Six year deadline, difference of opinions.

[Guest peed orf]

Hi all,

Having read lots and lots of different posts, ther seems to be a huge differece of opinion as to the six year deadline!

I had an account with HSBC for approx 15 years. I closed it in 2001 due to the charges were riddiculous. Being self employed, money owed didn't always arrive when promised, so HSBC hit me hard and often. The snowball affect is still with me today.

I want my charges back to compensate for some of the distress this caused.

 

Presumably, if requesting more than six years statements, the letter in the liberary isn't suitable.

All and Any advice will be wecome, I'll sift thru it and go from there.

Thanks.

[Bookworm]

Presumably, if requesting more than six years statements, the letter in the liberary isn't suitable.

.

 

Why not?

 

Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my banking history with your organisation. Alternatively, a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable.

 

Doesn't say 6 years :-?

 

Anyway, the 6 years limit. Hmm. Someone will test that sooner or later, that's for sure.

 

Personally, I'd think: "What have I got to lose?" and decide accordingly, after having read everything I can about the subject and made up my mind from there. But that's me.

[Guest peed orf]

Thanks.

Just presumed, because the DPA covers 6 years!

[Bookworm]

No, it doesn't. The Statute of Limitation 1980 does.

 

The DPA covers all of your data that they may have. How long they keep it is another story.

[Guest peed orf]

Opps!

[Bookworm]

 

Don't worry, it will come to you. Believe it or not, most of us had never even heard of most of these before. ;-)

[zoe130280]

The reason you cannot go back further than 6 years is because the limitation date for contract law is 6 years. In other words to enforce anything under a contract, you have to start court proceedings within 6 years of the date of the thing you are trying to enforce.

 

Ie in this case, the first charge you are reclaiming must not be dated more than 6 years from the date you issue court proceedings.

 

If you tried to issue a claim with the court for charges older than 6 years, it would be thrown out due to limitation.

 

HTH x x x

[Guest bong]

Zoe if you can satisfy the court that "any fact relevant to the plaintiff's right of action has been deliberately concealed from him by the defendant; the period of limitation shall not begin to run until the plaintiff has discovered the concealment" - S.32 (1)(b) Limitation Act 1980.

[Bookworm]

zoe130280 , please have a good read around.

 

1 - There is a very good argument to get around the 6 years limit, which is what Peed o'rf's query was about. it's called s. 32b of the statute of limitation.

 

2 - This is quite incorrect. It's 6 years from the date you first dispute the charges, which is either from when you first send your SAR, or when you send your prelim.

 

3 - If you tried to issue a claim for older charges than 6 yrs using s. 32b, a judge would have to deal with that and not "throw it out".

[Guest peed orf]

I vaguely remember seeing Bongs info on a thread somewhere, can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Bookworm]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/statutes-library/415-limitation-act-1980-a.html

[Guest peed orf]

Cheers.

[zoe130280]

I just think that you would have a hard job proving that the banks have 'deliberately concealed' your right of action, but I certainly wish you the best of luck trying

 

When I mentioned issuing proceedings within 6 years, I was talking generally about the limitation period, not with using s32 LA 1980. Sorry if this has confused anybody

 

 

"This is quite incorrect. It's 6 years from the date you first dispute the charges, which is either from when you first send your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request), or when you send your prelim"

 

This is also incorrect. The 6 years runs from the date you discovered you have a right of action. This is a different thing than the date when you first dispute the charges. Someone could take months after discovering they had an action before doing anything about it.

[Bookworm]

But they wouldn't be able to show this to be the case. You simply can't say "Oh, I knew about the charges being unlawful for years, but did nothing about it", which is why for simplification, I worded it that way. For all intents and purposes, and especially when it comes to raising a court action, the cut-off date will be the date you first wrote to the bank disputing the amounts. We altered the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) templates precisely to that purpose, as some charges were dropping beyond the 6 years between S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and compliance.

 

I just think that you would have a hard job proving that the banks have 'deliberately concealed' your right of action, but I certainly wish you the best of luck trying

 

That is your opinion. In your first posting, you categorically stated this as a fact: "If you tried to issue a claim with the court for charges older than 6 years, it would be thrown out due to limitation".

 

Quite a few people are testing this, as indeed others did when they were first told that they couldn't get their bank charges back. ;-)

[zoe130280]

Sorry for any confusion. No ill feeling was meant

 

"If you tried to issue a claim with the court for charges older than 6 years, it would be thrown out due to limitation".

I didn't explain the meaning behind my post very well I'm afraid. I wasn't thinking about s32. I was thinking about contract law in general. Once again, sorry for any confusion.

[Bookworm]

No worries ;-). Unfortunately, we get so many skittish people here, so tentative, that we need to clear up things really quickly. It wasn't personal, promise

[zoe130280]

No problems

[Switch]

I intend to make 2 claims.

 

The first will be within the eligable 6 years and the second will be for everything prior. I do not want to roll the whole period into one as I do not want to risk losing the charges within the eligable 6 year period.

 

Once the eligable 6 year period has been payed I am going after everything prior. If I do not get anything for the period prior to the 6 years well nothing ventured nothing gained, but they might just pay up to stop it from going to court.

[Guest peed orf]

Hi guys, received reply from HSBC on 1st claim, outside limitations act, bla bla bla. Date of charges June 2000 - Aug 2000.

Just ignore them and send next letter?

Is there a pre done LBA for contracual interest?

 

[Joint account £277 + CI = £1450]

[Guest peed orf]

Right..... I'm ready to get to grips with this one now.

The reply to my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) said they don't keep info more than six years, blaa blaa blaa. However I do have an old printout statement thingy from 1996 with "fiche" written on the top, so presumably this would be microfiche the same as sAbbey use, and therefore ongoing.

Would it be better to request the info again, or hit 'em with a Court order?

 

[account going back to 1990ish, at the moment estimated + CI = approx £30k]

[sarahpp]

Just here to offer support really - Bong has posted up some very useful info. in Legalities though:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legalities/65306-forget-32-limitations-act.html

 

Well worth a look

[Guest peed orf]

Thanks for that, had a quick look, will digest tomorrow, looks hopeful.

[Guest peed orf]

Just noticed posts 19 & 20 next to each other could be confusing, tried to clear it a little.

I've got 3 claims to look at for HSBC

1. £690 8% prelim sent October.

2. Joint account CI, LBA sent November.

3. old account needing more info, possible £30k inc int.

[sarahnick]

Can anyone direct me to a sample letter for impleneting the 6 year limitation. I ahve received paperwork over the past 6-8 months from a debt copllecting agency chasing me on a store card debt (alledged) they have sent me a copy of the application form I filled out in 1994 but no evbidence that I ran up a debt. I have disputed this all the way down the line, where do I go noe?

[Guest peed orf]

If there's no proof of dept, you won't have to pay it.

The "legaities" section deals with this in more detail, and they have more knowledge of how to word what!