you with all your credit cards, but the £300 cash missing as full and final settlement of the matter? Or would you want your cash back too?

 

I urge you not to settle for anything less than WHAT THEY TOOK UNLAWFULLY.

[dazedandconfused]

Tim, my situation is really similar to yours so would be interested to hear how you're doing?

[Tim Dunlop]

Hi there,

 

Letter was posted to them this afternoon first class recorded.

 

Incidentally I received a copy of their defence and my allocation questionnaire this morning, this needs to be returned to the court by 12th June if the case is to continue.

 

I have a couple of reasons why I would settle for 75% now rather than waiting to see if they do ever offer 100%.

The fees on my account were down to poor accounting by me, I am alot better with money now than I used to be. I understand that the banks need to cover their costs and I think that the 25% they are not repaying me will more than cover this.

The main reason is my current situation with the bank, I have an overdraft of approx £2180.00 which I am repaying at £120 per month. If I am reasonable with Abbey then they will probably allow the overdraft to remain in place and I can continue repaying it. If I aggrevate them by demanding 100% they may well decide to call in the overdraft and there is no way I have the funds to repay it in one go. This has happened to a couple of people and I don't want it to happen to me. I have had many sleepless nights in the past worrying about money, I could really do without anymore.

If Abbey settle at 75% then I can if I want repay my overdraft in full and walk away with approx a grand in my back pocket.

A few people have replied to this thread and said I should go for the full amount, perhaps you are right, but when you have a good offer on the table it is hard to refuse. I very nearly accepted the 50% but decided to push for 75%.

I really think the time is coming when the banks will work out a way to stop these claims. I don't know how or even if they can do this but I am sure with the money and power they have they will find a way. I would very much like my claim done and dusted before this happens.

 

Hope you can understand.

 

Regards

 

Tim