Sorcerer vs Alliance and Leicester

[Sorcerer]

Ok here goes,

 

Filed my request for charges levied over the past 6 years on 12th december 2006, received statements going back 6 years on the 19th january, worth noting is that i asked them to debit my account with the £10 charge for this. As far as i can see they have not charged me for this.

 

Today i have prepared the preliminary letter requesting they repay the charges levied against my account £1957.50 plus statutory interest of £328.77 a total of £2286.27.

 

Dont know if this is a mistake but i havnt got the latest charges levied against my account to hand so have written in my letter that upon prompt repayment before having to resort to the courts to recover this i will not pursue these later charges as a matter of goodwill but that basically if i have to take them to court then i will reclaim all charges to date.

 

Received a letter of default today stating that they have put my account in the hands of their debt recovery department im hoping this doesnt have any bearing on me trying to reclaim all the bank charges.

 

i will continue to update this thread at every stage with news as it happens, im not 100% convinced but they are going to get a good fight off me, after losing my job unfairly in september which has basically left me seriously in debt with an upcoming tribunal to go through and nothing other than the wifes income to live off ive got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

Watch this space.......

 

Greetz

Sorcerer

[younganfree]

Hi, Sorcerer, first may I say Good Luck to you mate, I hope your troubles are short-lived.

I have no wish to second-guess A&L, but it seems a bit of a coincidence to me that they are taking debt recovery action at a point in time when you have claimed a refund of charges - my apologies to A&L if this is in fact the case.

On a personal note to you Sorcerer, I assume you have sent the preliminary letter by now in which case I think you may have a case to contact A&L to advise them that the account is IN DISPUTE and that they should, therefore, put on hold any debt recovery action until the dispute has been sorted?

Can anyone else comment on this please?

[bsia666]

Hi Sorcerer, I phoned their legal department re a similar enquiry to yours..............I am reclaiming just now and am at the MCOL stage (file tommorrow).

 

I have had letters twice (from their legal dept) stating their intention to put my account into default on both occations

 

Both times they have agreed to postpone their default proceedings until after my claim against them in court was settled (either way HEHEHE )

 

Phone their legal dept !

 

Avoid getting a default notice (a moderator posted on a thread last year to avoid getting them).If you have facts on your side the default notice will be removed by a court ultimately, but you will spend time and resources to remove it.

 

Hope this helps

[bsia666]

Sorcerer this doesnt affect your claim (dont worry), it will affect your credit rating if a default notice is issued against you.

 

[Sorcerer]

Got a letter back from Alliance and Leicester today 4 days after sending in the first request for repayment of charges letter is as follows ....

 

Dear Mr *********

 

 

Thankyou for contacting us regarding your account.

 

I have noted your comments that you believe the charges that have been raised on your account to be unfair, please be assured that our charges are reasonable and are competitive with the charges made by other financial organisations.

 

The office of fair trading (OFT) has commented that they consider the level of late payment charges to be unfair, however they were actually referring to late payment fee's for credit card payments, which are quite distinct from a banks charges on current accounts.

 

Discussions are ongoing between the banks and the OFT regarding current accounts and once the outcome is known, Alliance and Leicester will participate as appropriate.

 

Given the above, i cannot accept you have been unfairly charged as you suggest. I regret, therefore, that i am unable to agree to your request for a refund of charges on this occasion.

 

I am sorry if you are disappointed with my response, but as the charges have been raised correctly in line with the terms and conditions of your account they must stand.

 

Yours Sincerely ...... blah blah

 

Well i didnt expect a reply this soon so can only presume that this is one of their standard letters so onwards to the letter before action, the only thing ive done wrong so far is sending what i thought was the preliminary letter but was in fact the letter before action woops, so now i cant follow the exact instructions as given on here ... no matter i will just edit the LBA accordingly and resend, it does say on here to wait the 14 days well i have received a reply so they have responded within the 14 days allowed by me to reply so im going to send off the LBA asap they will get it monday or tuesday so thats good enough for me.

[younganfree]

Hi, Sorcerer, it's a stock reply.

As this is your claim, you have to make your own decisions regarding the timetable. The only comment I can make is that the procedure laid down here is tried and tested, and while it is the recommended route nobody can force you to follow it.

So good luck and keep us posted.

[Sorcerer]

ok so i sent the LBA and got a get stuffed letter back saying the charges are fair blah blah oft reffering to credit crads etc so its time to go for MCOL not sure what to do with it as i havnt got the money to pay for it, im hoping as im on a low income that they will waive the fees im presuming that i can still file my claim online but then i have to ask the court for a fee waiver or whatever its called anyone have any experience of this and any idea of the timescale for asking for fee exemption and getting a reply.

 

On another note since ive asked them for my money back they have closed my account and i am now getting letters saying that legal action is imminent from a debt collection agency so i am writing to the debt collection agency and telling them basically to get stuffed until my claim has been heard or settled with alliance and leicester or when they file in court i will make a counterclaim

[Sorcerer]

Well it seems like i have to go the N1 form route and take it to my local court if i need help with the fees, im not very good at filling in forms so would be grateful if someone would help me fill it in so that its right im sure ive seen what i need to write in it but i cant find it on here any help would be gratefully recieved

[tealady51]

hi Sorcerer - use the step by step guide here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31460-example-step-step-instructions.html

 

And use the library. lots of template letters and forms in there.

 

Take your time and keep asking questions if you dont understand - dont do anything until you understand it.

 

tealady

[Sorcerer]

Quick question does anyone know the procedure for getting court fees waived? Do you need to submit your claim and then apply for a fee waiver or ?

Im just wondering because i was going to go down to my local court tomorrow and need to know what i need to take with me.

 

Cheers and greetz

[younganfree]

Think there's a form the court can give you to fill in, Sorcerer.

[Sorcerer]

umm yes i had guessed that much but what i need to know is, do they make a decision there and then ? and/or do i need to file the claim before they will process the fee waiver ? its hassle getting to my local court as i live quite far away so dont want to be going back and forth alot apart from the fact its a real pain in the a** parking a 2 1/2 ton van in town lol

[Sorcerer]

Well i filed my claim at the local court on tuesday, just for others reference regarding fee remission you have to fill in a form with your income and outgoings and take it to the court and they decide there and then if you get fee remission which i did

On another note i sent a+l a notice of legal action letter stating that as they had not repayed the charges to me i was now starting legal action to recover the amount in the courts surprise surprise i got yet another standard letter back saying our charges are fair etc etc bs bs so lets see how they like a summons.

 

will keep ya posted

 

Greetz

[Sorcerer]

Got confirmation from the county court today saying that my claim had been sent on the 11th and would be deemed served on the 13th ... nice now lets see a standard response from them i WILL have my money one way or another lol

[Sorcerer]

Quick update today .... Got a letter today from a firm of solicitors saying they intend to defend the claim

 

One question for everyone going for a+l what firm of solicitors is everyone getting letters from ?

[dizzykate]

hi

 

I got a letter from Wragge & Co and my claim was served on 12th April

same stage as you

[Sorcerer]

got the AQ from the court on friday, in it i got a mediation thing whereby the court suspend the action for a month to allow the mediation service to try to negotiate a settlement presumably i should just ignore this and just get on with it.

 

At what point to i need to start printing out the court bundle and sending that off ? do i do that now or when ? im not sure

 

Also in the AQ there is a bit for "Other Information" which says set out any other information you consider will help the judge to manage or clarify the claim, including any other information you consider should be supplied by the other party, should i put anything in here ?

 

Ive got 10 days to send this back off to the court so any help would be appreciated.

 

Oh and according to my wife a+l have been trying to ring me from reading other posts i understand its best not to get into discussions with them over the phone is this right ? next time they ring im going to say if they want to discuss the claim then do so in writing or through there representatives unless they want to tell me they will settle in full ofc

[blimeyboy]

whereby the court suspend the action for a month to allow the mediation service to try to negotiate a settlement presumably i should just ignore this and just get on with it.

 

 

I would not ignore this. This is the court trying to speed things up and reduce court time by seeing if the matter can be resolved before a court date.

I would contact the court and ask them about it.

[Sorcerer]

ok my AQ is going in to the court tomorrow or thursday but to be honest im still not sure what to do with the mediation thing, in the allocation questionaire guide to completion bit on this forum it says to tick no and state that i have given them ample opportunity to settle this matter so there is no need to allow any more time for this ....... im wondering that given todays upset of a court finding in the banks favour that this might be a good idea as it will give me another month to make sure my case is watertight taking into account any further developments with regards todays outcome.

 

Someone please give me some advice on this ive got a couple of days left to submit my AQ im already sweating thinking i may have to go to court and that my case may not be successful after finding out that ive forgotten to do something important.

 

to be completely honest about it i have done everything that i am meant to as per the guidlines on this site but i dont feel confident with arguing my case in front of a judge as i do not 100% understand what i am doing if im honest i was hoping that i would go through the motions and get a settlement before it got to the court stage, some of the stuff that you have to print off and send to them is a bit confusing to the layman to say the least and having to rely on something that you dont completely understand is a dangerous situation

 

but regardless of the mediation thing one thing i am not sure of is this bit in the draft order for directions .....

 

c) A statement of evidence of all matters relied upon as tending to show that the charges are irrecoverable as penalties or otherwise;

 

oh and should i send a copy of the draft order to the bank and to wragge and co ?

 

would be grateful if anyone would help me out a bit

[Sorcerer]

Ok so i sat down last night and pondered my situation and then got stuck right into it read through so many threads gleaning as much information as possible this evening ive filled in my AQ and draft order for consideration by the court ive also sent wraggedy and co a full copy of the AQ etc and stuck in a copy of the schedule of penalties for good measure seeing as i have sent this to the bank about 3 times and wraggedy and co state in the defence that i had failed to particularise my claim adequately.

 

Im feeling a bit more confident today going to get stuck into the legal arguments involved in my case asap and make sure i know what the hell im about for when (or if) i go to court and have to explain myself :o

 

i think a thread by one of the mods setting out each and every example of what we will rely on in court, possible arguments that the banks might come up with and how to counter them etc etc would be a great idea but only if they close the thread unless other info is submitted to a mod which is worthy of inclusion the amount of threads that get hijacked with people saying "im now sending my lba what do i do now" kinda thing is bloody annoying to say the least.

 

Sorcy

[Sorcerer]

OMG received letter from court today in which it says ...

 

It is ordered that :-

 

1 The claim be listed for an allocation hearing on xx/09/07 at XXam to be held at XXXXXXX county court.

 

2 At this hearing the court will consider either :

 

a) staying the claim pending the decision in a test case involving the defendant or

b) giving directions for this claim to be heard as a test case and if necessary allocating the claim to the multitrack for that purpose.

 

3 Not less than 14 days before the allocation hearing, the defendant shall file with the court and serve upon the claimant details of any cases preceeding as a test case, the decision in which will determine the issues in this claim. Alternatively, the defendant shall file with the court and serve upon the claimant draft directions for this case to proceed as a test case.

 

 

 

ermmm righto what the hell does this mean ????? what are they saying that they have had enough and its about time that a test case was heard and im the one they gona pick on ?????? definately pooping me pants now

[Sorcerer]

*bump*