How do Halifax respond to a claim?

[trudd]

Do they write to you or the court when acknowledging or filing a defence?

I issued a claim on mcol on the 18th (I make that as 14 days ago now), I've not heard anything, not in the post and when I log on to mcol it doesn't say anything either. No money in the account either.

Does this mean I now start judgement?

[sea-sidelady]

I have just copied this from the step by step

 

IF THEY.......

 

Ignore the claim completely - they can claim incompetence as the reason for not Acknowledging or defending and you win by 'default' after 14 days. You will need to apply for a judgment which you should do as soon as the time limit has expired.

[trudd]

Thanks that's what I thought. I guess I'd have been sent something if they had responded to the claim!

Thought best to check. I don't want to do anything wrong.

grr...more waiting! I thought 14 days was it..turns out I have to add another 5 days on now.

[sea-sidelady]

Well hopefully it wont be long now. They tend to pay pretty quick after judgement,

[melrose]

My claim was issued on 17 January 2007 via MCOL and as yet, have received no defence or update on MCOL either.

 

On the Notice of Issue sent to me by MCOL it states that:

 

'The court sent this to the defendant by first class post on the 17 January 2007 and it will be deemed to be served on the 22 January 2007.

The defendant has until the 5 February 2007 to reply'

 

Therefore I would assume you would have to wait until the 6 February 2007 before filing a judgement.

[sea-sidelady]

Yes.

 

This is the list of what can happen at this stage.

 

The bank will now either....

 

A) Ignore the claim completely - they can claim incompetence as the reason for not Acknowledging or defending and you win by 'default' after 14 days. You will need to apply for a judgment which you should do as soon as the time limit has expired.

 

If they get a defence in before you apply for the judgment, then they gain the right to proceed into court if they want.

 

B) Acknowledge the claim - this buys them a further 14 days to enter a defence. Some banks will acknowledge the claim and then pay up. They know you MEAN it now! For every threat that gets this far, there are many more that give up long before this point and they know it.

 

Some will acknowledge the claim, but 'forget' to enter a defence - after 28 days from the date the papers are served on them you will have won by default and you will get all your money back. Once again, you will need to apply for a judgment. If they do not pay you in full, you have every right to send the bailiffs in - this can also be done from the moneyclaim.gov.uk site or by applying in person at your local court (if you started your claim this way)

 

C) Settle the claim in full, including interest and court fees (if they offer to settle for anything less, then refuse - YOU WILL GET THE FULL AMOUNT)

 

D) Submit a defence. If they do this, the court will send you an Allocation Questionnaire form to complete. This is quite straight forward and, once again, there is help for completing one.

[trudd]

What if they've not done any of those!

They offered us the original amount in a letter this morning. We asked for £3740 and that's been offered now...however now since starting the claim I now have interest and court costs added.

They don't seem to mention the court stuff at all. We were offered a lower amount after issuing the claim. I said I'd take it as partial payment but still continuing with the action.

This offer of the amount originally requested is in reply to that letter, but it doesn't read like an ackowledgment to the court claim. iykwim!

Do i basically accept as partial but ask for the interest and court charges too. Or does offering the full amount owed originally class as paying up in full?

[Didge]

In this situation I would probably fire off a rejection of settlement letter amended to show that in the time taken for them to come up with this offer, you have started court proceedings and therefore have extra costs and interest to claim for now - and put the claim number on the letter too. Accept the full value, but you will be pursuing the rest. Hopefully they will then look for your claim and adjust accordingly.

Good Luck

[trudd]

Thing is they know this as this offer is replying to a letter I sent saying I'd already started court proceedings. So I don't know if this offer is an acknowledgment. Does that make sense. I'm also worried if I reject it then I'll lose. Oh well I'll just do another rejection of settlement. I've come this far!

 

Also noticed halifax can't spell complaint...twice in one letter too!

[Layla_ck]

Help, can you tell me where I need to send my schedule of charges to after completing a MCOL claim on Friday?

[Drewster_UK]

Layla - check your thread - details now there.

 

Drew