Question on making claim...

[jimbobaggies]

I have gone to money claim online and entered my case, and realised, in the fight to get the summary down to 1080 characters or 24 lines, my account number is not in the claim! OMG, what a noob I am, is this going to matter, or do I need to contact the court to correct it, or will they contact me and say anything?

 

I have a contract with the Defendant bank which is conducted on their standard terms and conditions. I am claiming the return of money taken by the Defendant in the way of charges plus the interest they have levied on those charges. The bank's charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law.

 

Further, as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Para.8 and sch.2(1)(e). In the event that the charges are not a penalty then they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15. I have repeatedly asked the bank to justify their charges but they have declined to do so.

 

The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 1st January 2005 to 26th June 2006 of £278.39 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment.

[jimbobaggies]

OK, had a letter from DLA PIPER RUDNICK GRAY CARY UK LLP

 

Dear Sir

 

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT - CLAIM NO ********

 

We act for Abbey National pic in this matter. Please note that any further correspondence should be addressed to me at this office.

 

We are in the process of reviewing this claim and preparing the Bank's response. A defence will be filed in due course.

 

In the meantime, we note that you have claimed the sum of £4,854.39 in respect of charges that you say have been made on your Abbey account and interest on those charges, but have provided no details as to how this sum has been calculated.

 

In addition to this, as you will appreciate, you will need to produce evidence to the Court of the amounts claimed and this information should have been supplied by you when you filed your claim. We should be grateful if you would provide such details as soon as possible.

 

We should add that if you have any doubts or concerns regarding your legal position, you should consult a solicitor or Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Yours faithfully

 

I have emailed them back as follows;

 

In answer to your request of information, could you confirm that it would be ok to send it to you by email, and in excel format?

 

I would have included this when filing the claim, however, as I used the HMCS money claim online service, there is a limit on characters, and lines, that could be used when writing the particulars of the claim!

So now I can send them my account number, a list of charges & interest I am claiming with dates, and how the interest is being calculated!

 

I noticed it says "a defence will be filed in due course.", does this mean that they are likely to go to court and make no offers?

[MARTIN3030]

They have 14 days to file a defence.

Its not unusual for them to settle before this even though they outline a defence will be filed.

 

Their request for figures is a little disturbing though as they should have had these figures if you sent them as a schedule with the prelim letter and again with a lba?

 

The difference then only being interest added at 8%

Did you not send them a breakdown schedule at all?

 

You will need to get these figures to them and I dont know if e mail is the best way.

For court (if it gets that far) you should take 2 additional copies of the charges schedule one for the Judge and 1 for the defendants should they ask.

[jimbobaggies]

I had all my statements for the last 3 years so I didn't need to get them.

 

I thought it was 14 days, but...

 

Status of this Claim

Acknowledged

The Defendant is allowed a total of 28 days from the date from when they are served with the claim to reply.

[MARTIN3030]

Yes 28 days is right.

BUT if they wish to file a defence I think they have to do this WITHIN 14 days.

[jimbobaggies]

Right, I've had the letter from DLA today offering 50% settlement! Now this includes interest and court costs, but after paying off the amount my account is overdrawn would only leave me with a couple hundred quid!

 

Anyways, included was there defence;

 

1. Save as is specifically admitted in this Defence, the Defendant denies each and every allegation set out in the Particulars of Claim.

 

2. It is admitted that the Claimant has a current bank account with the Defendant, numbered ****** ******** ("Account").

 

3. At al! times the Account has been subject to the applicable terms and conditions ("Conditions"), which form part of the contract between the Claimant and the Defendant and lo which the Claimant agreed when he opened the Account. The Defendant will refer at trial to the full Conditions but for the purposes nf this Defence will refer to the following extracts:

 

(1) "You can apply for an overdraft on your Account. If we give you an overdraft we will tell you your limit and the interest rate applicable."

 

(2) "An unauthorised overdraft occurs if without our agreement you overdraw your Account or exceed the limit of an overdraft which we have agreed."

 

(3) "If you have an unauthorised overdraft, you will be charged fees as set out in our Tariff of Charges or specified to you and these may include fees for transactions we are unable to process due to lack of available funds in your Account."

 

4. Throughout (he period (hat he has had the Account, the Claimant received a number of copies of the Conditions and of the said Tariff of Charges as they were amended and updated (though there has been no material amendment to the Conditions extracted in paragraphs 3(1), (2) and (3) above).

 

5. Any overdraft facility on the Account was (and is) subject to the Conditions.

 

6. The Claimant has overdrawn or exceeded authorised overdraft limits on the Account on a number of separate occasions, full details of which will be provided on disclosure. Therefore by virtue of the Conditions referred to in paragraph 3 above such overdrawing was unauthorised and in breach of contract and the Claimant became liable to pay fees to the Defendant in accordance with its Tariff of Charges applicable at the relevant time. In accordance with the Conditions, such fees were debited to the Account.

 

7. In view of the facts and matters referred to in paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, the Defendant denies that the amount of £4,576.00 or any amount was unlawfully debited to the Account and the Claimant's claim for the repayment of that amount is therefore denied.

 

8. The Claimant's contention that the said fees are unenforceable and/or are "penalty charges" is denied. The fees reflect and are proportionate to the Defendant's administrative expenses incurred due to the Claimant's breach of contract and are a genuine pre-estimate of the damage suffered by the Defendant.

 

9. Further or in the alternative, even if the said fees are not proportionate to the Defendant's administrative expenses incurred (which is denied), the Claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate and the Claimant is not entitled to claim repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the Account.

 

10. No admissions are made as to the amounts claimed by the Claimant and the Claimant is put to strict proof of the same.

 

The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this defence are true.

I take it the advice is to hold tight, wait for the allocation questionaire etc....

 

EDIT: I am going to email them asking for 75% + interest + costs to try and get things over and done with quicker.

[MARTIN3030]

I agree the rest is worth waiting for if you can hold out.

 

Everyone to their own though at the end of the day its down to what the individual is happy with and no one will call you for not settling for the full amount.

 

[jimbobaggies]

Hi Karnevil and MARTIN3030.

 

No doubt they will not come back and offer the 75%, and it will go to court, however, if they did, the amount would clear my overdrawn Abbey account, plus give me the equivelant to nearly a months wages left over. I have been out of work since 5th June (although paid til the end of that month), and really need some dosh at the moment. Had two interviews last week that seemed to go really well, but even if I do get a job, it leaves me with one month unpaid!

 

Then I could start my second claim for the other £***.** they owe me...

[MARTIN3030]

I am sure the shareholders are being briefed on this.

The banks though have their fingers in many pies,and I am certain they will be looking at ways to recover their losses here,from other areas.

 

As far as profits go I am also sure that across the board these repayments will on an individual shareholders divident payment,be very marginal in any reduction.

 

[jimbobaggies]

and your next claim they'll expect only to pay you 75% too.

 

Someone else a while back settled for 75% and got it. Don't offer 75% to them if you are kinda hoping they say no cause they might say yes.

 

Its your decision - I offered 90% for the same reasons and got nowhere. I just couldnt afford to accept less than that. I dont know why they wont negotiate, its now costing them an extra £1100 becuase they turned down my offer - plus the daily interest is still adding up at £1.07 a day. And THEY know they will pay up in the end. Wonder if their shareholders are aware the bank is chucking their money away like this !

 

To be honest, I dont know what position you are in, but I have been out of work since 5 June, although had a few promising interviews in the last week (touch wood), and so money is tight (two kids mortgage etc), I cant really afford the £100 atm for the allocation questionaire!

 

They have replied by email accepting the 75%, sorry to have let you down Karnevil... and yes, when I make my next claim, if they offer 75% I will accept it!

[jimbobaggies]

This topic was closed on 10 March 2019.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

- Consumer Action Group