Legal claim against Halifax

[Beamengine]

I have been acting as a representative of one of my family members for a year dealing with eight accounts. Some of the creditors have made life very difficult by failing to recognise the authorisation and charging interest so that the debt increases rather than decreases.

 

 

Halifax and Sainsburys (a joint venture with Halifax) are the top two on the list for poor customer handling and Halifax have made a total muddle of their handling of this account. Firstly they totally ignored a third part full and final offer followed by no response to my offer of a repayment plan. My local CAB then sent them a repayment plan which they did not acknowledge. Instead, two months later they sent a letter stating that the plan had been terminated.

 

 

A request for clarification from the bureau was ignored. When Sainsburys asked for an updated financial statement (which reduced the payments!) a copy was sent to Halifax from the bureau. At the end of November the debtor received a call from Halifax. It claimed that he was late with his payment so they were contacted and we were told that the letter accepting the repayment plan had been returned by the bureau as an unknown client.

 

In December Robinson Way phoned without notice and were told to get lost. They subsequently sent a NOA letter claiming that the debt was to HBOS. A complaint to Halifax elicited the somewhat surprising response that it was their standard practice to terminate the contract and pass the debt onto a DCA who subsequently claimed not to have been informed of the repayment agreement extending to June 2012 or to have been informed that there was a representative.

 

 

Worse still, the response letter to my complaint was address to the correct address but with the wrong forename, not surprising that the bureau returned it as an unknown client!

 

 

The LBA raised all of these issues as unfair treatment and Halifax have responded asking for time to make a considered response.

What should my next steps be?

Edited February 15, 2012 by citizenB
spacing for easier reading

[rogermeard]

Halifax are appalling to deal with. My parents had a Debt Relief Order and completed the year satisfactorily, all creditors happy etc except Halifax which continued to hound them both. Then when my father passed away they still harrassed my mother even after being sent his death certificate and now eventually 18 months after his passing they may have got the message but i dont hold out much hope. they seem to ignore what suits them, i found them to be cold and completely unapproachable in my dealings with them, worse people i have dealt with and that includes Debt collection firms.

 

Good luck with this and hope someone pops on with the advice you need.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Yes. Halifax are the absolute worst IMHO. Make sure you write to them with a FORMAL COMPLAINT (Director's office)

[42man]

You may also like to read this too - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?827-Examples-of-unfair-treament

[Beamengine]

Thank you 42man but I have already read that and understand the relevance of CCA 1974 section 140a.

Unfortunately I have discovered that I can't use a POA to allow me an audience at court. This means that the claim will have to be made by the debtor at at time when the whole purpose of me acting as representative is to avoid undue stress.

I have also realised that a claim is unlikely to succeed unless the contract is unenforceable and this could result in a counterclaim resulting in a CCJ which is the exact opposite of my intentions!

[citizenB]

POA ? It is probably quite obvious.. but can you let me know what it means, please.

 

So, where you at the moment with this? Waiting on a response from the LBA ? Did HBoS specify a time they would respond with their "considered response" ?

[AndyOrch]

POA = Power of Attorney CB

 

Andy

[Beamengine]

Sorry, Power of Attorney, I must get back into the habit of spelling out the abbreviations.

I gave HBOS 21 days and received an immediate response pointing out that I had referred to them as RBOS rather than BOS (it was as the time of the bonus row so I can only plead fallibility). I had expected a further response but on checking their response that was another mistake on my part.

To further add to my confusion the letter stated that they were part of the Lloyds Banking Group plc (correct) and Halifax Bank of Scotland plc (not according to Companies House who list them as HBOS plc). Raymond Way gave the creditor as "HBOS" whereas is should have been Halifax or BOS as the Consumer Credit Licence for BOS includes Halifax and HBOS Credit Card as trading names but not HBOS which is used by another HBOS company dealing with insurance (I think).

[citizenB]

POA = Power of Attorney CB

 

Andy

 

Of course Thanks Andy

[citizenB]

Sorry, Power of Attorney, I must get back into the habit of spelling out the abbreviations.

I gave HBOS 21 days and received an immediate response pointing out that I had referred to them as RBOS rather than BOS (it was as the time of the bonus row so I can only plead fallibility). I had expected a further response but on checking their response that was another mistake on my part.

To further add to my confusion the letter stated that they were part of the Lloyds Banking Group plc (correct) and Halifax Bank of Scotland plc (not according to Companies House who list them as HBOS plc). Raymond Way gave the creditor as "HBOS" whereas is should have been Halifax or BOS as the Consumer Credit Licence for BOS includes Halifax and HBOS Credit Card as trading names but not HBOS which is used by another HBOS company dealing with insurance (I think).

 

 

Aha.. right.. I think I have seen another claim where someone is having problems deciding on who, exactly to issue the claim against. They really gave themselves some breathing space with the merger didnt they?

 

I will try and find a definitive answer in respect of this question.

[Beamengine]

In this case it should be Bank of Scotland as they are the limited company who are replying to my letters and they have Halifax as a registered trade name for credit purposes.