SLC vs Old Recotry ***WON***

[oldrectory]

Hi,

 

Just thought id start a thread about my case so that I can keep you informed and get advice if needed.

 

Send Prelim and subsequently the letter before action.

 

Got a letter back telling me that charges are fine, have OFT approval - usual rubbish!

 

Posted (via registered) Small Claim to local County Court today claiming charges and interest @ 8% today! Sent a copy to SLC (via registered) and kept a copy for myself!

 

Used noomill's Particulars of Claim with usual amendments for my case.

 

So watch this space!

 

This site is great - the advice on this is so good esp the stuff on CCA requests!

 

Thanks

 

Oldrectory

 

Cabot - CCA request - Defaulted

Thames Credit - CCA Request - Defaulted

Robinson Way - CCA Request - Defaulted

Lowell - CCA request - Defaulted

Littlewoods - CCA request - No CCA - Written Off!

[noomill060]

Go for it!

 

Amazed they are still peddling the lie about the OFT.

[noomill060]

Oops, sorry, but you may have made a wee mistake.

 

You should have sent all three copies to your local court.

 

They are all processed and stamped, then one copy is served on your defendant (SLC) and a duly processed and stamped copy sent back to you.

 

 

Go down to your local court and give them another two copies to add to the one you sent, apologising for your mistake.

Edited September 4, 2008 by noomill060

[oldrectory]

Just a quick update!

 

After having to amend something on the forms - got a reply today from the court.

 

The claim has been served to the SLC and they have until 1st October to reply!

 

Watch this space!

 

Oldrectory

[noomill060]

You will hear from SLC shortly before 1 October.

[oldrectory]

Hi,

 

Got a reply from the court today - SLC have put in ad Acknowledgment of service, stating that are going to defend all of my claim.

 

 

Cheers

 

Old rectory

[noomill060]

This means that SLC will soon send you an offer for the full amount of your claim.

[oldrectory]

HI,

 

Just had this letter from the SLC

 

We refer to the above and acknowledge receipt of your recent claim through Taunton County Court.

 

We have now had an opportunity to review your file and we note that you have three loans accounts with us. The claim you have made is in respect of charges incurred over each of these accounts. We note in particular that you are in arrears in respect of your 98/99 loan account in sum of £127.93.

 

Whilst your claim is made in respect of the charges against your account, you have in fact only paid charges in sum of £40.05. From a litigation point of view, you are therefore unable to claim the outstanding sum of £199.95 since no loss has been suffered by you in this regard.

 

We do note that you have made reasonable attempts to offer repayment arrangements towards the arrears and in the circumstances, as a gesture of goodwill, provided you are willing to make an additional one off payment of £71.95, we are willing to offset the current payments you have made in respect of charges (£40.05) against the arrears. In addition, we note that you have a credit balance of £15.93 against your 1990 loan account which we would also be wiling to offset against your current arrears. The net result of the payment from you and the offset of the sums you have paid in respect of charges means that you would therefore be up to date in respect of your payments and no further charges would be levied against you.

 

If you are willing to agree to these terms, we would be grateful if you would contact our Shareen Auckbarallee, Solicitor on 0141 306 2068 or by email as undernoted immediately.

 

My main concern with this letter is the bit about not being able to claim because I have not paid the charges. These charges have been applied to my account and are accruing interest - so surely I can ask them to be refunded through the court and it doesn't matter that I haven't actually paid them?

 

Regarding the offset of the charges etc - They can run and jump - seeing as they talk about the payments I have made they are hardly doing me a favor!!!!

 

Regarding the arrears - I'm assuming this makes no difference whatsoever and they are just trying to make me feel guilty?

 

Please help and give advice - I need to reply to them.

[tobciocc]

Just stick with your claim, don't worry about any of the stuff they send you. They tried to claim all sorts of stuff with me so I left them to it, eventually they just completely fell on their own sword and paid up.

[oldrectory]

Hi,

 

Had a reply from SLC!

 

They are willing to refund ALL charges to my account and refund the ones I have already paid to me.

 

They state that they do not charge interest on the charges - has anyone any real proof that they don't. I can't seem to work it out from my statements.

 

I have said that if they remove them from my account, they must be removed at the date they were added - so as to recalculate any interest added.

 

They say they will not refund the court costs.

 

HELP HELP HELP

 

I am actually happy that they will refund the charges - but what should I do?

[tobciocc]

Well at this point I held firm despite feeling under pressure, the night before the big day they offered to settle in full. Stick with it.

[oldrectory]

Hi,

 

After provisionally accepting on the phone to their offer, I wrote back to them (faxing and e-mailing it) refusing their offer, pointing out why and telling them I wouldn't accept anything else but full refund of charges, interest and court fee. The letter I send is below

 

DECLINE OF OFFER

 

Thank you for your letter dated 6th October 2006, attached to your e-mail.

 

Following our discussion on the phone yesterday, I have taken more time to reflect on your offer and taken further advice. Having done so, I have decided to decline your current offer.

 

I would like to make the following points:

 

• I currently have a satisfactory arrangement set up to pay off the arrears on my 98/99 loan. As far as I am aware these arrears will be paid in full in December 2008, I wish to keep this arrangement in place.

• Please read my ‘Particulars of Claim’ very carefully. You will see my reasons why I believe the charges should be removed/refunded from my account. I believe it completely inappropriate that you make it a condition of their refund for me to pay off any arrears. I will certainly be supplying this information and my views on this to the Judge, once a court date has been obtained.

• These charges have been added to my account, increasing the balance. Interest is accrued on the outstanding balance. Therefore, interest does accrue on the charges. In your confidence that you believe that you do not add interest, you could perhaps provide detailed calculations on the interest I have paid to show this.

• I did not state that the Student Loans Company repaid customers for charges they hadn’t yet paid. They have, however, removed charges from accounts. No offer, other than full refund/removal and refund of interest and court fee, was accepted in the two cases, which were both settled out of court.

 

I am still not willing to accept your offer. The only acceptable outcome is, as stated in the Particulars of Claim, refund/removal of charges, refund of interest accrued and court costs.

 

 

Any advice?

[noomill060]

Try this, Ive rewritten your letter, removing some bits that didnt make sense and added some bits that do.

 

The solicitor refered to at Harper Macleod is the one I dealt with. the email addy was genuine at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• I have a satisfactory arrangement set up to pay off the arrears on my 98/99 loan. As far as I am aware, these arrears will be paid in full in December 2008, I wish to keep this arrangement in place.

 

• With this in mind, I regard your condition that I repay arrears as mischievous and will be delighted to to draw the Judge's attention to this should the opportunity arise.

 

• I believe these charges have been unfairly and unlawfully debited to my account, (contrary to UTTCR) thus unlawfully increasing the balance.

 

Interest naturally accrues on the outstanding total balance.

 

Clearly, interest has been levied unlawfully on the charges. Any claim to the contrary can only be construed as ignorant, foolish nonsense or an intentional attempt to profit from the aforementioned unlawfully applied debits.

 

I note that SLC has never provided any evidence to the contrary.

 

 

• I did not state that the Student Loans Company repaid customers for charges they hadn’t yet paid. I am aware that SLC have removed charges and interest unlawfully applied thereon, from other accounts and can provide court claim numbers, full documention in the matter from SLC's solicitor at Harper Macleod (Ms Stephanie Lyn).

 

I believe Stephanie can be contacted at:

 

xxxxxxxxx@XXXXXXX (real addy sent by pm to old rectory)

 

 

My conditions for withdrawal of my claim remain as stated in my PoC.

 

a) full refund/removal of unlawfully applied debits and refund/removal of interest subsequently applied thereon.

 

b) court fee

 

c) interest on the above, at the rate of 8% per annum, pursuant to the County Courts Act 1984.

 

 

Your are reminded that you are the defendant in this case and you are not in any postion to set conditions.

 

I repeat, the only acceptable outcome is, as stated in the Particulars of Claim, refund/removal of charges, refund of interest accrued and court costs.

 

Do not insult my intelligence further.

Edited October 7, 2008 by noomill060

[noomill060]

"I am actually happy that they will refund the charges - but what should I do?"

 

 

Sit tight, we both know they are lacking in the "leg to stand on" department.

[oldrectory]

HI,

 

Got a reply - haven't got the e-mail in front of me so will have to go form memory:

 

Any claim to the contrary can only be construed as ignorant, foolish nonsense or an intentional attempt to profit from the aforementioned unlawfully applied debits.

 

- Told me that this could be construed and seen a libelous

 

I note that SLC has never provided any evidence to the contrary.

 

- Said that as the claimant it is up to me to prove that they had charged me interest

 

Stated that I basically didn't have a hope in hell because they have refunded charges, offered me £30 as a inconvenience payment and that if I was to continue to court I would be doing so on claims that couldn't be substantiated and didn't stand up in law.

 

 

I did reply, stating that I didn't have to prove the interest had been charged because as the defendant and the company that provided the loan, it was up to them to show it hadn't been charged. I stated that I was sure that under the CCA, they had to show that the interest charged correctly and that I could ask for this to be provided to me.

 

I also said that it wasn't up to them to decide if it was a case that would stand up in law - it was down to the judge.

 

Can anyone help - I think they should prove that they haven't charged interest - if they are so confident then why wont they just show me>????

 

Thanks

 

Oldrectory

 

 

 

I said that it didn't mater if the charges had been refunded as the interest would still exist on the account.

 

 

[noomill060]

They are correct in that the onus is always on the claimant (in this case, yourself) to show that money is owed. The defendant (in this case SLC) doesnt need to prove otherwise.

 

What is the total amount you are claiming?

 

(Charges + interest + court fee + the county court interest @8%)

 

 

 

 

How much have they offered you?

 

 

Any claim to the contrary can only be construed as ignorant, foolish nonsense or an intentional attempt to profit from the aforementioned unlawfully applied debits.

 

- Told me that this could be construed and seen a libelous.

 

 

What - in a private email? Libel is a published comment which exposes an indivual to:

 

Hatred, ridicule or contempt or which causes him to be shunned or avoided or which has a tendency to injure him in his office, trade or profession in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally.

 

SLC is a government department, not an individual.

 

The person who wrote that email to you clearly has no idea what they are on about. They are just trying to mess with your head.

 

(Dont panic, they havent even entered a defence yet!)

Edited October 9, 2008 by noomill060

[oldrectory]

Hi,

 

I am claiming charges, interest @ 8% and court fee.

 

They have actually removed all charges from my account (as of yesterday) and offered to pay me £30 as a one off to cover my trouble (Which covers court fee) so the only thing they haven't and say wont pay is the interest.

 

Surely I can ask them to show me that the interest they have charged is correctly calculated? If they do it can be shown one way or the other whether they have added interest on the charges. Can I use the CCA to do this?

 

Thanks

 

Oldrectory

[noomill060]

Which interest are you talking about?

 

The interest charged on the charges, or the 8% County Court interest?

[noomill060]

SLC only charge interest at the rate of inflation, so it would not be very much and I didnt bother with it.

 

Ive just checked my POC and what I claimed for (and got) was:

 

Removal of charges

 

Court fee

 

Interest charged at 8% p.a. from the date of each charge.

[noomill060]

Heres part 5 of my PoC:

 

5) Accordingly the Applicant claims:

 

a) the removal of the amounts debited to the Account in respect of unlawful charges in the sum of £212.

 

 

b) Court costs;

 

c) Interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts Act 1984 as set out on the attached list of charges, or at such rate and for such periods as the court deems just.

[noomill060]

How much are you claiming for?

 

How does the amount you have been offered compare with the amount you are claiming for?

[oldrectory]

That's exactly what I put in my PoC.

 

Should I accept seeing as the interest might only be a very small amount and they have actually refunded the charges and giving me £30?

 

How did you get them to give you the interest @8%?

 

Thanks

[oldrectory]

The only thing they wont pay is the interest @8% - which is around £26 at the time of claim.

[noomill060]

OK, Ive re-read your thread from the start.

 

They have removed the charges and they want to reimburse the money you have already paid plus an extra £30. Correct?

 

They have refused to pay you court fee but they want to pay you £30?

 

 

They dont seem to realise that when a claim is filed you can claim an extra 8% county court interest.

 

OK.

 

So, they have basically given in all bar the shouting and dont want to go to court.

 

How much was the court fee? About £30?

[noomill060]

OK, got you. Hang on I'll roll a fag and have a think. (Nicotine time!) back in a bit.