They've filed a defence - HELP!

[LisaDJ]

Got a letter today saying the claim has been transferred to my local court. I have to fill out a questionnaire and pay another £100 in fees.

 

The defence says:

*The claimant's account is governed by the defendant's personal and/or business banking terms & conditions

* Pursuant to the Defendant's terms & conditions the defendant is entitled to make a charge for its services as set out in the defendent's price list, including an overdraft review fee for considering whether to provide and providing overdraft.

* The defendant denies that the charges applied to the claimant's account amount to penalties at common law and/or unfair contract terms for the purposes of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

*The charges applied to the claimant's account are reasonable and are properly and fully disclosed in the defendant's terms & conditions and published price l ist. The charges represent the contractually agreed price for the services provided and the UTCCRs are not applicable to them; alternatively, they are not unfair contrary to the UTCCRs. Further, the charges are not default charges, and accordingly cannot amount to a penalty.

* Save as set out aboce, each and every allegation made by the Claimant is denied. For the reasons set out above, it is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief claimed or any relief.

 

:o

[lateralus]

this is normal response. so, did you ever send dg your breakdown (you have so many threads i can't tell), if you did not - send them asap. if you did send them - ring dg tomorrow and ask if they were received, also, tell them you will be filing your aq shortly and were wondering if you would be hearing from them soon.

now, what is your aq deadline.

it is important you don't miss it but it is my advice to wait until it is almost upon you to actually file. by all means be reading about them - there are several threads to help you, and be aware you may have to file - but, making contact with dg now may spur them into an offer.

so, let us know what your aq deadline is,

send your breakdown to dg and then follow up

or follow up now if you've already sent them to dg specifically (not just through the claim) and get your claim to the top of somebody's pile.

[LisaDJ]

Ok I may have missed something - what's an aq? Ah I've found it on the letter - it's 30th January.

Didn't send my breakdown to DG - I assumed they would ask for it

Best get onto that now.

Thanks.

Is there a covering letter I can use or do I just send one saying "please find enclosed breakdown of charges for your information" ?

[raxtyjaxter]

I am in exactly the same boat as you Lisa. The defence that DG Sol have given you are exactly, I mean word for word, the same as mine, and your AQ deadline day is the same as mine. All I can say is....SNAP!

 

Thats perfectly acceptable sentance to use. Just put the claim reference at the top along with Vs HSBC Plc, then send it off. But ring them a few days later to ask if they have received it.

[LisaDJ]

Ok thanks, is it worth posting recorded delivery or anything?

[nettyg]

send EVERYTHING recorded delivery costs about £1.12. if you need it for next day delivery guaranteed it costs about 4 squid

good luck xx

[lateralus]

i'd send it recorded tomorrow - and i'd also either fax it or e -mail it tomorrow - look in all hsbc contact info - thread above these posts for the fax and e-mails - use deb's e-mail number. then you can ring sooner.

[LisaDJ]

That's great, thanks

[pointsgirl]

looks like they use the same defence with everyone

Which hopefully means we will all get all our money back

i am a week behind you, my allocation form has to be back by 6th feb

good luck with your claim

[LisaDJ]

You too I sent off my schedule of charges recorded delivery on Wednesday.

My Mum has given me a cheque for this set of charges.

 

Got a letter through offering us £250 of the £367 we've been charged since October. They have deducted £117 as an arrangement fee. So that means so far we will have had £775 back.

[LisaDJ]

Ooh question! Will I have to appear in court?

[pointsgirl]

I am not aware of anyone actually going to court yet!

 

and i am sure someone will correct me if i am wrong

[LisaDJ]

The solicitors have responded to my breakdown of charges - I think I've made a cockup

 

I included charges plus interest I had been charged for going overdrawn so they say they don't understand why I'm claiming overdraft interest as well as the 8% interest per annum on that interest.

 

So... they have offered me £1055.45 of the £1550.10 I was claiming. But if I messed up then perhaps I shouldn't be claiming for that much anyway. They say the sum offered represents the overdraft fees plus court fee (but since it was transferred I have paid out another £100 in court fees).

 

Any advice welcomed - am thinking of accepting the offer. But it says about confidentiality on the letter.

[glyn and lucie linton]

don't worry its part of there bulls**t its just to make you get scared and pull out..we received a full offer of over 6 grand today... get your money back you are the one in control not them!.

good luck

[LisaDJ]

Even the bit saying I'm asking for interest on the interest

I think it's me that cocked up.

[lateralus]

don't worry - i asked (for my son) for overdraft interest and then 8% on the lot when i filed the claim and i got it. if you put it on the s/s the way everyone else did - and came up with charges plus o/d interest and then put the 8% on at the claim stage from the s/s you are ok.

i agree - they are just fluffing.

here's a question - what did you mean in post #10 - have you actually had money back from them - or just offers of money - have they refunded any of the charges you had on the claim?

 

so, have you filed your aq? when was it due? i'll check back to see what you say in a little bit.

don't worry - you'll be ok. and the o/dinterest plus 8% interest is ok.

[yay101]

Hi LisaDJ, mine said the same thing, but the difference was only £30.00.

 

o what is best for you. Good luck. x

[LisaDJ]

don't worry - i asked (for my son) for overdraft interest and then 8% on the lot when i filed the claim and i got it. if you put it on the s/s the way everyone else did - and came up with charges plus o/d interest and then put the 8% on at the claim stage from the s/s you are ok.

i agree - they are just fluffing.

here's a question - what did you mean in post #10 - have you actually had money back from them - or just offers of money - have they refunded any of the charges you had on the claim?

 

so, have you filed your aq? when was it due? i'll check back to see what you say in a little bit.

don't worry - you'll be ok. and the o/dinterest plus 8% interest is ok.

 

OK to clarify post 10 - we have 2 accounts with HSBC and the money we have had refunded so far is from the charges from the joint account. They are actually closing that account now.

 

The money I'm holding out for (amounting to £1550.10) is from my personal account over the last six years.

When I added interest to my spreadsheet - that was interest that they charged me. The charges amounted to £1192.51.

The 8% is interest on the total sum they have charged me.

 

I have sent off the AQ and sent a cheque for £100 to have it transferred to my local court. It was due on the 30th, I'm pretty sure my partner posted it last week- just had a panic cos he posted 2 letters on Tuesday but they weren't to the court.

 

I'm hoping this gets sorted soon as it will help a lot with our honeymoon.

[lateralus]

ok, so far so good, all clear. now, when you did the overdraft interest - did you use the advanced spreadsheet - so it probably didn't add all the overdraft interest but a portion of each interest debit - look back at the spreadsheet - if you were doing it correctly using the advanced s/s, it would have added a portion of the interest debitted - but none of it, if the balance was in positive numbers at the time of that charge - but a portion or all of it if you were in minus figures at the date of the charge - just check that's the way you were doing it, well, i mean the spreadsheet - as it did all the work. just confirm that's the way you did the spreadsheet and i will say you did it ok and should get all the o/d interest you are claiming. i bet i'm confusing you. if i am - let's do it this way:

your charges were 1192.51, then when you added the 8% interest onto that, plus your court fee of what 120? then your aq 100. so altogether it's 1550.10? if that's the case - it sounds right to me.

you've gone too far to give in now. you've sent the aq - did you include the direction draft (don't panic if you didn't, i'm only asking - it isn't necessary - so just say if you did or didn't - it helps know what comes next). just verify all this for me.

[LisaDJ]

I used the spreadsheet that was on google (Vampiress's)

I did save it but had a problem getting it to print straight from the web so I copied it into excel. I think it was a good job I did because then it disappered from the google pages. The last few charges do have interest in minus figures.

 

I make it 1550.10 without the court fees or AQ fee. But my copied spreadsheet is now telling me interest rate 18.20%, but DG Solicitors have replied acknowledging the interest claim of 8%.

 

What's a direction draft? Haven't seen that mentioned in the user guide.

[lateralus]

the draft direction is a new strategy for the aq - it justs asks the judge to review it and order both parties to respond by laying out all their wares within 14 days and as the banks don't want to do this - they settle more quickly - as i say it is optional - so no big deal that you didn't do it.

 

secondly - see honeygie's thread as exactly the same thing - they have shorted her offer and mumbling about o/d interest - must be their new ploy. as i said to honeygie - when i did my son's claim back in sept. they routinely offered about 85%, then we routinely said no thank you and they routinely offered 100% a few days later - i think what they did to you and honey is a variation on a theme - so, if you've the stomach for it - just send a rejection letter - i'll put the one i used at exactly this same point on here and you can use it, or not, make it better or whatever, but as they've done it to both of you i think it's a ploy to get you to take what is on offer and if you hold out, you'll get the lot.

 

here was my rejection letter:

xx September 2006

 

xx xxxxxxxxx

Hull

xxx xxx

 

 

DG Solicitors

12 Calthorpe Road

Edgbaston

Birmingham

B15 1QZ

 

Attn: Julie Kyle

 

Dear Ms Kyle

 

Re: xxxxxxxx–v- HSBC Bank plc

 

Thank you for your letter of xxSeptember 2006.

 

I respectfully decline your offer of settlement. My claim has already been filed and so I have already incurred the costs associated with small claims filing. I would therefore not be inclined to settle for less than the complete claim for £22xx.xx.

Please also be aware that due to interest I consider the amount owed to me to be increasing at the rate of fifty pence per day from the date of the filing. To date this

has added £13 to my claim. This brings the total of my claim to £22xx.xx as of today’s date (xxSeptember 2006).

 

I would, however, accept your offer as a partial settlement of my claim against HSBC on the clear understanding that I will continue to pursue recovery of the remainder through my court claim. Should your client decide to offer a full settlement and issue a cheque for the full amount I will contact the court to stop the action in progress upon receipt of said cheque.

 

 

I trust this clarifies my position.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

x xxxxxxx

 

 

 

lisa, i didn't even add that i would be filing my aq shortly thus incurring even more costs to them, which i would have added had i known better.

also, i never got the daily rate as i had failed to put it into the claim.

be sure to mention the aq filing fee of £100 which you require.

i'd spell out the totals for them: xxxx.xx charges(don't separate out the o/d int)

xxx.xx interest

xxx.xx court fee

xxx.xx allocation questionaire.

XXXX.XX TOTAL

 

 

ok, now, on another subject all together.

your aq deadline was 30 jan, right. well that was their aq deadline too.

so, on monday, i want you to ring the court and ask if they have filed their aq. they will tell you, if they have, fine, if they haven't - the court may/or may not give them 7 days leeway to file it and if they don't - you win by default. so, you have a battle going on two fronts. ok, ring them on monday - not dg - the court to see if they(dg) have filed.

as for dg - you've got 10 days to respond to the offer, right? well, just let it simmer for a day or two, thinking what to do - i'm pretty sure what i'd do. but ask here on the forum if you need more support.

[LisaDJ]

That's fantastic, thank you so much for your help

I will call the court and hang on a bit with DG's offer.

[lateralus]

if you haven't done anything with that offer, lisa, i think you need to reject it - you won't get anymore out of them until you do. just send that rejection letter and i 'm thinking you'll get a full offer within another few days. did you find out if they have filed their aq?

[LisaDJ]

I haven't been able to phone the court yet because I have been late home from work so far this week. Tomorrow I have a day off because of the snow so will call then, will also reject the offer, if you're sure I should hold out for the full amount. Don't want to get left with nothing.

[LisaDJ]

Using your letter and the 50p a day interest that takes me up to nearly £1800 (£120 court costs then £100 AQ/transfer fee plus 50p a day since filing on the 19th December).