Halifax / Bank of Scotland (over £6000 owed)

[Keestah]

Will there be any problems reclaiming from Halifax if my account started with the Bank of Scotland? I am currently owed over £6000 (without interest)

[caro]

Is your branch in Scotland or England? If in England, then you will be able to claim up to £5,000 through the small claims court, but if in Scotland the limit will be £750.00. The fact that it was Bank of Scotland does not matter if you send your letters to your branch in England. Either way I would suggest you sever the claim to keep it within these limits.

[rjstott]

Actually, if you read carefully, what you can claim in any one action depends on where you live. The limit as noted is lower in Scotland. It has been suggested that you might use an address in England in order to make use of the higher limit but you must also be prepared to attend court.

 

There should be no issue about the effect of the merger as I'm sure both companies accepted each others liabilities. You can use the Trinity Road address rather than your local branch and you are probably best doing this as your local branch is not equipped to deal with this and will only be a post box.

 

Whatever, you can split the total to match your domicile and present numerous claims.

[Keestah]

I'm just about to send off my preliminary approach letter to Halifax for £4,230 but their are two things I need before it goes.

 

1. Double, double check I'm sending it to the right place. Can someone doubly confirm the address

 

2. Schedule of charges. Where do I find a template on this site?

 

Once I have those I'll send the first part off. I'm not going to do anything with the second claim until I receive the FULL AMOUNT.

 

[Michael Browne]

Trinity Road is fine.

 

Scedule of charges is just a list of: type of charge, date, amount.

[Keestah]

Thanks. I'll type them out and send it on Monday.

 

Watch this space. If I get my full amount back I will donate £200 to this awesome site. Wish me luck!!

 

[Michael Browne]

Thanks. I'll type them out and send it on Monday.

 

 

Fill in the spreadsheet in the library. Save it for use later when you claim at court. Then delete the last two columns and print this out for a schedule of charges.

[Keestah]

I have seen some advice to split claims over £5000 and some to go for the whole lot. I am just about to send off four years worth of charges adding up to £4,890 but the whole lot only goes up to £6,300. Which is more advisable to do?

[zootscoot]

The reason for advising people to split the claim is that claims under 5,000 will go to the small claims court. This can be advantageous as it is cheaper and more informal than going to County Court. The judge will be more willing to intervene to help a person who has no legal representation and ensure that the hearing is conducted on a fair footing. The hearing will be quick most cases will be over in half an hour. The main advantage to the small claims court is that there is no risk of paying the banks legal costs if the case does actually go to court and the banks win.

 

There are, however, disadvantages to the small claims in that you can not claim legal costs if you win so you are less likely to take legal advice and representation. Also legal aid is not available in the small claims court.

 

Claims in the County court are more expensive, formal and follow strict rules of procedure. They will generally take longer and because legal costs are recoverable by the winner the parties will generally have representation. Legal aid may be available (depending on type of claim and eligibility requirements). Banks may use the threat that you may be left with a huge bill to cover their legal costs and no charges refunded if you lose, to intimidate you from continuing with your claim or to accept a lower settlement. However, as most cases are settling out of court these arguments are purely academic.

 

If you chose to split your claim there is a remote possibility that the court would refuse to hear a second claim on the grounds of abuse of process in that you should have included this sum in the first claim

 

Hope this helps.

[Keestah]

Sent off letter on Tuesday 25th July claiming £4,860. They must be rather scared as I received a letter yesterday on 28th July saying:

 

'I understand that you are not happy at the level of charges on your account'

 

No really:

 

'We're keen to deal with your concerns as quickly as possible. Acustomer Relations Manager will investigate the points you have raised and you will receive a reply shortly, but certainly no later than 4 weeks.'

 

So, even though they're replying to a letter in which I gave them 14 days, they're asking for four weeks. Does this mean that they're just buying time?

[nona]

Hi,

Ignore this letter, it's their standard response. Stick to your 14 day deadline.

 

Good luck

Nona

[Keestah]

Have done everything to plan so far up to demanding payment back within 28 days. Halifax sent back a letter within two days saying they are going to look at my overdue charges and will get back to me within the four week period I have given.

 

Do I then need to send any other letters until the four week period is up and hope that they will settle?

[gemmabe]

I'm a bit confused...you should have sent the preliminary letter giving them 14 days to give you ALL your money back, if they don't then you send the Letter Before Action giving them a further 14 days before you will start court action. Is this what you have done?

[Keestah]

Have sent preliminary letter. 14 days will have passed on Tuesday, so I'll then send the letter before action, regardless of the four week period they have given. Is that right?

[mechs]

If you stated 4 weeks in your letter to them then you will have to give them 4 weeks

[Keestah]

I've been reading your site for all the things that are going to happen and it's happening like clockwork. The 28 days for settling the claim ends tomorrow and they have come back and offered £440 for a £4,860 claim.

 

My next step is to then issue a summons as I can't reply accepting the £440 in partial settlement of the full claim in time. I've already said before that when I get my settlement £200 goes right back into this site for all the help it's given me! It's all getting a bit closer now. Onto the home stretch afetr three long months.

 

If there is anything I'm missing, just let me know but going to do online claim tomorrow when the 28 days run out.

[thewifeandI]

Make sure you update your schedule of charges with any that have been added recently.

[Keestah]

These are for three years worth of charges up to 2004 as a partial claim. I am going to include my 8% interest on top of these and my £120 court charges which I will incur taking me to £5368.80.

 

Am I right to start claiming at the end of the 28 days rather than today or does it not really make much difference?

[thewifeandI]

You are better waiting the full time to show willingness to allow them to settle before legal action was taken.

[Keestah]

Monday it is then. Thanks for your help.

[Keestah]

Just in the process of sending a claim through www.moneyclaim.gov.uk and have vehemently followed the correct process as described here but the only thing I am missing is how to attach the interest spreadsheet to the online form.

 

At the moment I am calculating the interest and attaching that to the total in the money claimed box. eg. Claiming £4860 plus £1086 in interest. Am putting that mount in my money claimed box (I am confident now that I can claim over £5000) and on top of that I will be claiming £250 in court costs. Giving me a total of £6196.

 

There is no spreadsheet attached.

 

Is this ok as I know it helps if the court sees that you have made the effort to individually calculate the interest for the money claimed.

 

Thanks

 

Once I get the answer, it's off!!

[phunkeymonkeh]

Thats fine.

If the bank decides to submit a defence you will get the Q&A from the courts at which point you can attach your spreadsheet.

[Keestah]

Thanks.

[Keestah]

Hi all,

 

Have put my claim through the moneyclaim site and they have now sent back through the courts that they are willing to defend the claim. Letter states that have 28 days to file a defence.

 

Looking forward to seeing them in court, if it gets that far.

 

Any others had this letter and what was the next step in Halifax's plan of attack?

[4kidsat147]

Normally after getting the letter to defend it appears in your account a few days later. I got my letter the other day and I think it will be Monday for me, but I'm not holding my breath waiting....