Loulou29 v Abbey

[Loulou29]

It would appear from MCOL that abbey have defended the claim although I have not received anything by post yet. It says it will now be transferred to the court. Is this what is happeneing all over and they are going to pay up or have The Abbey just decided to choose me as their first court case ? Why are some people getting their money and some having to go this far ? It's getting scary.

[Smoothy]

They all intend to defend the claim......its a time wasting exercise Lou.

Stick to your timescale and its more than likely they will pay up at the last minute. Dont be too eager to press the ENTER JUDGEMENT button either. Let them have 28 days to file a defence plus a couple for good measure.

All good things come to those who wait!

[Loulou29]

Thanks for your reply but MCOL states that they HAVE filed a defense and the 28 days is up on Tuesday so it looks like I am now waiting for it to be transferred to the court and get a date.

[Smoothy]

They Have filed a defence......or intend to defend. Im in the same position with Nationwide. Their 28 days is up next thursday and their solicitors have submitted to the court that they intend to defend although no defence has been submitted. Yesterday I got a letter explaining a partial refund and not for the amount i am claiming so I am currently writing acceptance of this amount as part payment only and I shal only cease persuing the claim when it is settled in full.

Im wondering if Shabbey have actually filed a defence if youve not received anything......

[Loulou29]

It says this pn MCOL

 

"The Defendant disputes the whole amount you have claimed. Your claim cannot proceed online and will be transferred to the appropriate court for continuation. You will receive confirmation to where the claim has been transferred to shortly."

 

Assumed that meant they have defended it so off we go to the next stage. Have a misinterpreted this phrase ?

[Smoothy]

This is also another delaying tactic. They buy time by getting the case transferred and in doing so hope you will lose your nerve. Stick to your guns and ensure that your claim docs are watertight. Did you send the courts and Abbeys solicitors a copy of your schedule of charges?

If youve done all that is expecte of you, then relax and await the outcome. IF and its a really big if, they do submit a defence, then post it here and well see just how eager they are to persue it.

Try keep calm (not easy I know!!) and let them shoot themselves in the foot!!

[Loulou29]

Well, the postman has just arrived with a 3 page copy of their defense from Abbey themsleves. If you want me to post it , how do you want me to do it ?

 

it does say at the end " ........ "even if the said fees are not proportionate to the defendants admin expenses incurred (which is denied) the claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate........" isn't this the bit that they don't want anyone to know ?

 

Thanks for your help, it has been invaluable.

 

PS I sent the schedule of charges to the court but not to any solicitors. I had not had any communication from Abbeys solicitors to reply to. Have I messed up here ?

[Smoothy]

If youve not received a reply from their solicitors, then abbey themselves must be dealing with it and therefore a schedule of charges shouldve been sent to them else how do they know what it is you are claiming for?!!

It may be best if you can scan their defence and post them here (remember to remove any private info etc) Then perhaps someone more qualified can comment on your best course of action.

[Loulou29]

Yes, I sent the charges to Abbey but not to any solicitors.

 

Here is the abbey defence received today. Any comments would beappreciated especially what point 7 and the 133.70 is ?

 

 

The defence is as follows:

 

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, No ......

 

3. At all times the Account has been subject to the applicable terms and conditions which form part of the contract between the Claimant and the Defendant and to which the claimant agreed when the Claimant opened the account. The Defendant will refer at trial to the full conditions but for the purposes of 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 the period that s/he has had the Account, the claimant received a number of copies of the conditions of the said Tariff Charges as they were amended and updated (though there has been no material amended to the conditions extracted in paragraph 3(1), (2) and (3) above.

 

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

 

6. The claimant has overdrawn or exceeded authorised overdraft limits of the account on a number of seperate ocassions, full details of which will be provided on disclosure. Therefore by vurtue 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 to the Defendant in accordance with it's 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 in paragraph 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, the Defendant denies that the anount of £........ or any other amount was unlawfully debited to the Account and the Claimants claim for the repayment of the amount is 133.70 or at all.

 

8. The claimants contention that the said fees are unenforceable and/or are "penalty charges" is denied. The fees reflect and are proportionate to the Defendants administration expenses incurred due to the Claimants breach of contracts 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 Defendants administration 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.

 

 

 

End

[Michael Browne]

7. In view of the facts and matters in paragraph 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, the Defendant denies that the anount of £........ or any other amount was unlawfully debited to the Account and the Claimants claim for the repayment of the amount is therefore denied. The defendant denies that the calimant is entitled to claim interest in the sum claimed or at all

I have an absolutely identical defence, apart from the above wording missing from yours. Looks like a bad cut and paste job. Nothing to worry about.

[Smoothy]

Thanks michael

[Loulou29]

Thanks for the clarification, I am heartened by the fact that they are obviously bogged down with these defences (if that is a word) and can't even get it worded correctly. Guess if other people have this defence too they are really not intended to go all the way with everyone (relief).

 

Will await my next instruction from the court I guess.

 

Thanks again.

[Loulou29]

ANyone got any idea what the ramification to us all is with the Lloyds Victory today ? Does this mean we are going to have to go all the way and if we do lose what that lose means in monetary terms to us. I cannot afford to pay huge costs to Abbey so now have to think very seriously about the next step?

 

Any comments would be welcomed.

[Loulou29]

HEEEEEEEEELP Oh dear, stuck again. Am completing the N150 allocation questionaire with the help of the step by step guide as Abbey appears to want to go all the way with me. However, stuck on a few minor details. ANy help would be very much appreciated.

 

H OTHER INFORMATION:

 

"Have you attached any documents to the questionaire"

saying yes as attaching your template note for proposed directions

 

"Have you sent these documents to the other party(ies)"

 

SHOULD I BE SENDING THEM TO THE ABBEY ?

 

"Do you intend to make any applications in the immediate future"

DO I ?

 

..... below any other information you conside will help the judge to manage the claim"

 

Your step by step has a text but I am unsure if this is what I should be putting in as it starts ..."respectfully request that my claim be allocatied to the small claims court...." and as mine is less than £1000 wouldn't it go to small claims anyway.

Please help, this is the last question and I really want to get this finished and sent off.

[Michael Browne]

"Have you attached any documents to the questionaire"

saying yes as attaching your template note for proposed directions

Correct

"Have you sent these documents to the other party(ies)"

 

SHOULD I BE SENDING THEM TO THE ABBEY ?

Not a requirement but you can as a courtesy. If you do tick yes

"Do you intend to make any applications in the immediate future"

DO I ?

No, this is about applications regarding this claim, not about whether you are going to make new claims in the future

..... below any other information you conside will help the judge to manage the claim"

 

Your step by step has a text but I am unsure if this is what I should be putting in as it starts ..."respectfully request that my claim be allocatied to the small claims court...." and as mine is less than £1000 wouldn't it go to small claims anyway.

That's fine. It underlines small claims track, but also asks for disclosure.

[Loulou29]

Whoever you are Mr. Michael Browne you are a gem and if no-one has put your name up for a knighthood (or at the very least an OBE) then please let me know and I will find another website that shows me how to do it.

[Loulou29]

Back again -Any help would be much appreciated.

 

I have today received the copy of the Allocation questionaire sent to the court by the Abbey. They have asked for a one month stay to "sort it out" but I have, to date, had NO communication from the Abbey in an attempt to sort this out (apart from the £200 they gave me months ago). DO I NOW JUST HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER MONTH BEFORE IT CAN GO FORWARD OR SHOULD I BE INSTIGATING SOME DIALOGUE ? Problem I have here is that I am actually doing this for my partner who has no idea what is going on and has only been told, if called, to refer them to me.

 

Out of interest, the questionaire was due to be back by 9th July but the Abbey one is dated 9th so could not have been in court by that date. Are they allowed to send it back late and it still count ?

 

Also, the figures we are dealing with are with interest to Jan 07 when I first got on this path, WHAT ABOUT THE INTEREST SINCE THEN ? I assume the court would have added interest until the judgement date but what happens "when" (hopefully) they try to do a deal with me.

 

I am now so angry I am only going to accept the full amount, it's not huge so I want it all. IS THIS THE RIGHT ATTITUDE OR SHOULD I BE BEING MORE FLEXIBLE ?

Thank you so much to anyone who has any words of advice. #

[Loulou29]

Am a bit stuck without any help to my post of yesterday, anyone got any ideas ?

 

If I don't contact them, as I am in no hurry, won't they have to contact me to do a deal before it anutomatically goes into court ?

[Loulou29]

Am starting to wobble now as I have no idea what I am or should be doing.

 

I have Abbeys allocation questionaire with "draft order for directions" attached which I assume I should be following. They are asking for a list (again) of the charges and copies of the statements showing these charges (no problem) which I am about to send off.

 

However they asked for 28 days more to try to sort this out but obviously have no intention of doing that because they go on to ask for documents at 14 days before the allocation hearing.

 

CAN THEY DO THAT ? PRETEND TO BE TRYING TO SORT IT OUT. SHOULD I BE SENDING SOME SORT OF NOTE WHEN I RETURN THESE STATEMENTS POINTING THIS OUT TO THE JUDGE ?

 

I have not contacted Abbey myself - should I be making contact to sort this out or, if they have no intention of going to court, will they pay me eventually. I am in no hurry so the latter would be preferable to me.

 

PLEASE PLEASE COULD SOMEONE ADVISE ME, THE WATER IS NOW GETTING TO MUDDY FOR ME TO SEE THROUGH.

[Michael Browne]

I have Abbeys allocation questionaire with "draft order for directions" attached which I assume I should be following.

You're under no obligation to do so. These are Directions that Abbey are proposing that the judge should issue, but you don't have to do anything until the judge agrees. Having said that you could send them another copy of your schedule (certainly no need for statements)

 

You could enclose it with this letter:

Stay_Letter

[Loulou29]

Thank you so much, I think an error occurred and I Did not get a link to the letter you suggested I enclose ?

[Loulou29]

Seems to have loaded now, sorry

[Loulou29]

I have only received a copy of Abbeys allocation questionaire with the box ticked by them for a one month stay. I assumed that meant that was now the case as I have heard nothing since, Your link suggests "if a stay is granted" ?

[Loulou29]

Hello again, I have just received a letter from the Bow court and I have no idea what it means. Without any help here I think it is going to get too complicated for me.

 

1. The letter is a "Standard order for stay for settlement with consent of all the parties" and it was granted until "31st July 2007" but the letter is dated 3rd August.

 

2. It also says that by "14th September one of the following steps must be taken"

either settled in full.......

 

or "the climant or defendant must write to the court requesting an extension of the stay period explaining the steps being taken towards settlement and identifying any mediator, expert or other person helping with the process. The letter should confirm the agreement of all parties"

 

or all parties must file a completed allocation questionaire at the court. Where a settelemt of some of the issued in dispute have been reached, a list of issues should be attached to the completed questionaire. The lost must be agreed with the othere parties and must indicate that it has been agreed"

 

What does this mean ?

 

I was previously sent a form which said it was a Allocation Questionaire which I completed and returned. The bank did the same and sent me a copy of theirs.

 

Also, do I leave this "explainin steps towards settlement" to them or shoudl I be doing something. To date I have had NO contact with the ABbey other than to received £235 as settlement which I declined as full settlement as advised on this site.

 

Please could someome help me I really do not understand what all this means.

 

Many thanks

[Lula]

hmmmmm I dont think that you need to do too much right now, the letter seems to allude to the fact that you have agreed to a stay, is this the case?

 

If I were you I would ring the court and state that you havnt agreed to a stay as stated in the order and that you have already filed an AQ as per section 3 of the order, ask them what they suggest you have to do now, I would say (and I stand to be corrected) that you dont need to do too much at the moment,

 

Have you received a letter from Abbey stating that they want to apply for a stay for all claims pending the test case?