Nikki vs HSBC ***WON***

[Nikki1234]

This is my reply here... sorry for the length! I am aware that I may be banging my head against a brick wall here, but I wanted to make my position clear to them...

 

Thoughts anyone? Have I got the info right?

 

Thanks by the way to GaryH.. (I nicked some wording off one of his letters)

 

Dear Ms Tomlinson

 

ACCOUNT NO: XXXXXXXX & XXXXXXXXX

CLAIM NO: XXXXXXX

 

Thank you for your letter dated 1st May 2007, in which you offer settlement to the above claim by way of a payment of £4049.88. Unfortunately I cannot accept this offer as it is not the full amount of the claim.

 

Furthermore, I must inform you that I feel your letter is contradictory and is in part factually incorrect. I will again attempt to clarify my position with regards to this matter, despite doing so on numerous occasions previously in communications to your customer services department.

 

I refer to your 2nd paragraph. You say I have supplied details of charges passed to my account for a period in excess of 6 years, yes I have. You say they are limited by the provisions of the Limitations Act 1980. I do not believe they are. Taken from the Limitations Act 1980 (S14A), I have “three years from the earliest date on which the plaintiff or any person in whom the cause of action was vested before him first had both the knowledge required for bringing an action for damages in respect of the relevant damage and a right to bring such an action”.

 

I refer to your 3rd paragraph. You seem to be at a loss to understand why I have sought to recover overdraft interest within my claim. You should be aware that the interest only ever relates to the cumulative charges within the overdraft balance of the account at the point that the interest was debited. I am perfectly entitled to claim the overdraft interest which was applied directly as a result of unfair charges passed to my account.

 

I refer to your 5th paragraph. Interest can be claimed on all moneys owed when a County Court claim is filed to recover it. The County Courts Act 1984 allows the claimant to claim the s.69 judgement rate, currently 8%, if no other interest can be claimed. However, in a contract dispute, it is entirely right and proper for the claimant to base his interest claim around the rate of interest stipulated in the terms of that contract, should such a rate exist. In your letter you mention that “it is a basic condition of borrowing that you should pay interest on monies borrowed” – I entirely agree with you, which is why I am including contractual interest in my claim.

 

The rate of 15.9% is the rate of interest that HSBC charged me under the terms of my account. I am therefore claiming that rate of interest on the money HSBC now owes me, under the implied principle of mutuality and reciprocity. I consider this to be absolutely fair and reasonable and am confidant that a judge will also see it this way.

 

In paragraph 7 you also state that there are some discrepancies in my schedule against the charges passed to my account, however you do not seem to have elaborated on these. You should be aware that my claim for charges has been meticulously calculated and double checked and the charges have been taken from HSBC’s own statements. Please also note, I have noticed this exact letter has been sent to a number of other claimants at this stage of their claims with HSBC. If this is in error, and the result of copying and pasting a standard letter, I would suggest you take a little more care in your correspondence. If not, I would be interested to know what these ‘discrepancies’ are if, indeed, they exist at all.

 

May I close by advising that this litigation would not have been necessary if only HSBC would have operated my account within the rule of UK law. Additionally, this litigation could have been prevented if only HSBC had responded to my initial correspondence in an appropriate and professional manner befitting of such a serious complaint. It is submitted that your attitude towards these claims in general should be urgently reviewed. Please note that all my correspondence was sent by Royal Mail first class recorded delivery, and the proof of postage has been retained.

 

I am aware of my duty to mitigate my loss and am willing to settle this matter without the need for a hearing. In fact I must add that I find it objectionable that the courts valuable time is being wasted in circumstances such as this. However, I would like to make it clear that I will settle only for the full amount of the claim – no more, no less. This is £4,728.33, plus interest accrued since commencing the claim, which is (to date) £110.53, plus the court fees, which total £220. This gives a total of £5,058.86. Please note that this total is subject to a daily rate of interest of £1.34, as detailed in the particulars of claim.

 

I trust this clarifies my position.

 

Yours sincerely

[Castlebest]

Nice letter Nikki that should wake them up a bit

 

pete

[Nikki1234]

Ok, so just spoke to DG today re discrepancies, and funnily enough they can't find what decrepancies they are talking about! Then came the excuse that it wasn't them that did the letter, it was someone else, so they would have to come back to me....interesting...

 

Also re the 15.9% argument - apparently they are only allowed to refund the 8% interest that you would be awarded in court. To which I asked "So you are saying you haven't refunded anyone more than the 8%?" and their answer was pretty much a repeat of the first.

 

I gave up in the end... was a pretty useless action... better to stick to written correspondance I reckon.

 

They also kept mentioning that I would need to provide case law to them for my arguments. Now I'm pretty sure that I don't need to give anything to them at all, certainly not at this stage (although I have actually got most of it downloaded and ready for printing if needs be).

 

Am I right?

[nettyg]

very good letter nikki, just one thing... the word confident

 

not confidant ok?

[Nikki1234]

Oh crap! Thanks Netty - I knew I'd miss something.

 

Can't do much about it now, it's gone... lets see if they notice....

[nettyg]

they'll probably not have to time to 'spellcheck' anyway lol

[oyster11]

Hi Niki

 

Nice letter! I was wondering if you could have a look at mine too see what you think before I send it No AQ - Straight to PRE TRIAL REVIEW #110 would like to get it posted this weekend cos I am on hols nest week.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Oyster

[surfstak]

Any news Nik?

[Nikki1234]

Received a letter this morning:

 

 

Dear Madam

 

Thank you for your letter dated 2 May 2007. We will attempt to address the issues that you have raised.

 

We are not disputing your right to bring your claim. You have stated under the Limitations Act 1980 (S 14A) you have "three years from the earliest date on which the plaintiff or any person in whom the cause of action was vested before him first had both the knowledge required for bringing an action for damages in respect of the relevant damage and a right to bring such an action". However you have claimed an item which is more than 6 years before the date of your claim. That is 20 February 2007 and the item is for £27.50 debited on the 2 February 2001. However in order to bring this matter to a conclusion and on a commercial basis only this amount will be included in our offer.

 

With regard to the overdraft interest you seek to reclaim, it is, of course, a condition of your borrowing with our client that you pay interest at the agreed rates on that borrowing. As previously stated, our client's interest rates are well publicised in respect to both formal and informal overdrafts. From our review of the information provided by our client, your account was, for the majority of the time, overdrawn to a greater extent than charges applied to your account.

 

You state that "Interest can be claimed on all moneys owed when a County Court claim is filed to recover it. The County Courts Act 1984 allows the claimant to claim the s.69 judgement rate, currently 8%, if no other interest can be claimed. However, in a contract dispute, it is entirely right and proper for the claimant to base his interest claim around the rate of interest stipulated in the terms of the contract, should such a rate exist". In our client's terms and conditions there is not a rate, implied or express, that states a claimant in a County Court claim can use 15.9% as a basis for his interest calculations, therefore, the statutory rate of 8% allowed under s.69 applies.

 

Your claim for contractual interest is noted and denied in that there is no legal principle of mutuality and reciprocity.

 

Again we re-iterate that our client has made a most reasonable offer of settlement to you, which takes into account the charges applied together with statutory interest at 8% per annum, pursuant to Section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984. At this juncture, we wish to advise that should you continue with your claim to a hearing, we reserve the right to bring our letters to the attention of the Court when the question of costs arises. By this we mean that our client has made a reasonable offer of settlement which you have rejected. In the event that the Court concurs with our view than we will seek an order that you pay our costs in continuing with the claim from today's date until conclusion.

 

For the avoidance of doubt our client's offer in the sum of £4,084.50, amended as mentioned above. remains open for your acceptance.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours faithfully

 

Plus the usual confidentiality clause etc etc...

 

 

They really aren't liking the contractual interest bit are they!

 

Note also they haven't mentioned the discrepancies. And they just repeated themselves over the 6+ years thing.

 

Can anyone confirm that I have understood this right - when the Limitations Act states I have 3 years from the date I was aware I could claim, does this mean I can claim as far back as I can as long as I do it within 3 years?

 

I am sending the standard response declining this. I nearly didn't bother, but at least it will get my file open again!

 

They filed their AQ FINALLY! This was their 2nd deadline... here's hoping the judge is liking my draft directions!!

[Nikki1234]

Also - they are threatening to charge me costs. I haven't really had the time to check the forum yet, but is this new?

 

I'm not worried... but I just haven't heard of HSBC threatening this before...

[Nikki1234]

Hi,

 

Just a quick note to say I decided to settle for the 8% Interest.

 

Considering they have paid all charges, interest and courts fees, plus the 8% statutory on top it was a good offer, and I needed the money sooner rather than later.

 

I also needed my life back! I've been spending far too much time on the net researching and researching and more researching...! :grin:

 

3 down, 4 to go...

 

Would someone change my thread to 'settled' for me please.

 

Good luck and keep fighting the big boys,

Nikki

[lateralus]

can you pm your win details to a moderator - this is now becoming much more important to add to the data base - just send username, claim no, claim amount, date settled.

 

and also write to the court to let them know it has been settled. thanks and congratulations on your win.

good luck with the other ones!

well done!

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

[Castlebest]

Well done Nikki !!! another one won !!!

As Lattie says let one of the Mods know your claim details as this is important to some of the peope following you.

 

pete

[Nikki1234]

TYPICAL!!

 

Trust me to bottle out at the last minute!!

 

I sent a letter to the courts, telling them I had settled, and it crossed over in the post with the Draft Order of Directions I had requested! I really didn't think the judge would use them, otherwise I would have kept on. Still got a good settlement, but I wish I hadn't seen the Judges order lol.

 

Anyone who is having doubts so close to the end... Please take note!

 

Oh well, at least I know that the order will be made on all my other claims...

 

My court's Basingstoke, by the way - just in case anyone else in the area was thinking of going down the directions route.

[Castlebest]

Hiya Nikki, hindsight is an easy tool to use too late you got a good settlement and you still have your other claims running so enjoy the money you have.

 

pete

[mellymum]

Sorry to interfere, how do you get the title of your thread changed? Mine still says about the silly AQ and Im past that stage!

[lateralus]

mellymum - you need to pm a moderator - copy and paste the old one and tell them what you want it to say.

 

 

nikki - so, it could have been a bit more - so what - you have a massive win by any standards. when the money comes through - be sure to write to the court that it has been resolved and please please give the details of you win to a mod for use in the data base for those doing the court bundle - they just want your username, which bank, your claim no., date filed and settled and amount. thanks.

 

and very well done - you worked hard for that money! enjoy it!