Monzo closed my account and took my benefits - claimform issued

[mvd511]

Hi all...

I was reading through these forums recently and found a wealth of Information, particularly @BankFodder's contributions and many others.

I was wondering if anyone can help regarding my situation - any advice is greatly appreciated.

I do appreciate that everyone has a full time job as well.

But here's the situation.

First things first:

last year, on 18th July 2022, Monzo have unilaterally decided to close my account, which I'd held for a good few years previously. They just notified me via in app messaging that effective immediately my access to the account is denied and the account is closed. Which was a bit odd- but fair enough, they have that right.

Only issue I had with that is that on the same day I had 2 Universal Credit payments go into said account. One was a payment advance (which is a loan from DWP that I am repaying over 24 monthly installments retained by Universal Credit from my benefits)  and the other a cost of living supplement- totalling just over £1500. 

I contacted Monzo straight away via phone and email and was promised a refund of these 2 payments within 4 weeks. I'd lodged a formal complaint with Monzo as well and was offered £30 compensation in their final offer letter (which I incidentally refused).

Needless to say that they never paid me back my Universal Credit payments, saying that because I was overdrawn at the time of these 2 payments, Monzo was taking it upon themselves to appropriate those funds to cover the overdraft on the account.

I have offered to pay the overdraft in instalments as long as I had my Universal Credit payments sent to a different account so I can live off them. That never happened so I did some research on what can be done. The CAG  forum was unknown to me at the time, otherwise I would have proceeded with your members' help. 

Subsequently I filed a claim on my own with Money Claims Online around August 2022 which went ahead to be allocated to Central London County Court after going back and fourth with correspondence and the motions of a failed poor mediation service. 

I have today just received the second (unkind and threatening) offer from their legal team to drop legal action in return for them renouncing all threats of legal costs. 

I do know my rights (namely right of appropriation and set-off of all benefits payments to be used for their intended purposes) which I cited in my previous letter to the legal team. But I'm now finding myself in a kind of twisted timeline according to which they claim I knew the account was being closed, yet I allowed the Benefit payments to be used for covering the overdraft.

Which was definitely not the case - the money went in before I had any knowledge of account closure, only for the account and access to it to be denied a few minutes later. I have a paper trail of emails and chats confirming this version as well as Universal Credit journal attesting to payment being sent and encashed by Monzo. I can attach these letters on here if it helps put things in context. 

And to add insult to injury, the account is defaulted with CRA's, even though it is still subject to legal dispute. Granted, there was an extra £170 pounds left to completely cover the overdraft which I was unable to pay back due to the confiscated benefits, but I did offer to pay it back in instalments had I been refunded the means to pay it back, namely the very Universal Credit payments they took from me. 

Can anyone please help as to how I should proceed in this matter?

I only became aware of Particulars of Claim needing to be filed after reading through this forum. And upon reviewing past correspondence from court, Monzo's legal buffs had previously made a motion to strike out legal action a few months ago on the basis of limited POC. However,  legal claim was allowed to proceed to Central London County Court and I am yet to receive allocation of case hearing. 

Let me know if I should upload any of these letters on here.

And btw I am willing to take it all the way to Court if I have any chances of fixing my DIY claim. 

Many thanks again for any contributions.

[BankFodder]

Please start off by uploading your claimform in PDF format and also the defence in PDF format

[mvd511]

Thanks for your prompt response @BankFodder

Here's the requested PDFs

This is the letter I received today from the legal dept at Monzo twisting the facts at no.5 alleging that I had prior knowledge of account closure and yet I did nothing. Which supposedly gives them the right to set off my benefits towards payment of overdraft. I have yet to formulate a reply to this.

claim-form-claimant-copy (7)(1).pdf monzo-defense.pdf Letter to Claimant (12.06.2023)-1.pdf

[dx100uk]

were there benefit payments going into the A/C prior to these?

 

dx

 

[mvd511]

Yes. I had previous benefits paid into the AC on a monthly basis. That particular day it just happened that I was approved for a DWP advance payment (effectively an interest free loan from DWP for which I am still paying) for £1205 plus £325 cost of living supplement. 

The account was closed with no notice whatsoever. If it was as they claim, that I had prior knowledge of account closure, I would have asked DWP to stop payment. Which I did, but unfortunately this was after the account was closed and they couldn't retract the payment. 

Also - I doubt the payments would have gone through if the account was already closed as the payment was sent. I have correspondence from DWP attesting that payment was not returned.

[dx100uk]

you should of sent them an SAR before you launched your court claim.

that way you'd have evidence to present with your case from their comms log of no prior notice.

as it stands you have nothing, he said you said.

im wondering if BCOBS plays a part here too.

and ofcourse how much of this OD was unlawful fees for being OD etc. 

 

[mvd511]

Thanks @100uk. I just sent them a SAR request today after reading through forums on here. Hopefully I'm not too late to use it in Court. 

 

I was in authorised OD when they decided to close the account. Some of the £170 left to cover would have been interest and fees and I'm sure they added a lot more of them since acc closure. 

[dx100uk]

just type no need to hit quote.

 

you also can't really claim..

Time spent contacting Monzo - approx 10hours £150

Distress for not having any funds left  £1,000

the courts cannot act as hurt feelings police.

 

5 minutes ago, mvd511 said:

Some of the £170 left to cover would have been interest and fees and I'm sure they added a lot more of them since acc closure. 

before also.

 

 

[mvd511]

Yes @dx100uk

I do realise that Courts won't award for 'distress' after having read through forums on CAG. I'd be quite happy to just get the benefits back (for which I'm still paying for) adjusted for inflation. 

[dx100uk]

you wont get inflation but court s69 flat 8%

you really should have come here long ago, certainly before you launched the claim.

your POC doesnt really cut it.

 

dx

 

[mvd511]

I agree dx - I should have definitely consulted CAG before launching into any kind of action. 

But unfortunately I only came across CAG today after receiving the attached letter and another  random Google search. Whereas my actions took place nearly a year ago. 

Do you think I stand any chance of fixing this anymore or should I just take the offer of no further legal costs? I do accept that I may have addressed this issue in a proper manner too late. 

I was just looking through emails I received from Monzo and attached is the only email I received once the account was closed. Which clearly states that if any incoming credits are expected, they'll be returned from that time on.

This surely indicates that my version of the timeline is true, that I received no prior notice of account closure. And that the account was still open at the time the funds were received. And that the reason why I notified the bank that my benefits were to be set aside for their intended purpose after receipt of funds was that I had no prior knowledge of account closure until after they had taken action.

They never returned the funds to DWp BECAUSE the account was still open at the time of receiving the deposit. 

Screenshot_20230613_015614_Gallery.PDF

[dx100uk]

did you actual send something along these lines.

 

 

[mvd511]

No, I haven't sent anything along those lines @dx100uk

I had no clue I was supposed to notify them  beforehand 

[dx100uk]

why have you 2 usernames??>>