Unwanted PPI on 4 Lloyds loans,

[BELLA 47]

Yes, andyorch, that's what I read, so are the court wrong? That court woman was adamant she was right.

[AndyOrch]

So the limits were changed April old SCT 5k new SCT 10k your claim was issued after 1st April so remains SCT therefore your allocation fee is £40 as at 1st July.

[BELLA 47]

My claim was issued on 16th April. However, it's only just been allocated to the small claims track by the judge on 7th October.

[AndyOrch]

Makes no odds when its allocated its SCT its £40

[BELLA 47]

Update. I've written a letter to the court asking for proof that the allocation charge is correct. My husband has spoken to FOS who will send us some forms to fill in. No word from the court about the adjournment.

[Guest]

.........

Not worth it, definitely not worth it.

 

hopefully the fos will side with you. creds are supposed to stick to whatever decisions fos make when upholding a complaint.

afaik, the fos complaint form asks if litigation is in progress, so hopefully that will expedite things their end. there is also their ppi complaint form which they usually ask to be completed (available on their site if you want to download/preview).

if it does end up in court, and you win, you can ask for your small claims costs (see cpr re small claims costs) which at least includes certain court fees and poss some 'fixed costs'?

Edited October 18, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

Thanks for your kind encouragement Ford. We are not beaten yet, it's not over till it's over.

 

We are considering writing to Lloyds TSB again and suggesting they reconsider our previous offer of settlement, in lieu of the fact that the final hearing won't cost us any more even if we lose, but it will cost them plenty.

 

We will tell them that we can prove misselling(we have documentary proof that my husband would not have been able to claim on his policies).

 

We can also produce all the statements showing the overdraft charges and PPI payments and I will be able to demonstrate how some of the overdraft amount was due to PPI alone.

 

We will also tell them that FOS have told us that the extra overdraft interest is owed to us under 'unreasonable charges'.

[BELLA 47]

Sent another letter to the solicitor who represents Lloyds TSB repeating our offer to settle out of court at the original amount claimed. We said that in view of the facts that :-

 

a) Whatever happens at the final hearing it wouldn't cost us any more money

 

b) We can prove misselling

 

c) We have documentary evidence of the overdraft charges, PPI details, loan agreements etc.

 

d) FOS have told us that the charges should have been refunded

 

e) We will need a whole day in court

 

perhaps he might reconsider his former refusal to make any offers and avoid considerable expense to Lloyds TSB.

 

It's worth a try.

 

Also we received a letter from FOS today saying that they had written to Lloyds TSB about our claim and if we didn't hear anything from them within 8 weeks, or if we are not happy with their final response, to fill in the forms they(FOS) sent and they would take over our case.

Edited October 18, 2013 by BELLA 47

[Guest]

seems ok

there should be 'mediation' just now following the allocation. did you request that on the form? would the fos intervention be in time for that though? hopefully.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

Unfortunately we said 'no' to mediation on the allocation form against our judgement but again on legal advice. This was mainly because we had already been refused two offers of settlement with no counter offers and therefore assumed that mediation would be another excuse for Lloyds TSB to procrastinate.

 

With hindsight of course this was another wrong decision but we don't know how to reverse it. As I said before, we have again written to Lloyds TSB with another offer to settle, if they at least suggest a counter offer, we might get somewhere. I don't know what part FOS would play in this?

[Guest]

ok, no worries.

it seems usual practice for both parties to agree to the mediation service on allocation. then is auto stayed for mediation, and even if such mediation is unsuccessful (there are no obligations) it wouldn't affect any liability re the case itself. did they request it on their form? never know, it may still be stayed for such if they did. outside of that, could still request a stay of proceedings re settlement, but that might involve another fee?

anyway, negotiation re settlement can still be done outside of that, as you are doing, as there should be some time before the actual hearing date.

Re fos, was just thinking that if they were involved and if they upheld misselling then that would strengthen your position re settlement/court? but then again, they might not uphold! afaik, there is a backlog re fos ppi complaints, but as there is current litigation they might investigate sooner rather than later?

anyway, check with andyorch

Edited October 20, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

We have heard nothing from the court re our adjournment request (delivered 10th October) and nothing about our query re the £220 allocation questionnaire fee(delivered 17th October).

 

Today we received an offer from Lloyds TSB to settle our dispute out of court. The letter was dated 18th October, the same date we sent our offer to them. They offer to waive the £1,000 costs charge, if we will discontinue our claim. That's it. Nothing else. They express confidence in winning at the final hearing and remind us that we will still have to pay their costs even if we win.

 

Interestingly, we also received a phone call from Lloyds TSB Customer Care charges department. They had received FOS's letter and were investigating our complaint. They asked my husband for details of what we were claiming and his bank account numbers. They are looking into it.

 

So it looks as if there are two different Lloyds TSB customer care departments dealing with our claim and they are not talking to one another!

 

We now await Lloyds TSB's response to our offer to settle. If they are negative, we will ask them if this is their final response. If it is, then we turn it over to FOS in it's entirety.

[Guest]

hi bella

they have more departments than harrods! and, imo, are not good at effective communication between depts. its widely known.

you might have to pay their costs re that SO hearing even if you win, but weren't costs decision reserved on that? therefore up to the j in the end whether to award or not them. if you win overall, then they pay your court fees at least, and maybe certain fixed costs, and maybe no costs re the SO?

if the fos do get involved and uphold misselling, then should be happy days?

Edited October 23, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

The judge said that the SO costs were 'not to be enforced until the conclusion of the substantive hearing'(that's exactly what he wrote). My husband says that if we never have a final hearing i.e. If we agree to settle beforehand or FOS uphold our claim and order Lloyds TSB to pay us, then the SO costs will never be enforced. Right?

 

When I was communicating with Lloyds TSB Customer Care department in Tredegar Park, I received replies to my letters from 17 different people! Not one of them thought that perhaps the part of my claim that was for extra overdraft interest caused by PPI payments should be passed to their charges department. Had they done that, I'm sure this claim would never have taken the direction it has.

[Guest]

ok, seems then would be liable for their costs either way. depend'g on outcome, if you win, their awarded SO costs may be 'offset' re your claimable costs.

any settlement prior would ordinarily address the issue of costs.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

The court rang today, they told my husband that the court had changed the hearing date to the 7th November. That's only fifteen days from now and the two sides are supposed to deliver copies of all the information they intend to use at the hearing fourteen days before the hearing as I'm sure you know. Anyway, I haven't paid the hearing fee and don't intend to unless I know I'm definitely going to court.

 

Also, we are now mediating with the defendant and Lloyds TSB's charges department are investigating our claim, so having the court case now is not appropriate. We did ask for it to be adjourned until next March/April time, but that request has been ignored.

 

We will have to write to the court again and tell them that we require time for mediation, I'm sure they would be willing to grant that, don't you think?

 

By the way, they are refunding the allocation questionnaire fee which was incorrect, as you pointed out Ford. Thanks very much for that. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have questioned it.

[Guest]

thats good re the refund.

looks like they've brought it forward due to your unavailable dates? is this for the final hearing? or an allocation/prelim'y hearing?

are you with the courts mediation service?

may need to apply, with fee, for adjournment, or stay of proceedings for settlement? see the civil procedure rules for eg.

check with andyorch etc, perhaps give him a pm nudge request to look in?

Edited October 24, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

This is for the final hearing, even though we did ask for the date to be put back until next year when we are both back in the country, March/April time. We have delivered another letter to the court today, saying that we are now in mediation with Lloyds TSB and as this may take some time, request that the hearing(if indeed we still need one), be put back until next March/April time, as per our original request.

 

Apart from anything else, there is not enough time before the 8th November, to copy all the documentation and deliver it to the court and the defendant within the 14 day period as directed by Judge XXXX.

 

We are not with the courts mediation service, but would like to be. Being litigants in person has meant that we have made many wrong decisions and not taken advantage of the court mediation service when the opportunity arose on the allocation questionnaire. Lloyds TSB said 'yes' to mediation on their questionnaire, so I don't know why the judge didn't order that we try to come to an agreement that way.

 

We are already out of pocket with this claim and can only see future costs mounting. The court now want another £325 for the hearing but we don't want to throw good money after bad. We have been ruled against twice now and have lost confidence in the legal system.

 

We received a refund of the extra £180 for the allocation questionnaire and are grateful for that. We are putting our hopes in FOS and waiting for that outcome before we make a decision about whether or not to finally go to court.

[Guest]

hopefully, you'll be lucky and they will put it back, or stay for settlement, re your letter without a formal application. otherwise, you may need to make such an application.

as you didn't tick agree to mediation service, then hence why no such mediation service. i had thought maybe if one party requested it it might still be offered, but seems both parties do need to agree?

Edited October 26, 2013 by Ford

[steampowered]

Strictly speaking you should ask for an adjournment with a formal application on form N244, attaching a witness statement explaining the reasons ... preferably seeking the other side to agree to the adjournment first.

[BELLA 47]

We will wait to see what the court says about the adjournment and then decide what to do next.

 

I do know that we should have applied for an adjournment on form N244 but have run out of money.

[BELLA 47]

Well, the court has refused an adjournment, but have stated that we can apply to have the order set aside, varied or stayed as long as we apply within seven days of receipt of the order and pay the appropriate fee. You were right, they won't do anything without a fee. I thought this would happen, but had already decided I wasn't going to waste any more of my dwindling resources on court fees.

 

So that's that. Now all that is left is the result of the Lloyds TSB charges department investigation and the possible services of FOS.

[Guest]

what are you going to do then re the forthcoming hearing 7th?

what you could try put forward there (with proof) is that the fos, and loyds, are looking into it, and request an adjournment/stay at the hearing? up to the J, but maybe loyds would agree to that on the day?

what do you think steampowered?

Edited October 31, 2013 by Ford

[BELLA 47]

I really don't know what to do when a judge is told that the claimant is trying to mediate by writing to the defendant with an offer and is in the process of mediating with another claims department of Lloyds TSB and he still says 'no' to an adjournment.

 

I would have thought it made perfect sense to try to settle this out of court and not have a hearing at all if we can avoid it. Well, there won't be a hearing anyway, because we simply don't have the money (£325) just to request a stay.

 

I am wondering what Lloyds TSB are doing about it, as we should have received copies of their hearing documents by now according to the judge's directions (14 days before the hearing)and we haven't received anything.

 

They can't know that we have been requesting an adjournment, although they must have been informed of the earlier hearing date(it's the 8th by the way).So if they think that the hearing is taking place on the 8th November, why haven't we received anything?

 

Also, we haven't had a reply from them to our offer to settle either, so goodness knows what's going on.

[Guest]

it would now need a formal application unfortunately. would think that if there was one then it would be stayed for settlement, or adjourned. if only you had ticked yes to mediation then it would've been auto stayed! but, hindsight.

 

ok, so there is not going to be a hearing as no hearing fee? what happens now then re that?

 

steampowered, andy, any thoughts?

Edited November 1, 2013 by Ford