Closing a joint account at Lloyds bank

[Nicolette Thompson]

My parents separated late in life, 12 years ago, and now live in different parts of the country.

 

My mother has eventually plucked up the courage to divorce my father and the decree absolute came through in March of this year.

 

She has not used the joint at Lloyds since the separation, some 12 years age. They refuse to remove her name on the account for the following

• The account is being used by my father and is overdrawn
  
• He is deemed as the first person on the account and only he can give permission for her name to be removed.

Lloyds are putting charges on top of charges and are now chasing her for the debt, having had no luck from my father who is retired and on state benefits.

 

My mother is also retired, but is not on benefits and owns her own home.

 

How can I stop them chasing her. She is elderly and not in the best of health and they are hounding her and threatening further legal action including removal of furniture to clear the charges.

 

She did offer to clear the debt but they will still not remove her name from the account and if it becomes overdrawn again will continue to chase her.

 

What can I do??

[reload]

I'm no expert, but if she demands they remove her account details as she is no longer using the account and is effectively a seperate individual from the account holder, then under the DPA they can no longer hold her details?

 

Especially if she does clear the debt.

 

Another course of action to consider is clearing the debt and claiming back the penalty charges they have applied to the account - although of course this will take some time.

 

Certainly though - when the account is in order I'm fairly confident in saying that Lloyds have no justification whatsoever in preventing the removal of her name from the account.