sami vs HSBC

[sami-lou]

Hello to everyone. I have been reading these posts for a while and have got loads of useful tips but now I am stuck. I am at the AQ to the courts stage. The original deadline has gone past and HSBC had not submitted their AQ. They had an extension untill today at 4pm. In the post this morning I had an offer of settlement for near enough the full amount. However, because I have an outstanding debt with HSBC which has been pased to a collection agency, the letter says that any sums paid in settlement will be set off in reduction my debt. If I accept the offer they will credit the money to the collection agency. Do they have the right to do this? Any advice would be gratefully received.

[lateralus]

i can't comment on that specifically - but i will say this - on this site the advice has been 100% uniform in that they have always said - it's your claim - you accept it on your terms.

so, if you are happy enough with the offer - how about this response:

 

Date

Dear Whoever

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

Sort Code xx-xx-xx

Claim No: XXXXX in XXXX County Court

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £XXX

 

Unfortunately your offer has failed to include my requisite that any settlement be made in a cheque payable to myself and therefore I am unable to accept your offer as full and final settlement until you agree to refund this amount in the manner stated. The total amount I wish to be refunded is £XXXXX

 

As soon as I receive confirmation from you that you agree to this payment method I will accept the offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

 

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim of £XXX

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I look forward to receiving your revised offer

Yours Sincerely

 

 

 

it's a standard letter - i've just tweaked it a bit - feel free to tweak some more if that doesn't quite do what you want.

 

did it include court filing fee and the allocation questionaire fee - if not - we need to get them to put that in as well - get back and i'll give you more to put in the letter.

 

 

p.s. - that last fill in the blank is a cheeky little add-on you can put whatever amount you like in there - you won't get it but it makes the statement that you won't sign the confidentiality clause - which won't effect them giving you anything - you could just cross it off on any acceptance letter.

[Castlebest]

NO you have brought a private action against HSBC they have no right to pass YOUR money to a third party.

 

You should write to the debt collection agency and tell them the debt is the subject of an ongoing court action, case number etc between you and HSBC and you cannot deal with a third party in this matter and tell them they should refer back to HSBC.

 

Write to HSBC (Latties letter) and tell them the you accept the settlement in response to your private action against HSBC but you now require cheque payment due to their actions involving a third party debt collection agency.

 

You will have to pay one or the other but if you settle your debt with HSBC they will have to settle with their debt collection agency including their costs.

 

pete

[dannygr27]

HI

 

I was just wondering if charges are repaid even without any admission of guilt, do Hsbc have to remove the same amount from the Debt that you owe them???

 

sam

[VeryTrying]

Do you mean will HSBC pay you a cheque AND reduce the amount you owe them? 'Fraid not - it's one or the other. I doubt they'll pay you double the charges.

[sami-lou]

Thanks for all the replies everybody.

 

I don't know if HSBC have put in their AQ (I couldn't get through to the courts yesterday) If they haven't, then their defence is struck out. I think I will send the acceptance letter anyway, just to make sure that they don't automatically credit to the debt collection agency.

 

The offer letter didn't say whether it included the court fees in the sum given, so should I add a request for those?

 

Thanks every one.

[lateralus]

i'm thinking you should be able to tell by how much you asked for and how much they are offering - if they haven't - we should be able to weasel that out of them too - so don't send the letter just yet - take a look - see if they've any explanation as to why it isn't a full offer - and look at your figures - your claim plus interest plus court fee plus aq fee. total it up and see how close it is -

see if you can work it out whether they've included the fees.

[sami-lou]

I had a letter from the courts this morning. They filed their AQ in time. However, it also says this, " the claim is stayed on the grounds that the claiment's statement of case discloses inadequate particulars of claim. (No particulars of charges) Unless by 4.00pm on 23rd April the claiment files and serves a further statement of case that sets out full particulars of the claim, the claim will stand struck out.

 

Does this mean I have to redo the particulars of the claim that I had written on the AQ. I am not sure what I missed out. How do I present this to the court? When I sent my AQ I also included the draft order for consideration, should I include this again too.

 

I take it I should carry on with this even though I am accepting the offer just in case they rescind the offer.

 

Thanks

[lateralus]

ok, hang loose until i get someone else to look, but i'm thinking it's the particulars from the mcol as there's no mention of the particulars in the aq is there? i think someone is saying your particulars aren't right. let me get someone round. don't panic - we've got time to get it corrected.

[lateralus]

can you post your particulars from you mcol stage (assuming you kept them?!) just XXXXX out account no and any personal stuff.

i'm going to pm you mine so you can see what they should go looking like - and you'll know if that's the problem. you didn't post on here until you were further along - where did you get your particulars from?

help is on the way - garyh will be along in a mo

[GaryH]

Is this Hitchen County Court by any chance?

 

I take it I should carry on with this even though I am accepting the offer just in case they rescind the offer.

Yes, your right, your claims not over untill the money is in your account so you should continue to comply with orders, etc. in the meantime.

 

Can you post the entire wording of the order please?

[sami-lou]

My particulars didn't look like yours, I haven't got an exact copy of mine but I did get the wording from the templates library (mcol version) and it included everything there.

 

I haven't sent the court my schedule of charges yet so maybe thats the problem. I thought that was needed later. I have sent it to HSBC twice already.

 

The Order states:

 

Upon the filing of the Defendants allocation questionnaire

 

IT IS ORDERED THAT

 

1. The claim is stayed on the grounds that the claimant's statement of case discloses inadequate particulars of claim. (No particulars of charges) Unless by 4.00pm on the 23rd April 2007 the claimant files and serves a further statement of case that sets out full particulars of the claim, the claim will stand struck out.

 

The claimant should also send a copy of the further statement of case to the defendant or their representatives and confirm to the court that this has been done.

 

If I am right, I need to resend my particulars along with my schedule of charges to the courts along with confirmation that I have also sent it to HSBC. What would be the best way to put that information together?

 

I hope it is nothing more complicated than that

[GaryH]

If I am right, I need to resend my particulars along with my schedule of charges to the courts along with confirmation that I have also sent it to HSBC.

Correct.

 

Looks to me like DG have refered to the fact you did'nt include a schedule in their allocation questionnaire.

 

Use the N1 POC this time - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/681-4-particulars-claim-n1.html

and attach your schedule.

 

Send it to the court with a brief covering letter which says you are filing a fully particularised statement of case in compliance with the order of **/**/**, and that you can confirm a copy was sent to the defendent on **/**/**.

[sami-lou]

Ok I will get on with that. I really appreciate the advice.

 

Big thank you to everyone.

[givememymoney]

Glad that is sorted Sami-Lou a good lesson for us all about following up with DG about receiving the schedule of charges