RBS(initial letter delivered)

[mungo]

Hello everyone, I took great pleasure today delivering my opening letter to my branch of the rbs asking them to return over 3 grand which they've squeezed out of me and the mrs over the last 6 years.I've got a couple of things i'm not too sure about, firstly the claim relates to two acounts ,one is my sole account and the other is my joint account with the wife,both of which are held at the same branch,i'm wondering if there are any legal issues in the fact that i will effectivley be partly claiming on her behalf???? The other thing is that they had a few grand off us a couple of years back for a mortgage redemption penalty which we didn't know existed intill we tryed to get a new deal off them, the woman who sold us the mortgage told us mistakenly that there was no tie in and we nievely signed up without reading the smallprint(lesson learned)!! I tryed to argue the toss but got nowhere,eventually took a good will gesture of 300 quid as i was getting nowhere and didn't feel i had a leg to stand on as i'd signed on the dotted line.The point of all this is that im considering using the bankcharges issue as leverage to recoup the redemption penalty aswell,i.e. if they offer me a deal relating to the bank charges only accept it if they agree to refund the redemption charge aswell,and if they don't agree,carry it through to court.my logic behind this is that it dosn't matter to them wether its 2 grand or 20 grand they just want to avoid going into court and having to justify their charges ect.I'd be interested to hear wether this sounds like a feasable coarse of action or not and if so how i should go about it i.e when to inform them of my intentions as i havn't done so in my opening letter, cheers,mick

[BankFodder]

Hello everyone, I took great pleasure today delivering my opening letter to my branch of the rbs asking them to return over 3 grand which they've squeezed out of me and the mrs over the last 6 years.

 

I've got a couple of things i'm not too sure about, firstly the claim relates to two acounts ,one is my sole account and the other is my joint account with the wife,both of which are held at the same branch.

i'm wondering if there are any legal issues in the fact that i will effectivley be partly claiming on her behalf????

 

The other thing is that they had a few grand off us a couple of years back for a mortgage redemption penalty which we didn't know existed intill we tryed to get a new deal off them, the woman who sold us the mortgage told us mistakenly that there was no tie in and we nievely signed up without reading the smallprint(lesson learned)!!

I tryed to argue the toss but got nowhere,eventually took a good will gesture of 300 quid as i was getting nowhere and didn't feel i had a leg to stand on as i'd signed on the dotted line.

 

The point of all this is that im considering using the bankcharges issue as leverage to recoup the redemption penalty aswell,i.e. if they offer me a deal relating to the bank charges only accept it if they agree to refund the redemption charge aswell,and if they don't agree,carry it through to court.my logic behind this is that it dosn't matter to them wether its 2 grand or 20 grand they just want to avoid going into court and having to justify their charges ect.

 

I'd be interested to hear wether this sounds like a feasable coarse of action or not and if so how i should go about it i.e when to inform them of my intentions as i havn't done so in my opening letter,

 

cheers,

 

mick

 

I'm sorry to do this to you but don't you think that using a bit of spacing in your post makes it much easier to read?

We have to cope with a lot of material each day and huge blocks of text at least double the time needed to deal wth it.

 

*************************************************

 

I'm afraid that if you signed for the £300, then that is probably it for the moment unless youhave definite evidnce that you have been mislead. You could challenge it but it will get complicated and could even cost you if you went to court. This is assuming that you accepted the £300 in full settlement.

The fact that there are two accounts is not a porblem. Your joint account with your wife makes you jointly and severally liable and either of you could sue on the account.

[mungo]

appologies for the lack of spacing in my 1st post ,it won't happen again.

 

thanks for your help with those points,i'll have to do abit more research with regards to the mortgage angle to find out exactly what i did sign.

 

I got my first response from my branch this morning which is a pamphet titled "charges and rates of interest" Along with a compliments slip with nothing on it!! I dont think they've taken it too well!! I think i'll notify their head office that i've lodged a claim then just sit tight and start the ball rolling after 14 days,thanks again, mick

[mungo]

I got the standard "sorry your not happy,we'll look into it " letter a week or so ago followed a few days later with another predictable one stating that they see their charges as fair and transparent - blah blah blah and that they are not prepared to repay any charges.

 

i need a bit of help with filling out the court form as i'm not sure wether to put the the branch address or maybe a regional office???? i've got a rbs address from this site for telford ,not sure if thats the one to put down?? can anyone advise please.

[richardc]

Use the address of your local branch

[mungo]

Thanks for your help Richard,much appreciated.

[buzz]

Mungo,

 

I was in a similar situation to you as I had a joint and sole account with the RBS.

I managed to reclaim £800.

Like you, I got the standard letter trying to justify the charges.

As soon as I replied and gave them 7 days to repay, or would take court action, they refunded me in full.

However, they still insisted that by doing so that they were only doing it as a "goodwill gesture"(!)

 

Have you tried the 7 day deadline with them?

 

Buzz.

 

p.s. I rang the bank first and got the name of the manager then addressed the letters directly to her. The first reply came from her, but the offer of repayment came from their head office.

[mungo]

cheers Buzz,

i addressed my initial letter to the branch manager and she just passed it to the branch ''service quality'' manager.

I'm thinking that as i gave them 14 days notice i should just go ahead with the claim as thats now expired.

[BankFodder]

Yes of course

[mungo]

I'm really sorry but i'm a tad confused

 

I've sent the consumer version what i thought was the opening letter basically saying that i'm not happy,asking for the charges to be refunded and giving 14 days notice for action.

 

Iv'e had another look in the libary and seen another letter headed something like 'prelimary approach' which is similar but asks for the bank to enter into dialogue ect.

 

In my last reply from the bank they have said that they stand by their charges but if their are any particular charges that i dispute they would be happy to discuss them.

Iwant to go straight ahead with the claim now but what concerns me is that i'll get to court to be told that i didn't go through the correct pre action protocol?????????

 

Obviously i really want to get going with this but i want to get it right appologies if i seem to be going over old ground,

cheers

mick

[BankFodder]

We suggest the use of a two stage approach to show that we are acting reasonably and aren't simply bulldozing the bank into court. This means that you send the preliminary approach letter. After 14 days you send the LBA and then you put in the claim.

 

Of course, there has been no instance so far where the bank has entered onto a porper dialogue or done anything to try and avoid these steps occurring.

However, we still think that it looks better of we act reasonable even in the face of intransigent attitudes.

If you want to skip these steps or any of them then go ahead. It probably won't cause too much of a problem but it is not the aproach which we recommend.

That's all.

[mungo]

Cheers bankfodder,

sorry to be a pain in the arse over this ,taking on board what you've said i think i'll send them another letter asking them to justify their charges and give them a further 14 days before action,i just didn't want to seem as though i was wasn't serious as i'd already given them a deadline but at the same time i appreciate that i've got to follow the correct procedure

 

thanks again

mick

[Robertxc]

Mungo, are you in Scotland or England? If you're in Scotland you won't be able to claim £3000 through small claims (at least, not in one go).

 

Also, your point about claiming on behalf of your wife might be a problem. Unbelievable as it may seem, the Scottish courts operate one of the last 'closed shops' in Europe (along with The Showman's Guild!). This means that only members of either the Law Society Of Scotland or The Faculty Of Advocates can represent other people in court. I actually saw a case get tossed on these grounds once when a guy tried to represent his Dad (who looked to be about 150) against a big furniture company that had ripped him off. The poor old guy could hardly stand up, let alone represent himself in court. His son was absolutely furious and told the Sheriff, lawyers etc exactly what he thought of them. The Sheriff was actually quite apologetic about it, but the law is the law...

[mungo]

Cheers for your help robert,

fortunately i live in england so this hopefully won't be a problem

[BankFodder]

Scottish courts operate one of the last 'closed shops' in Europe (along with The Showman's Guild!).

and France. The land of Liberte and the closed shop

[mungo]

Hello all,

heres an update on my situation-

I sent the letter before action giving 14 days notice of legal procedings in march and heard nothing back until a couple days after the deadline when i got a letter from the grand fromage of the customer relations dept.the letter just went over old ground about charges being fair ect and taking it up with the FOS if i'm not happy, but no mention of of legal proceedings which i find curious?

 

I issued the claim on 5th april,it was served on 11th,on the 19th they filed an acknowledgement. on the 10th(yesterday) i got the particulars of the defence through from their solicitors(cobbetts) who are based in manchester,i'm wondering if thats a ploy so they can get court switched to manchester in an attempt put me off ??

 

I'll try to summarise the main points of their defence-

 

they seem to be suggesting that i havn't 'propery particularised' my claim and that if i fail to do so will apply to strike out my claim or for summary judgement.in resect of this they are inviting the court to hold a case management conference so i can get my act together,how considerate of them!

 

They're trying to get an angle on the fact that one of my accounts is a joint account with the wife, i can't really see that being a problem as she'll come to court with me if need be.

 

and lastly they're asking me to identify the the sections of the ucta act 1977 and the uctcr 1999,can't see that being too much of a problem either.

 

So here we go,i'll keep you posted on any developments

mick

[mungo]

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