Finacial Advisor Bogus Charges

[lillboy]

Great News

Spoke to Standard Life.

They are Sending out a letter confirming that they did not charge or recieve the sum of £200.00 for the mortgage application.

they are going to outline all fees and transactions covering this mortgage application.

Very Helpfull Lady on the phone.

[lillboy]

This is My letter Waiting for the 1/06/05 to post

 

Dear Director

 

FAO:Compliance Officer/ Director

Reference:Refund of £499.00 - Fraudulent Charges

 

I am writing to you regarding the above matter.

 

Please note:

 

I am complaining against Mr. XXXX who assisted in dealing with our mortgage and added charges which he was not allowed to do whilst he was a representative of your company. - Amount stated above.

 

For me to wait until your legal team investigate this fraud is totally unacceptable.

 

I have all the documentation to prove the fees paid to Mr XXXX on or around the 18th Oct 2002 where in fact not charges levied by Standard life or even received by standard life in relation to the mortgage application. By admission from Director this is not a fee applicable to the mortgage applications arranged by Company & General insurance Service, so therefore I continue to include this in my claim.

 

I understand that when making a County Court claim, then I can claim interest on the money the defendant owes me, under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% a year.

This interest will be added in accordance with this act should you decide to defend this claim.

 

If I do not receive a full refund of £499.00 within 10 working days, you will leave me with no option and with the deepest regret to take further action against you

and without further notice on my part.

 

I trust that you will deal with this matter in a swift and amicable manner.

 

I look forward to receiving a written reply by return.

Many thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Lillboy

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Lillboy,that is very good about Standard Life - because an adviser would normally take two types of payments from a customer:

 

1.Adviser Fee - to keep - payable to him/her/the company.

 

2.Valuation Fee - to pass on - payable to the lender to instruct the valuation.

 

The letter looks fine.

 

However,I would suggest that you add on the following sentence towards the end of the letter:

 

The contents of this letter must not be taken personally by any person(s) that may read it.

 

This makes the letter less confrontational and slightly more friendlier - if a "Letter before Action" can be called that!

 

I hope you find the information/suggestions to be useful.

 

If you have any questions,just ask.

 

Keep us posted.

 

All the best!

[lillboy]

letter going out today by recorded delivery.

if this goes to court can i claim the court fees back as well as interest.

[andrew1]

Lillboy, just in case you haven't sent it yet you have left out a word in the paragraph under the bold type. " you will leave me with" not " you will me with"... no option etc. just a minor thing but looks better if it's all there!

[lillboy]

Thanks

Wife spotted this before posting,

she just loves to pull me down:|

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Lillboy,in reply to your question regarding the claim fees and interest:

 

1.The answer is briefly:Yes

 

2.The amount of interest claimed is at the rate of 8% in accordance to Section 69 of 1984 County Court Act.Use the spreadsheet on this site but remember you can only claim interest once the summons is issued.

 

I hope you find this information useful.

 

If you any questions,just ask.

 

Keep us posted.

 

All the best!

[lillboy]

Hi All

The director has phone me today and left a message to ring him,

Should i contact him now that my LBA has been sent or should wait for a written response from him.

 

any advice would be appreciated.

[lillboy]

Spoke to finacial advisor,

he now says the letter from the solicitor was wrong to state the money was paid to standard life he now says it was legit and was paid to their company and went through thier books so this is not refundable. he is offering pay the £299.00 if i drop the rest of the claim.

I find it amazing he now has copies of my finacial records after they where stolen by the advisor.

 

Do i take the £299.00 on offer or go for it all.

[MARTIN3030]

Your choice but there are some overwhelming reasons as to why you should go for the lot.

 

 

An unbelievable scenario..................

 

 

:?

[lillboy]

Spoke to him again

this time i suggested that he put his offer in writing and i would seak legal advise as whether to continue with the claim through small claims court.

at this point he got very abrupt and stated i was being unreasonable in wanting to take this to court.

He still states that the letter from his solicitor

We note that you are also seeking a refund of £200.00 paid to Mr XXXX on 18th October 2002 for the setting up of the mortgage with standard life bank. This sum however was properly charged and forwarded to the Standard Life Bank and is not a sum which has been falsely claimed by Mr XXX and will not therefore be refundable.

is not correct and was an error of the legal company. i feel that this is a turn around because in my reply i stated i had proof the Standard life did not make the charges.

 

I got a feeling i am going to have to go and seek legal advice on wheather to accept the £299.00 or continue for the lot.

 

at this point i had no idea if he is going to put the offer in writing or wait for court action.

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Lillboy,in order to possibly assist you further:

 

1.Let us recap -because you need to establish what were you exactly paying for when you parted with the £200.

 

2.Therefore,it may be useful that you post the exact wording of the agreement in which made you part with the £200.

 

3.Once we know the wording we would be in a better to suggest what to do next - i.e.accept the offer or persue the full amount.

 

Also,

 

a.In my view,as others have stated it seems mighty stange how suddenly

the records relating to your mortgage application file have reappeared considering that they had been stolen.

 

b.Which makes me lead to believe that this company is as guilty as the departed/crooked advisor.

 

c.The £200 was never paid to Standard Life.

 

I hope you find this information/suggestions useful.

 

Keep us posted.

 

All the best!

[Movingon]

Personally? I would go for the lot. You have lots of proof that it's a legitimate claim.

[MARTIN3030]

Spoke to him again

this time i suggested that he put his offer in writing and i would seak legal advise as whether to continue with the claim through small claims court.

at this point he got very abrupt and stated i was being unreasonable in wanting to take this to court.

He still states that the letter from his solicitor

is not correct and was an error of the legal company. i feel that this is a turn around because in my reply i stated i had proof the Standard life did not make the charges.

 

I got a feeling i am going to have to go and seek legal advice on wheather to accept the £299.00 or continue for the lot.

 

at this point i had no idea if he is going to put the offer in writing or wait for court action.

 

 

Its not YOU being unreasonable its HIM being defensive..........

 

[lillboy]

Hi Again

The fees where always paid to the advisor on the basis that they where payable to the lender. however once the mortgage application was complete we always got a summery from the company stating what fees where payable; on both occasions these fees where listed as booking fees. on the earlier application we never noticed this and had always been told by the advisor that they worked only on commision basis. on our last mortgage we questioned the booking fee whilst the advisor was away on a sailing trip, the director stated then that they did not charge booking fees and would ask the question to the actual advisor on where the money was as it had not passed trough their banking system. After several other customers ringing to find out why they had paid the fees then the director called the police in. But all our files went missing :-| ????.

 

After the director getting stropey today.

I am thinking of putting a DPA request in for copies of all my finacial files.

 

i would possibly have accepted the £299.00 but he has changed his story 3 times now and then say's i am being unreasonable.

 

would a solicitor send out a letter for a client with out checking it out before posting.

[MARTIN3030]

Not a solicitor worth his salt nooooooooooo.

 

 

This story has more twists than a rock n roll convention.

 

Stand your ground.............get the dpa sent out

 

Only my opinion !

 

[lillboy]

Cheers Martin

Now go to bed:D

 

Thank for the support

[MARTIN3030]

Goin now mate............been a long day..............a long night ............and will be up early waitin for the postman to bring me back some 10.00 postal orders he he

 

 

[lillboy]

Got a letter today from there solicitors complete with cheque for £299.00, they are now saying that the £200.00 was a charge levied by the company for services relating to the mortgage application.

i am going to accept the cheque for £299.00.

i am also going to submitt a DPA asking for a copies of all my files they hold with information on me.

i still feel that the £200.00 was a charge that i should not have paid as i was always told the company worked on a commision basis, however i will wait to see what records they have on my before commiting going further with the claim.

 

5% denotion on its way, i will sort it tonight. thanks everyone for the help and support with this issue i do believe i would not have recieved a penny without the support of this site.

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Lillboy,Well done & Congrats!

 

Yes,you are doing things in the correct order - accepting one amount and then clarying the second amount with the DPA request.

 

If need more help or have any questions,just ask.

 

Keep us posted.

 

All the best!

[lillboy]

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