Jayney71 vs Student loans company

[jayney71]

Hi everyone!

 

I've been reading various threads on this website for a while now and thought it was about time to start my own... and hopefully get some help and support if I need it .

 

I'm trying to claim back unlawful charges from the SLC which have been accrued due to some arrears they claim I owe... which I dispute as they are due to the slc's incompetence or "muppetry", to quote another poster on here.

 

So far I've submitted my Subject Access Request to the slc and received a huge bundle of paperwork back from them. Before I go through it all with a fine tooth comb I need to know what my next step should be and if anyone can direct me to a template for my response.

 

I'm getting to the end of my tether with the slc and their various pseudonyms/agents (Smith Lawson, NCO, etc), and their incessant phone calls.

 

If anyone can help me with my next step I'd appreciate it.

 

As an aside, a woman at Smith Lawson tried to tell me that there isn't an automatic deferment backdating period of 3 months. She said that the later someone sends in their deferment forms within the 3 months after their deferment expiry date, the more likely their forms will be processed AFTER the 3 months and therefore accrue a month of arrears. She said that it depends on their backlog as to when a deferment is processed!

 

I said that the backlog isn't my problem, and that if my form is RECEIVED within the 3-month period then the deferment should be backdated for the full 3 months. The date of the deferment actually being processed is irrelevant!

 

Anyone else have any issues with this 3 month backdating period?

 

Thanks everyone,

Jayney x

[noomill060]

Somewhere in all the verbage will be a list of all payments and debits related to the account.

 

Get a highlighting pen and highlight all the £20 charges and report back.

 

You are going to have start a small claim to get them to remove/refund all these charges, they dont respond to any letters you may send.

 

The 3 month deferment stuff can be sorted in the claim when you point out all their nonsense to the judge.

[jayney71]

Hi Noomill

Thanks for your quick reply. I'll get my highlighter out! I can't do anything for a week or so though - got an MSc assignment to do and working full-time so I'm far too busy for the slc hassle but I'm determined to sort this out asap.

I'll add up all the charges and let you know.

Thanks again.

[noomill060]

OK, dont worry too much about this, you get your charges back ok, plus interest and get you court fee reimbursed as well.

 

[jayney71]

Hi Noomill

 

I've finally been through all the paperwork the slc have sent me in response to my SAR but it's incomplete! (typical)

Their database seems to have no record of conversations between January 2005 and September 2008, but then some print outs from "Tallyman"(?) show some records for this period.

 

The records of conversations and letters they have supplied are very brief and generally an inaccurate summary!

 

They've sent me some statements but the charges recorded on them total less than what they say I owe in charges, and they've sent me (poor) copies of some letters but there were definitely more... in fact one of the Tallyman records refers to a letter they sent me which isn't included!

 

When I last deferred I enclosed a letter demanding that they cease contacting me about any supposed arrears and charges as the account is in dispute. I told them I would be writing again once I'd been through their paperwork which would hopefully be by the end of March. Since then they have continued to harrass me by phone and letter, even calling me at work!

 

Sorry for the rant but what do you advise I do now?

Apart from the incomplete SAR info, I was wondering which way is best to proceed:

1. seeing as though the charges have been accrued due to the arrears, if I could prove the arrears were not appropriate and get them added back into the loan then it should follow that the charges would have to be wiped....

or

2. continue to try to have the charges wiped and then address the arrears later - just concerned that by addressing the charges I may be inadvertantly admitting that they were correctly applied, albeit unlawfully high...

 

As always, your advice and help would be very much appreciated. It's so good to know you've been through this and understand it - otherwise it would be quite a lonely place to be!

 

J

[noomill060]

Hi Jayney, I'll have a think and get back to you by tomorrow night.

[noomill060]

You want a list off all the charges and the dates they were applied, have they not provided all the statements going back to the start?

 

If not, they havent complied with your SAR and so you are at liberty to enforce it and claim damages with a small claim.

[jayney71]

Hi Noomill

Thanks for your replies.

I've just realised that the total of the charges on the statements was probably correct at the time - they've added a bit since I received them.

J

[noomill060]

OK, so sue the bar stewards.

[noomill060]

Start a small claim for refund of all charges, interest on each charge @ 8% from the date each charge was levied and your court fee.

 

Just do as I did.

[noomill060]

If you need any help just shout.

[jayney71]

I'm looking forward to it (just like when I took a landlady to court for the return of my deposit... and won!)

So, what do you think my next step should be?... I've been thinking since my long email earlier that it's more important to get the charges wiped seeing as the arrears are part of the loan so I'll end up paying them back at some point (if I ever earn enough - actually quite unlikely, working for the local council!). I'd still want to fight the bar stewards (ha!) over them though and get them added back into the loan.

Btw they haven't sent me copies of my loan agreements with the SAR bumf. Is it a red herring to think that my loans aren't valid if they can't find these?

J

[jayney71]

Sorry... our posts crossed!

 

Do I write to the slc first or just go straight for the small claim?... and is there a template/letter etc somewhere?

[jayney71]

Please see post above... I'm all prepared to make my next move this weekend but do I write to the slc first or do for the smail claim straight away?

Thanks,

J

[noomill060]

Send them what is called a "Letter before Action" LBA

 

Tell them that you consider their charges unlawful and that you are giving them 7 days from receipt of the letter to remove all unlawful charges. Tell them that if they fail to comply with your request, you will file a small claim to enforce their compliance.

 

Tell that that should legal action be necessary, you will claim reimbursement of your court fee, all postage costs concerned with this matter and County Court interest at 8% per annum on each charge, from the date each charge was levied until settlement.

 

Send this LBA to SLC's Glasgow address and send it by Recorded Delivery.

 

Keep the reciept because you will be adding the cost to your claim.

 

 

Please dont expect to get anything like a sensible response to this letter, they wont cough up without a court date hanging over them!

 

 

As soon as your claim is served they should cease all demands for payment.

 

If not, keep a note of each call or letter to show the Court. Useful if you also want to add a claim for harassment....

[jayney71]

Can you direct me to a template for the Letter Before Action please?

All our posts seem to be littered with hyperlinks to a law pack that costs £20 rather than links to templates which I know exist somewhere!

 

Cheers

J

[jayney71]

I don't know what to do now!

 

I know I should be sending a letter before action but I don't really know what to put in it and no one's sent me a link to a template

 

Someone, please help me... I'm at my wits' end with this

[noomill060]

I told you what to put in your LBA in post 15, jayney.

 

This isnt anything special, but you appear to be as desparate as I was, so heres something you are welcome to cut and paste. Fill in the relevant bits. Send the letter by Recorded Delivery and keep the reciept. Add the cost to your claim.

 

Your address

 

Their address

 

Date

 

 

Re:Account number xxxxxxxxx

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

 

Sir/Madam,

 

 

I write with reference to the unlawful £20 penalty charges SLC debit to my account.

 

I calculate that my account is now made up of £xxx of these unlawful charges and I require that you remove this amount from my account within 7 days of receipt of this letter.

 

Failure to do so will leave me no option but to seek a court order to enforce complance with my request.

 

Should legal action be necessary I will also request reimbursement of my court fee, all costs associated with the administration of this claim including £5 for each letter sent, and judicial interest of 8% on each charge from the date each was levied until settlement, as per the County Courts Act 1984.

 

Yours, Jayney.

Edited April 9, 2009 by noomill060

[noomill060]

Have a read of my adventure with SLC a couple of years ago.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/students/78206-noomill-student-loan-company.html

[jayney71]

Thanks Noomill, I'll definitely use your version with the necessary amendments. Sorry for sounding all desperate and panicky ~ I thought that a LBA was an official legal thing that had to be worded in legalese... glad it's not!

Yes, I've read your WON thread a few times - sounded very exciting/exasperating... and I'm still intrigued to find out what was in that mystery letter !

 

One last (for now!) question... I've got 6 loan numbers - (I was a student for too long!) - so which should I use as my account number at the top of the LBA? Smith Lawson tend to just use the first one but the SLC list all 6 at the top. Perhaps I've answered my own question... I'll quote all of them and will send my letter to them timeously

[noomill060]

All six.

[jayney71]

Update...

 

I've been up to my eyes in MSc work so this SLC malarky has had to go on the back burner for a while so not much to update except...

 

I sent a holding letter to the SLC today (recorded, of course!) telling them they'll hear from me by the end of the month with a view to recovering any charges and arrears.

 

Coincidentally I had a letter in today's post from "Banner Jones Solicitors"... except NOT!!!!! It's such a brief letter, I'll quote it:

 

"We have received details of your account and we are now preparing this case for legal action.

We will be instructing the court to commence formal recovery proceedings for the outstanding amount.

Official documents will be sent to you in due course, however if you wish to avoid this action at this late stage then it is imperative that you contact our office on 0845 337 5126 within the next 48 hours.

No futher correspondence will be issued prior to commencement of legal action."

 

Well... I phoned them on the 0845 number and spoke to the same sort of muppet that I've spoken to at NCO, Westlea, etc etc... whose only job is to ask for money. I asked him if he was a solicitor and he said he wasn't prepared to answer that question. I asked what company I was calling and he said they work on behalf of Banner Jones. So I asked again what company I was calling and he said I was calling Banner Jones! I said that I didn't believe him as he'd just told me he worked on behalf of BJ ( amused myself with their initials!).

 

Eventually he hung up! I phoned back and a female answered. I asked her what company I was phoning. She asked for my reference number. I said she didn't need that to tell me what company I was phoning! She asked me to hold and then came back and, after repeating the above, eventually told me I was phoning CCM! Further prodding revealed this to be Close Credit Management!

So, yet another debt collection company trying to scare and harrass me... fan-blummin-tastic!

 

Anyone else come across these jokers?

 

If anyone out there has any proper legal knowledge, could you tell me whether it is illegal to effectively pass yourself off as a solicitor? The letterhead is from BJ solicitors with all their contact info on it, but it's actually CCM! The letter threatens action that they cannot carry out purely to intimidate me into making payments... this can't be legal!

 

Sorry for long update - I'm very grrrr with the SLC and everyone associated with them and can't wait for this whole farce to be over!

 

Jx

[human.error]

Hello Jayney71 and Noomill. Just about to enter into this affray myself.

 

I too have been caught up in this whole penalty charge, backdating of my deferment process. They caught me around 2000, no matter how many times I argued with them that the charges weren't legit they still insisted they were, hell they even emptied my my bank account twice, leaving me destitute, the 2nd time they took a full £700 which meant that everything stopped, I had to receive an emergency loan from the bank which then cost me a further £100 or so, then just to add further insult to injury they wrote that I'm a bad payer on my credit record.

 

Yep, sick of them too. Seriously angry every time I think about this..... I'm looking at a 'Do Not Ignore This Letter' from 'Smith Lawyson & Company' over this years illicit charge, they took money from me, then gave it back on BOTH loans but the one that SLC holds they've charged me for the return of the money they took!

 

Incidentally, would there be any benefit to submitting a http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/10900-loan-company-cannot-supply.html or is this already taken care of in the 'Subject to Action' portion of the claim, will they return to me a copy of the original loan document\s?

 

Also, a Subject Action Request - Jayney71 did you ask for ALL your loans information and did they 'muddle' it all up, or were there SEPARATE bundles for EACH loan you requested information about?

 

Thanks for answering my questions both of you.

Edited June 6, 2009 by human.error

[noomill060]

Jayney- just start the reclaim process.

 

1) Letter before Action

 

2) File small claim.

 

3) Collect.

[jayney71]

Hello human,

 

When I got all the stuff in response to my SAR it was pretty incomprehensible and certainly not separated out into different loan numbers. Although I have 6 loans they've always been lumped together - I only have to defer once per year so it suits me.... I just wish their info was better organised.

 

I've never asked them for copies of the original agreements... it's tempting to start getting all Perry Mason and think that if they can't produce one of them then they can't claim anything from me, but, in my case, I've never once suggested to them that I didn't take out the loans so I'd probably be on thin ice trying it now. If my case does end up in court - highly unlikely, apparently, as the slc always cave in at the last minute - I wouldn't want the judge to get the impression that I was relying on tricks or loopholes to win my case.... I don't need to resort to them as it's all clear and true!

 

I'll keep plodding on with mine and post updates as and when. Good luck with yours!

 

Noomill's been through all this already and has really helped and encouraged me to keep going and not be intimidated.

 

Good luck!

Jayney