PPI - How do I pursue my reclaim via court

[IzzaCon]

Hi,

 

I am getting increasingly frustrated and hope someone on here can point me in the right direction.

 

I was mis sold a single premium PPI policy in 2002 on a secured loan. I didnt know anything about this type of insurance at the time and have several reasons why it was clearly mis sold.

 

The single premium policy was £7500 and was added to the loan. The loan was repaid in 2004 when I sold my house after divorce, partly caused by financial hardship.

 

I have followed the usual complaints procedure via the company Loans.co.uk, then the FOS. The FOS couldnt rule on my case because Loans.co.uk were not regulated by the FSA at the time.

 

I now believe I have to take this to court to claim my money back. I have spoken to Community Legal Services and they gave me the name of a firm of solicitors, but they want a £1000 "on account" before giving me any advice. I dont have a £1000.

 

I would be very grateful if anyone who has been through a similar experience could give me some guidance on the course of action to take.

 

Thank you in anticipation.....(please)

[rebel11]

Hi izza

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Thread has been moved to the correct forum.

[ims21]

Hi

 

First off you might be interested in this

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/final/loanscouk.pdf

 

If you look in the stickies of the PPI forum you will find ne that relates to a win in court.

 

Basically you will need to prepare a spreadsheet of the amount you are claiming (See No.1 in my signature to start with). If you wish you can ask for interest in restitution from a court. The principle is exlplained int he Interst Tutorial linked at No.4 in my signature.

 

Bear in mind that as a claimant, the onus will be on you to prove mis-selling but the article linked at the top of this page may help you with that.

 

Would you care to give us the full details of the history on this claim?

 

ims

[IzzaCon]

Hi, Thank you very much ims21,

 

I will look through items 1 and 4 on your signature as you suggested. In the meantime, the history of this claim is as follows:

 

25/06/2002 - Loan started (including £7750 single premium PPI)

15/06/2004 - Loan repaid in full after sale of home.

31/10/2008 - First letter of complaint to Loans.co.uk

05/11/2008 - 1st Response letter from Loans.co.uk

07/11/2008 - Second letter of complaint to Loans.co.uk

25/11/2008 - Complaint sent to FOS

11/12/2008 - Letter received from FOS stating that they cannot deal with the complaint because Loans were not regulated at the time.

 

07/01/2011 - I asked "Claims Advisory Group" to take up my complaint for me. I did explain everything I had done before but they said they could deal with it. They were very convincing on the telephone and their fee would have been 39% of any successful claim. They didnt get anywhere.

 

I have kept copies of all correspondance and I still have a copy of the original credit agreement showing the single premium PPI of £7750. The interest rate was 9.5%!

 

Once again I appreciate your help very much. For someone who has been through a divorce and two redundancies in the last few years, this money would make a huge difference to me.

[ims21]

Hi

 

Ok thanks.....sounds like you've had a bit of a rough ride.

 

When you've done your reading come back here and we can help you move this forward

 

Regards

 

ims

[IzzaCon]

Hi again, and thank you again ims21.

 

Thanks also for the information on the FSA fining Loans.co.uk, this is very useful.

 

I have read all of the information on PPI reclaiming and the Interest tutorial as you suggested, again it was very useful. I am however still a little confused about the interest to reclaim.

 

My undertsanding is that if the FOS were awarding the interest it would be simple interest at 8% per annum. According to your spreadsheet on this the interest would be £6016.95, making my total claim £13766.95.

 

However if I take the claim to court, which I intend to do, then I should claim restitution, so the interest on your compound interest spreadsheet equates to £10887.04 making my total claim £18637.04. The interest rate used is 9.5% which is the rate on the credit agreement.

 

Does any of this sound correct?

 

As for my next steps, I understand I have to put together a Particulars of Claim, and I have found a template on this. Do I need a cover letter and what are the court fee's for submitting my claim.

 

Also, can you please point me in the right direction with the process I need to follow to submit my claim.

 

Once again I really appreciate your help on this.

[ims21]

Hi

 

Yes the fos (or regulatory) award will be as you describe but courts can award higher amounts based on the principles of restitution and in this respect you can use a higher rate than was being charged on the account. This would put right the unjust enrichment by the bank by using your money to lend out to others and the profits they made on it.

 

Be aware that to claim interest in restitution you shoukd be familiar with the case law of Sempra Metals v Commissioners of Inland Revenue and the principles behind restitution since you may well have to argue them in court.

 

As this loan and the sale of the PPI was back in 2002, they may well claim that this is barred by the Limitations Act so you will neend to use S32(1)© to get over that potential hurdle. Case law for this is Kleinwort Benson v Lincoln City Council.

 

Also be aware that a claim in the amount you have calculated above will fall outside small claims and you need to be aware that costs come into play if you lose.

 

To submit a claim you would complete form N1 and take it to your local court and pay the appropriate fee. To be honest I don't know what the fee is for a claim of this size but your court will tell you.

 

The one thing I would do is to do a lot of reading around the forums. It may be that they will cave in before getting to court but you must work on the assumption that you will have to appear in court in front of a judge and argue your case. Preparation is the key and, to use the expression, fail to prepare and prepare to fail.

 

A PPI claim of this amount should not be undertaken lightly or "on the quick".

 

ims

[Bigmark]

Hi

My initial complaint was rejected for the same reason, however it was reinstated after I informed the FOS, PPI policies sold alongside a secured loan are governed by the (MCCB) Mortgage Code Compliance Board if the firm that sold the policy was a member.

Loans.co.uk was a member of MCCB between March 2000 and 30 October 2004 and became FSA regulated 31October 2004.

The Mortgage Code is limited. Please read the code, if Loans.co.uk breached the code then complain to the FOS again.

 

Good luck

[irish_stan]

What reason did loans.co.uk give for refusing your claim in the first place before you went the fos route?

[IzzaCon]

Thank you very much again ims21, you have been so helpful.

 

Also a big thank you to Bigmark, this is something I had no idea about and is definately worth exploring. I will get in touch with the FOS on this and let you know how I get on.

 

Loans.co.uk rejected my complaint because they said it was over 6 years since the loan was provided and therefore had no records and that it was "time barred".

[IzzaCon]

Hi

My initial complaint was rejected for the same reason, however it was reinstated after I informed the FOS, PPI policies sold alongside a secured loan are governed by the (MCCB) Mortgage Code Compliance Board if the firm that sold the policy was a member.

Loans.co.uk was a member of MCCB between March 2000 and 30 October 2004 and became FSA regulated 31October 2004.

The Mortgage Code is limited. Please read the code, if Loans.co.uk breached the code then complain to the FOS again.

 

 

 

Good luck

 

Thanks again to Bigmark for this amazing piece of advice. I have now spoken to the FOS mentioning the MCCB and they have agreed to re-open the case. They are sending a PPI questionaire to me.

 

I am amazed at this, I wish I had known about it when I first complained to the FOS and I wish they had looked at it properly at the time.

 

Thanks again, I will let you know how I get on.