pocla vs lloyds

[pocla]

Hello everyone, I'm sorting a claim against Lloyds on behalf of my partner, who doesn't really do the computer thing...

 

I've already had some great advice from people here, so thought would post and let you know where it's got me to.

 

12/02/07 - Preliminary letter & schedule of charges sent

Received standard reply from the mythical "Debbie Gillbert"

 

26/02/07 - LBA & schedule of charges sent

No reply or money received as yet....They've got till Tues (13/03/07)

 

Just thought I'd ask as well, is anyone else concerned about how the OFT ruling that's due will affect claims? Just a little worried that as it's coming up fairly soon Lloyds are more likely to try and drag the case out until the ruling is made and then stick their tongue out at me?!

 

Cheers guys

[barracad]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/70359-about-oft-impending-report.html?highlight=worried

[pocla]

Thanks Barracad, just read the post you pointed me to and am breathing (a little!) easier again.

 

Will get on with it on Tues and let everyone know what happens.

[pocla]

Little update...

 

Today is the day I'm going to start court proceedings, and lo and behold... The local bank manager phoned my partner and asked to make an appt to speak to him about his account in general.

 

We have decided to ignore this, as he mentioned nothing about the threatened legal action or repaying of any charges, and the appt he made was for the end of March.

 

So later this evening I will be beginning our claim with moneyclaim online.

If there is anything in particular I should be aware of re moneyclaim...? I know about the character limit already.

 

Cheers guys

[121o121]

Hi Pocla

 

The MCOL is fairly straight forward.

 

Just make sure you get your POC's (particulars of claim) correct (look in the library) and ensure your interest spreadsheet calculations are correct.

 

Any mistakes on the N1 at this point incur a non-refundable fee to ammend.

 

Good Luck.

[pocla]

cool, cheers for warning... will check check and check again!

[GuidoT]

You cannot attach you schedule of charges with MCOL therefore when you file send 2 copies of your schedule of charges, clearly marked with your claim no. and a brief covering letter asking for them to be filed with your claim to:

 

The Court Manager,

Money Claim On Line

Northampton County Court

21-27 St. Katharine's Street

Northampton

NN1 2LH

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

(Your Name) –v- (Bank)

Claim No: ********

Date Issued: xx/xx/xx

 

Please find enclosed a schedule of penalty charges taken from me by the defendant, along with interest claimed at the annual rate of 8% pursuant to section 69 of the County Court Act. The interest in addition to the amount in charges equates to the total amount of my claim, namely £(AMOUNT).

 

I respectfully request that the enclosed schedule should be attached to the particulars of my claim.

Yours sincerely,

 

Wait until you receive the Notice of Acknowledgement (not the Notice of Issue) from the court and then send a copy to the bank’s solicitors, since they are the ones who will now be dealing with your claim

 

Dear Sir,

 

(Your Name) -v- (Bank)

Claim No: ********

Date Issued: xx/xx/xx

 

 

Please find enclosed a copy of my schedule of charges relating to the above claim.

Yours faithfully

[pocla]

Ok, had got a copy of this letter to send (along with the schedule of charges).

 

How do I find out the address of the Lloyds TSB solicitors? I was just going to send it to the customer service recovery centre their last reply came from... The only 'official' address I could find on their website was their office in Gresham Street, London.

 

Cheers

[GuidoT]

It is usually on the Notice of Acknowledgement, that you should receive in about a week to 2 weeks after filing your claim.

[pocla]

Great thanks for that.

 

Have filed the claim with MCOL, sent off two copies of schedule of charges to the court.

 

We'll see what happens..... fingers crossed!!

Will post updates to let you know how we get on.

[121o121]

Hi Pocla

 

The claim will more than likely be defended by LloydsTSB's solicitors, SC&M (Sechari Clarke & Mitchell).

 

Keep us posted.

[pocla]

Well here we go....

 

Two days before the deadline a Notice of Acknowledgement arrived from SC&M, they intend to defend the whole claim.

 

So now I will send a copy of the list of charges which includes the 8% interest to SC&M.

 

We're a little bit scared now, but trying hard not to think about it and remind ourselves that they don't follow it all the way to court, our case is no different to all the others here. It's hard though!!

 

Just in case it ever did get to court, should we think about getting a professional to represent us? Someone said to us that judges don't like it when you defend yourself. Don't know, any thoughts?

 

Thanks for everyones help and support so far

[nicsussex]

Well here we go....

 

Two days before the deadline a Notice of Acknowledgement arrived from SC&M, they intend to defend the whole claim.

 

surprise surprise

[nicsussex]

Just in case it ever did get to court, should we think about getting a professional to represent us?

 

There is very little chance it will and if it did the answer is no.

[nicsussex]

Someone said to us that judges don't like it when you defend yourself. Don't know, any thoughts?

 

I think if that was the case the whole judicial system would be a complete mockery, and they are more likely tobe concerned about the abusive procedures that LTSB are using in the way that they are handling these claims

[empowered]

Just in case it ever did get to court, should we think about getting a professional to represent us? Someone said to us that judges don't like it when you defend yourself. Don't know, any thoughts?

 

That's the reason why the Small Claims Courts were set up - so that you could defend yourself without incurring solicitors costs!

[pocla]

Nice one, thanks guys. Will let you know how we get on....

[pocla]

5th April Lloyds filed a defence, and the case has been transferred to Lewes county court.

 

In the defence that was sent to us, there's a sheet of paper from the court saying:

 

"without hearing it is ordered that the filing of an allocation questionnaire be dispensed with in this case unless the District Judge at the court of transfer orders otherwise"

 

Is this fairly normal? And does it mean we're just being put straight on the fast-track?

 

The defence Lloyds has entered has 9 points to it. Should I post them here or are they usually all the same? The last one says "The Claimant's claim is denied in its entirety. It is further denied that the Claimant is entitled to the sum claimed or to any sum from the bank."

 

Scary stuff, looks like we're getting there!

[jshtr3]

Hi pocla.

 

I think it's becoming quite more common for AQ's to be dispensed with. From reading around the advice i've seen is give the court a ring ask what happens next. The court seem to be doing this to speed up the process.

 

9 point defences also fairly common. Think if you search the LTSB forum for 9 point defence you'll find lots of standard ones to compare yours to.

 

You're about 2 weeks in front of me so I'll b watching

 

Good luck

Trev

[pocla]

Cool.

 

I've read up on the new way to deal with allocation questionnaires (or lack of) and this is my plan.

 

1) phone the court in the morning and ask if the judge is likely to request an AQ.

 

2) if not, send offer letter to Lloyds (see http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/78873-new-after-28-days.html)

 

I've read through all the stuff about sending draft directions to the court - when should I do this? At the same time as I make Lloyds an offer? or should I wait five days or so for Lloyds to get back to me and then send the draft directions off?

 

Also, as the 8% interest is going up by the day, copies of my schedule of charges that I send are going to have different amounts on as time goes by. Is this ok?

 

For example, when I issued the claim, it was for £607.90.

Now I'm sending Lloyds the offer letter, the charges total £611.29.

And when I send the court bundle in as per draft order directions, it will be for a higher amount.

 

Don't know if I'm getting myself in a tizz over nothing....any ideas?

 

Cheers everyone

[pocla]

p.s..... when I send the offer letter to Lloyds do I need to notify the court that I've sent this to them (ie send them a copy as well)??

Or should I mention it later?

thanks

[pocla]

And another one... sorry, I'm just trying to get all this draft order stuff sorted in one go!

In the template statement of evidence, 7. says:

 

7. The Claimant further submits that the Defendant’s contention that the charges are now a legitimate service charge represents a contradiction to materials published by the bank previously. Here, add in details of any correspondence in which the bank referred to the charges as ‘penalties’, ‘defaults’ or ‘exist to cover costs’, etc. For example -In correspondence with Lloyds TSB’s ‘Customer Service Recovery’ department in July 2006, Martin Orton, who is manager of the department, stated this in a letter: “As you are aware, I am afraid that it is the case that any items that are returned incur a fee in order that we can recoup our costs”. This was in response to a direct and plain request to justify Lloyds TSB’s charges. Throughout the letter, no mention was ever made of the charges as being the cost of any sort of ‘service’.(If anyone wants a copy of this letter, drop me a PM with your address and I'll post it to you.)

 

We haven't had anything from Lloyds like this. In their letter to us, they don't refer to the charges as penalties, defaults or exist to cover costs. They seem to have been very careful not to!

The only paragraph I've found that alludes to recovering costs is:

 

Like any business, we do make a charge for some of our extra services. When customers don't have enough in their accounts to cover a payment, this always means extra work - and it has to happen very quickly. We have to agree to make the payment by setting up or increasing an overdraft, or tell customers we can't agree it. We feel it's fair to charge for this service.

 

Should I include that in the statement of evidence? Or shall I just delete point 7?

 

Any thoughts very grateful.

[pocla]

Hi, can anyone help me with this? I know my last few posts were a bit long and complicated so I'll try and simplify it here....

 

Firstly, we have been told (by Northampton Court) we do not have to do an Allocation Questionnaire (unless our local judge decides otherwise)

 

1) going to send an offer letter to Lloyds. Our total claim (inc costs) is £691.90, so will send them a letter saying we are willing to accept £690.

 

2) Will send the draft order for directions to local county court.

 

Now... do we need to send a copy of the offer letter to the court as well as Lloyds?

 

Should we send the offer letter before the draft order, after, at the same time, OR does it not really matter??

 

Still haven't worked out the statement of evidence stuff in my last post, so any thoughts on that would be very helpful

[nicsussex]

Why are you making them an offer - remember it is you that is claiming against them - it is up to them to make you an offer - something that they have had plenty of opportunity to do but have decided that they don't want to. Now that you have issued a claim you are entitled to your daily rate of interest - stick with it and don't accept anything less.

[pocla]

When I found out we don't have to do an AQ, I thought I'd have a search and see if anyone else was in the same situation, and what they were doing.

 

I found a post in the HSBC group that suggests sending an offer letter to the banks solicitors ('DG' are HSBC's solicitors):

 

My one suggestion, so far is to send DG a letter - this lets them know that you know what's going on and it is you making an attempt to get them to move it along and will be seen by a judge in a very favourable light.

 

Here is a letter you could send when you receive that notice from the court:

 

 

(see http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/78873-new-after-28-days.html for the whole lot)

 

Just thought it doesn't hurt to keep trying to solve it amicably. Know its unlikely, but its worth a try - also bearing in mind that a leaflet on mediation was enclosed with Lloyds defence when it arrived from the court. I'm sure the courts/judges would prefer it getting solved sooner, so any attempt on my part to do that should go in my favour?

 

Hope this all makes sense. Bit more work, but hey ho!