Atomboy vs Blackhorse *** WON ***

[atomboy]

Question----

Due to getting into a charging cycle with the Abbey several payments to Blackhorse for a kitchen I'd bought were missed but represented and paid. Blackhorse charged me £25 for every late payment. They know have been paid in full for the kitchen but the charges for the missed payments are outstanding to the tune of £125. On the phone they told me I would not be able to claim against the charges as they were a financial something or other...but thanks to you all I know I do have the right to fight

Question is how do I proceed? Everything on this site seems to deal with claiming money back that has already been paid. How do I proceed to avoid actually paying charges that are illegal?

Thanks.....

[atomboy]

Well, It's moved on since I posted that message yesterday. After having spoken to them yesterday and being told the rubbish about their charges not being illiegal, about how I couldn't take action against them because they were a financial institution, about how they couldn't provide me with an itemised list of their charges....this morning I received a default notice from them demanding arrears of £114.99 (their late payment charges) Then at the bottom of the page is this: "If you do not pay the arrears before that date this notice is to be treated as our demand for payment of the amount stated below. Balance outstanding £230" Where did that £230 come from. The kitchen was paid off in full, only their charges are outstanding.

I'm not sure how to proceed. Do I send them a cheque and then proceed to claim the money back. Do I send them a cheque with a letter before action stating that if they cash the cheque I will make a claim? I will send them the form letter to remove the default notice....

Can I use the data protection act form letter with Blackhorse? Will rummage through the forums to see what I can come up with.....

[Tinkerbelle]

Posted reply on your other thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/38186-atomboy-defaulted-blackhorse.html#post299836

[atomboy]

Just an update.

Well, Tinkerbell's advice worked. I paid Blackhorse their charges and have just sent off my preliminary letter to claim them back.

The templates are a little confusing, i.e. do I use the bank or the credit card template for a finance company?.....there didn't seem to be much difference between the two so I adapted the bank template.

I will be interested to see how they respond if at all.....

[spotnot]

Well, Iwouldn't hold my breathe if I were you! I've sent Black Horse a prelim and an LBA and I haven't heard anything from them. I'm only claiming £25 with 40p interest, but its mine and I want it back!! They probably think that I won't take it all the way, but I will!!

 

Good luck with your claim. Keep us informed!

[atomboy]

Having had no reply from Blackhorse, today am sending off the LBA. They've had more than enough time, so time to get heavy.

[atomboy]

Spotnot was right....Blackhorse is playing opossum...Haven't heard a peep. Filed my claim with money claim online today. I think that should wake them up ;-)

[atomboy]

Yesterday, the 21st Feb, I received a cheque from Blackhorse for £115.00. The original amount of my claim from them.

 

Their letter thanked me for the initial letter I sent them last November, there was no mention of the letter before action I sent them nor my court claim against them. The court claim was deemed to have been served to them on the 13th of Feb, their letter was dated the 19th of Feb. One of two things happened, either they are so inept and inefficient and the business is so badly run that they had no idea about the second letter and the court claim or, an I think this is more likely, they willfully chose to IGNORE my 2nd letter, and the court claim and the additional charges. grrr

 

So they have refunded my original claim but not the court costs of £30, nor the interest of £9.08. When I had paid off the balance of my account with them they threatened me with default orders etc unless I paid them their fees which I have just been refunded.

 

Since turnabout is fairplay, and since I cannot afford to lose the £39; I composed the following letter cribbed from some of the letters they sent me:

 

Dear Sir or Madam:

 

Agreement 4xxxxxxx7

Overdue Amount: £39.08

 

Thank you for your letter of the 19th February and the cheque for partial payment of the claim number 7QZ15449.

 

I would like to confirm additional fees of £30 plus interest have been attracted to the initial claim of £115 due to failure of your company to respond to requests for payment on the 15th of November, and the letter before action on the 22nd January 2007. As a result a County Court Claim has been issued, and has been deemed to be served on the 13 February 2007 generating the extra costs to you.

 

It is important that you pay the outstanding amount immediately; otherwise I will have to inform the Credit Reference Agencies, which may make it difficult for you to arrange credit in the future. I will also continue with the County Court claim which may result in a judgement against you. Also, if your agreement remains in arrears, I may make additional charges.

 

If you are experiencing difficulties in making this payment, please call me quoting the agreement number.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Atomboy

 

I really enjoyed writing that

I hope that my next addition to this thread will be to say that I've been paid in full...but we shall see.

[atomboy]

Today I received a letter from Black Horse's solictors acknowledging the court claim and saying they will defend it.

I also received a letter from Black Horse with a cheque for the outstanding amount enclosed. It seems the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

It doesn't matter - I've WON :D £153.70 in total.

 

"And another one's down, another one's down, another one bites the dust........"