BAYMANvsHSBC

[bayman292002]

I have finally recieved a reply to my pre-legal letter although it was outside of the 7 day notice period!. The banks reply states that "The bank does not agree with your contention that the charges applied to your account constitute a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable", the letter also goes on to state that the bank operated within its terms and conditions, a copy of which would have been supplied when i opened the account. Am i right in thinking that this is just the banks automatic response?, should i now just apply to the court and apply the intrest?, the claim is for £14k+, should i use a solicitor and if so would anybody be able to reccomend anyone that they have used?, many thanks in advance

[bayman292002]

Any help, pleeeeease!!

[Will Scarlet]

It certainly does look like you've received a fairly standard response. Most banks seem to be insisting that they are quite within their right to charge these "fees" as they were quoted in T&C's when the account was opened. As we all know, you can not contract yourself out of the law so I would keep pushing.

You mentioned a pre-legal letter. By this do you mean a letter / notice before action? If you haven't sent one, send one and if you have already sent one, because they have not replied positively to you I would personally stick to your guns and commence legal proceedings.

With the amount of help available on this site I would hesitate before engaging a solicitor but, at the same time, I can understand your concerns with it being £14k!!! Can I suggest you look into defending the case yourself using the help available on the site. There is a court "buddy" system in place to help people in your position. Always bear in mind that there is a chance that the bank will turn up to court so you have to be ready to defend but you aren't the first person in this situation and I know you won't be the last so do some digging around on the site and see where it takes you. You might be pleasantly surprised...

Good luck and feel free to post any more queries.

[bayman292002]

thanks very much, i will try, with you guys help to win this without solicitor, it would make a nicer donation to the forum!!

[Neil Birch]

remember that if you were to lose [very very unlikely] the court could award costs to hsbc and for that large an amount they might try and defend , it might be worth splitting the claim into chunks therefore keeping ot below 5000 , in these case no claim for costs can be made for solicitors and barristers, you will receive excellent advice here but you could lose on a technicality so 3 or 4 claims might be the way forward perhaps one claim per year ?

[Will Scarlet]

Neil, whilst you are correct to point out that risk, do you not think it is unlikely that a judge would make an individual pay the charges incurred by a multi-national plc defending an action?

Maybe one of the legal eagles on the site could jump in here....

[Neil Birch]

In theory the judge can make the order for costs , it may be unlikely but below 5000 he cannot make the order at all which is a partial reason why banks dont defend these claims, its just not economical.

[bayman292002]

Firstly, thanks and advice. I can see the benefits of splitting the claim over a period of time but i have a £22.5k personal guarentee secured on my house, inncurred by securing the o/d and a company loan which is about to be handed to DG solicitors for collection so time is of the essence. What about if i was to split the claim in to the four years that the charges were incurred and then make the four seperate claims at the same time?. Also the loan that i have secured, £18k, was to pay off the overdraft so i am assuming that i may have a claim against hsbc for the loan also??, regards

[bayman292002]

can i claim for the loan after the court has handled the bank charges claim?

[Neil Birch]

what is your proposed claim for the loan?

[bayman292002]

The loan was taken out 2 years ago for £20k to pay off our o/draft and another smaller loan that we had, i assume that i can have a go at climing some of the loan back as the o/d was partly made up of charges on the account?

[Neil Birch]

You would be able to claim the interest paid [at THERE rate] on the amount of the loan which you took out to pay off the charges and interest levied on the original account, between when they were actually charged and the point at which you took out the loan.

You could not claim the capital part of the loan as that would be covered in your main claim.

[bayman292002]

Right, the decision has been made, i am going the route of mcol and will be filing it tomorrow, the total with interest to date is...........£15252.54:eek: . Would there be a template of the cover letter to send to hsbc deatailing my intentions to take legal action and to enclose a copy of the new schedule including the intrest??, regards, bayman

[Will Scarlet]

Yes, you'll find a Letter Before Action Template on the site. Any problems feel free to give me a shout. Good luck, go get 'em.