Priceless ... bl**dy priceless **WON**

[blsclaret]

My first post here.

 

Firstly, thankyou for this site and the templates available.

 

I am in the process of claiming on behalf of my son from NatWest. Our claim was £1695 plus 8% interest. Their offer was for £951. Having read your "offer" stages we are now obliged to refuse this and get a full refund.

 

There have been further charges to increase the claim, but please advise me of the correct letter template to use for this refusal. I know how important legal wording is and would hate to blow our chances by writing the wrong thing.

 

I give you my word that a donation to this consumer action group will be sent.

 

Regards

 

Keith Morley

[clayts]

You may wish to post this query in the Nat West forum, but essentially you send something along the lines of

 

I accept your offer of £951 as a partial refund only. I shall be pursuing the remainder as previously notified in my letter of (date of whatever your last letter was).

 

Stick to your original timetable.

[hagenuk]

My first post here.

 

Firstly, thankyou for this site and the templates available.

 

I am in the process of claiming on behalf of my son from NatWest. Our claim was £1695 plus 8% interest. Their offer was for £951. Having read your "offer" stages we are now obliged to refuse this and get a full refund.

 

There have been further charges to increase the claim, but please advise me of the correct letter template to use for this refusal. I know how important legal wording is and would hate to blow our chances by writing the wrong thing.

 

I give you my word that a donation to this consumer action group will be sent.

 

Regards

 

Keith Morley

 

You need not worry too much about legal words and phrases. Nobody expects you to be an expert, least of all the courts.

 

It is highly unlikely your letters will be seen by anybody in any court in any case, as thus far, the banks have paid back unlawful charges before that stage.

[bram stoker]

Hi.

 

I have moved your thread to the Natwest forum. Please keep all your posts about your claim in here.

 

You should NOT have added the 8% in your letters to the bank and must only apply the 8% when going to court.

 

I don't know the wording of your original request, but when you use the LBA letter, you will have to amend the template accordingly.

 

I cannot stress enough how important it is to spend a lot of time reading the forum material before commencing action.

 

Add the further charges on, and stick to your timetable.

 

If you need help wording the letter, put your suggested wording in this thread, and the nice people around here, I'm sure will give you a hand.

 

Good luck,

Vamp.

[blsclaret]

Thanks all.

 

How's about ..........

 

Dear NatWest,

 

Thankyou for your letter of 21 July offering £951 against my claim of £1591 (up to and including 27 June 2006).

 

I accept your offer of £951 as a partial refund only. I shall be pursuing the remainder as previously notified, together with my claim from 27 June 2006 to date, as per the attached revised schedule. Please note I do not intend to claim the 8% interest at this stage.

 

blah blah blah

[orfoster]

Yes i would find that letter ok. You should be ok, make sure you quote your account number on the letters so they can't say they don't know who you are and also send the letter recorded delivery.

[Fred_Funk]

Keith,

 

There's a great deal of confusion about this; you can't claim the statutory 8% interest until such time as you submit a court claim.

 

You can, however, ask for repayment of any interest incurred as a result of unlawful bank charges - Vamp's spreadsheet is fantastic at calculating this for you. That's to say, if, in month 2, you incurr £10 in interest as a result of charges incurred in month 1, you can ask for it back - or if only a proportion of that interest is attributable to unlawful charges, you can ask for that proportion of it back.

 

Am I making any sense?! ;-)

 

Fred_Funk

[blsclaret]

Hello again, I think I know my next move but wish to clarify.

 

I wrote on 2 Aug ;

"I accept £951 as a partial refund only.

 

I have been advised to pursue the remainder.

 

Please note I do not intend to claim the 8%interest at this stage and wish to acknowledge this earlier error on my part.

 

Please be aware there is a 14 day period for response after which I shall issue a claim.

etc"

 

Saturday I got the Stuart Higley "bog off" letter. Basically he feels charges were just, and the offer of £951 remains. He quote Office of Fair Trading only investigating credit card charges and not bank charges. The final paragraphs then give the address to which claims must be sent.

 

I could scan the letter at work tomorrow for someone to see, (if it is then possible to add scan to this forum please advise), but it does seem a standard letter.

 

It would appear MCOL is the next stage, am I right ?

 

Would it be advisable to accept the £951 now and close the book ?

 

Again, I do appreciate all the advice given on this and other posts.

 

Regards

[cumbria123]

standard letter, carry on, that offer will be withdrawn if you carry on, but you`ll get your full amount eventually.

[blsclaret]

When other claimants get the full repayment, does NatWest demand that the overdraft is repayed in full ?

 

My reasoning here is, I am claiming £1700 on behalf of my son who has a £600 overdraft facility. Nat West original offer was £951.

 

To aim for full repayment less the possible loss of facility netts off at £1100, a difference of only £149.

 

My theory is one of both sides thinking they have won by accepting the original offer and going no further with court action, then life can continue as normal. It would save any hassle and bad feeling as long as the overdraft facility stays in place.

 

Can anyone comment please ?

 

Regards

[blsclaret]

Having read my last post, I realise what a silly comment I made.

 

The difference would not be £149 as the overdraft would still exist, so I feel I must continue.

 

Having read other threads, MCOL does not seem the way forward. Logically I now use the local Court Service to file my claim and pay my fee. I already hold copies of bank statements as back-up documentation, together with recent correspondence.

 

May I politely ask if I need anything else as I have never use the Small Claims Court before ?

[blsclaret]

Dear helpers,

 

I am claiming £1700 from NatWest on behalf of my son.

 

First letter with spreadsheet sent,

Offer letter £951 received,

Refusal sent,

Stuart Higley "bog off" letter received.

 

We are now at the filing a claim stage, and I have been reading on other threads where MCOL is not the way to go. Is this correct ?

 

Is it better to file personally through the local Magistrates Court/Small Claims Court ?

 

If MCOL is OK to use, how do we attach proof of debt documentation ?

 

Sorry if these have "obvious" answers, but I have never filed before and want to get it right.

 

Thanks once again

[callumsgran]

its swings and roundabouts really! online is quicker but you dont have much room on the form, at court takes longer but not so limited on space, not sure how you attach i'm afraid, i went the old way!! hope this helps?

[Its WAR]

Dont use moneyclaim. Any time wasted by using the local county court will be caught up with when Cobbetts defend your claim. Moneyclaim will then transfer the claim to your court anyway. If you use your court from day one, you can ensure you steal half of Cobbetts defence by giving them fantastically detailed Particulars of Claim and the copy of the spreadsheet. I think Cobbetts can more quickly pay you if they can read your spreadsheet. Your claim may then be less complicated. Remember not to use the section in the claim form to write your particulars but use seperate pages and number each point. Use a bigger font (14) so the particulars take extra paper.and look more involved. Cobbetts will themn take more time and care reading and re reading it....all to Nat Wests expense.

[blsclaret]

Thanks haydn.

 

Local approach it is then.

 

N1 Claim Form being filled in now.

 

Is the narrative for brief details of claim simply "Unlawful Bank Charges" or does it need to be more descriptive ?

 

Regards

 

NB: Particulars wording borrowed from library for which I thank you.

[blsclaret]

Update.

 

Claim filed by hand today, with spreadsheet backed up by copies of bank statements from July 2003.

 

Wish us luck.

[Cally]

Best of luck

go get 'em

Cally

[blsclaret]

Hi all,

 

Pursuing a claim on behalf of my son. Claim filed and NatWest response deadline set for 12 September. Since filing we have heard nothing, and have read on here sometimes the defence arrives on the final day.

 

My question is, what sort of defence may be given at such a late stage ?

 

When filing locally, not MCOL, I photocopied all bank statements for the relevant period to substantiate the accompanying spreadsheet. However, a NatWest questionnaire has never been received, thus never sent.

 

Is this as simple as it seems or am I missing something here ?

 

Thanks for help.

[kathy25]

They Normally Respond With The Defence Stating That All Charges Applied Are Fair And Transparent Bla Bla Bla, Basicly They Told Me They Were Embaressed At The Lack Of Particularity Stated In My Particulars Bla Bla

 

Now That I Am Waiting For A Court Date They Have Decided To Offer Me Half Of What I Am Requesting Be Paid So Dont Panic, They Use Big Words And Word Things To Scare You But Keep At It And They Will Fold

[chriswatkins]

I received a defence from cobbetts not the court the day after I put in for judgement,usual rubbish that they send to everyone, I am just waiting to hear from the court now, by the way, its been 4 days since I got the defence thing and CPR part 18

[blsclaret]

Thanks.

 

Was just reading your thread Chris. A lot of info on there. I particularly like the post from Isobel re the letter in reply to Corbetts. Must be worth a shout to send that if they ask us to fill in same.

 

As many will have said, why the extra expense for NatWest with all these delays. Pay up and shut up. Afraid scare tactics are the way of the world nowadays.

[blsclaret]

Received Cobbetts defence on Saturday. Hopefully on the home straight.

 

Basically they state we do not disclose reasonable grounds.

"In relation to the allegation that contractual provisions pursuant to which charges have been applied are unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and/or the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999.

 

The Claimant is required to identify:

a) The section of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

b) the regulations of The Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999

and c) the principles of common law alleging that the contractual provisions are unenforceable"

 

Asuming this is standard defence, is our reply held within the "templates" header, or

do we send the letter highlighted by Isobel within the Chris vs NatWest thread, or

is there a more logical way ?

 

All advice is received with thanks.

 

Keith (claiming on behalf of Ian)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our previous posts have been as follows:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/19129-hello-advice-please.html#post148711

 

and

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/24463-mcol-local-small-claims.html

 

We intend to keep all under this one roof from now on until victory.

[Michael Browne]

Isobel's if you want a bit of sport or:

 

Dear Sir or Madam:

 

Claim No: XXXXX

 

I acknowledge receipt of your defence & request for further information and clarification.

 

I anticipate that the claim would be allocated to the small claims track and would not then expect to have to deal with a Part 18 request since these are specifically excluded under Part 27 unless the court specifically orders me to do so of its own initiative

 

Furthermore I consider that the CPR part 18 request is intimidatory and I intend to bring the intimidation to the notice of the court.

 

However, for clarity, I enclose a schedule of charges and I confirm the charges I am claiming were applied to the following account:

 

Account Name: XXXXX

Account numbers: XXXXX

Sort Code XXXXX

Amount XXXXX

 

Yours sincerely

[blsclaret]

Thanks Michael,

 

I have seen that reply in other threads.

 

The defence received on Saturday does not mention Part 18 or 27 of anything, so should this be the correct reply from us ?

 

The commentary is as I wrote. I have scanned the defence but cannot find how to link it to this thread (not too techy a person sorry).

 

Also, though it does not state a time limit, I assume we have 28 days to reply. Is this correct ?

 

Thanks

[Michael Browne]

Ok they're trying a slightly different tack.

 

The key phrase is 'The Claimant is required to identify'- no, you're not required to identify anything at this stage, unless specifically requested by the court, not Cobbetts. You don't need to reply at all. Or amend the above letter:

Dear Sir or Madam:

 

Claim No: XXXXX

 

I acknowledge receipt of your defence & request for further information and clarification.

 

I anticipate that the claim would be allocated to the small claims track and would not then expect to have to deal with requests for further information since these are specifically excluded under Part 27 unless the court specifically orders me to do so of its own initiative

 

However, for clarity, I enclose a schedule of charges and I confirm the charges I am claiming were applied to the following account:

 

Account Name: XXXXX

Account numbers: XXXXX

Sort Code XXXXX

Amount XXXXX