Fos adjudication-any way i can overturn a negative decision without going to court?

[cj1951]

In Oct. 1989, I opened two passbook savings accounts with A&L.

 

As I moved around the country a lot with different jobs/house etc.,

I could not keep up with changing my contact details.

 

I thought the A&L would be 'safe' as they had taken over 'Girobank' the government bank.

 

The A&L have been 'thin on the ground' with branches to change my contact details,

of which they require one to go in with proof of i.d. & etc.

 

In most cases the nearest branch was 100 miles away from me!

 

In 2003 I tried to update and close the accounts down,

having been medically retired and in declining health.

 

Every obstacle was put in my way to do same.

 

Finally I wrote to the Head Office - no record of my accounts!!

 

The A&L sent me £50 for the 'inconvenience' and referred me to the FOS,

after more than two years of 'to & fro' the FOS 'ruled' in the A&L's favour on the ground 'banks are not required to keep records for more than 6 years'

and that it would seem from the A&L's investigation that the accounts were closed sometime prior to 1992!!

 

I have the origianl letter from the branch that opened the accounts,

together with the origianl two passbooks with the two opening entries entered into them.

 

They were never updated for interest & etc.

 

Every argument I could think of I put to the adjudicator but they kept coming back with the same answer!!

It was even suggested that I may have encashed them with some i.d. and no passbooks and forgotten about it!!

 

My marbles are fully intact and have a Pyschiatrict report that says same!!

 

I have not accepted their decision even after final appeal I have an excellent memory,

especially for small details and one conversation I did have with an employee of the A&L in the inital stages,

was that although each passbook only contained £1000 each,

I would have missed out on interest, share floatations, dividends & final bonuses.

I suppose all compounded this could well have exceeded £7000!!

 

The FOS did say that the £50 cheque that they sent me was FAIR!!

 

Any ideas as to where I can go from here.

I know I can take it to court, but it would probably exceed the Small Claims Court limits and also because I live in a remote area,

this would be rather tiresome and costly.

 

The FOS refused to send me any of the 'searches' that A&L did (I do not think they did any),

as from the outset my name was spelt incorrectly and redundancies were looming over the A&L following the takeover by Santander.

 

I would not be at all surprised to learn that my monies along with other people in a similar situation at the A&L have been used by Santander to pay for the purchase of A&L!!

 

Any help or advice from people - would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks for reading!!

[dx100uk]

can you not esc this to the ombusman?

 

i was the treasurer for a charity many many moons ago

recently they contacted me as the 'parent' charity was trying to restart the local branch that years ago i was said treasurer, that had 'gone dead' some 8yrs ago

did i have any bank account info

 

i did and fwded that to them

they had no luck

 

and refered it back to me to 'help' if i could.

 

i phoned a+l. now santander with the old ac numbers and got the details

 

dx

[cj1951]

I have the passbooks, which contain the account numbers, it has been to the FOS (Ombudsman) but as the A&L have not kept records (or so they claim) and therefore my passbooks are of no value!!

 

I did omit to mention in my original post, that the A&L started life as indicidual Building Societies and were required by various lawas to keep records from the day they started - so I found it hard to believe that they did not have any records of my accounts. Also, I pointed out to the fact, that if the A&L were a reputable organisation then like Barclays Bank they would have records and that Barclays Bank have a small museum in Norwich, with the original lefgers going back to one of their forebears 'Gurneys Bank', back some 300+ years ago!! That was 'skipped' over by the FOS!!

[Airwolf]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/9/sept-re-discovered-old-passbooks.htm

 

"Sometimes the wording inside the passbook will say the book should be produced when a withdrawal is made – often it will say that it must be produced. But despite this, the existence of the passbook is not conclusive evidence that the account still exists. This is because banks did not refuse people access to their money if, for example, their passbook had been mislaid. Withdrawals were often allowed without the passbook if the bank was satisfied about the customer’s identity and the authenticity of the transaction.

 

When we look into this type of complaint we need, first, to examine the bank’s earliest available register of active accounts, and its register of dormant accounts.

 

An active account is one that is still being used and its details are recorded under the account number. But accounts are seldom recorded centrally at a bank’s head office; usually there are separate records for each branch.

 

A dormant account is one that is not being used, and where the firm has lost touch with the customer. After an account becomes dormant, it is transferred to a separate register of dormant accounts (there may be individual ones for each branch). It is recorded under the name of the account holder and, after a time, the account number may be re-used for someone else’s active account.

 

A dormant account remains indefinitely in the register of dormant accounts – until the customer gets in touch with the bank to claim the money. The bank cannot claim the money for itself after a lapse of time.

The law does not require businesses to keep records indefinitely, and it is unlikely that the bank will have retained any other paperwork from the relevant period. So we are unlikely to find any concrete evidence concerning the closure of the account. And the law does not require banks to pay up just because it cannot produce evidence showing how and when the account was closed.

 

We have to decide what is most likely to have happened, in the light of the available evidence. And we often conclude that the most likely explanation is that the account was closed many years ago – in circumstances that the customer has long since forgotten."

[rebel11]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/how_we_decide_cases.html

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/answers/decide_cases_a2.html