Lloyds wont pay out, what do I do now

[sitcom123]

I have just been on the phone to SC&M re my daughters claim. They sent a letter 13th July offering full settlement. I sent back acceptance letter from site stating i accept without condition blah blah blah. The money has not yet been put into her account.

 

the girl at SC&M has just said because we have not accepted the terms then they will not be paying out and they will just proceed to the court hearing on 29th October. What do I do now??? Should I accept the conditions as surely they must now be going to court

[sitcom123]

help someone please......

[Mooky]

Hi there,

 

Did you send the acceptance letter recorded delivery? If so, write back with photocopys of the letters and rec. del. slips. I wouldn't have thought this will go to court if it's just about charges. Methinks their bluffing, however I would have thought they are legally obliged to honor their offer? Sorry for being vague, wouldn't want to give definates as im not too sure... anyone else help or ad anything?

Best of luck, keep fighting!

[sitcom123]

Thanks for your reply, they have received the acceptance letter but because I have not agreed to the conditions they said they are not paying, so dont know whether to accept the conditons or not???

[juicyd]

Did you amend the conditions of the offer in any way ? if your letter says that you accepted the offer and nothing else, there has been valid offer and acceptance and insist that they are bound by that. Also point out to them that the FSA Guidance whcih has been posted on here says that offers on the table prior to the test case/stay should be honoured and you will not be bullied into having a stay when there has been a valid compromise of your claim.

[juicyd]

ps tell them that if they insist on bringing you to Court you will be telling the judge that you oppose the stay because there has been a valid compromise of the claim already and will bring all the paperwork to show him. They will say you can't show it because it's probably without prejudice but that won't matter because the hearing will not be of the claim itself but on the specific point of whether there has been an agreement to settle so you can show it. They are trying to mess you about, do not stand for it. Please do everything in writing - I'm sure you can email SC&M - don't talk to them on the phone if you can avoid it, keep your own written record to show judge. Get an email address for whoever you were talking to instead of calling her back. Good luck

[sitcom123]

Thanks for that. I will try to find an email address or if anyone knows one please advise

 

thanks again

[sitcom123]

i have just rung the girl from SC&M and she has told me that a standard letter will be going out to everyone who has sent an acceptance letter to them not accepting conditions to state they will not therefore be paying and will be proceeding to defend in court. she said there are quite a lot of them so it will be next week probably before i get it in writing. Feeling a bit nervous about it all now and i thought i had won!!

[juicyd]

again, this seems to me to be an abuse of process and a flagrant breach of the spirit of the terms of the FSA's waiver. You have not made clear whether in fact you did amend the conditions of the offer when you tried to accept it. In general terms, an acceptance must relate to all the conditions of the offer but it may be helpful if you only deleted a condition rather than trying to introduce a new one. If you tried to accept the amount they offered subject to deleting a condition, I really do think the bank are bound by the spirit of the offer in light of the guidance the FSA have given.

[sitcom123]

below is the letter i sent them, what do you think????

 

Dear Sirs

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: ................

Sort Code ..............

Claim No: in Bolton County Court

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date 13/7/07 I accept your offer as full and final settlement only for this claim of bank charges made on my account between July 02 and Oct 06 (dates of first and last charge) However I will only accept an unconditional offer and will therefore not be signing your acceptance agreement

 

I accept this 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 and will send a Notice of Discontinuance to the Court upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentiality clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £2686.49, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I trust that you will find this arrangement acceptable.

 

Yours Sincerely

[juicyd]

could you clarify what the conditions are that they tried to impose on you? I ask this because if they have tried to say that the agreement is in respect of all future charges, that would be manifestly unfair as they would be asking you to allow them to apply to your account in the future charges which might have been declared unlawful. You as a private individual cannot give the banks permission to apply charges which breach the Regulations so that term would be meaningless. If they have not yet tried to impose a confidentiality clause then arguably your letter merely says you won't accept one. I am a solicitor so will try and construct a response for you if you can copy me the terms of the offer ie so that I can see what argument there is that your letter does not amount to a counter offer which rejects their offer. Having said that, the spirit of their conduct would surely be very unattractive to a judge so do not give in too easily.

[sitcom123]

i will scan it when i get in and post it on here. Thank you so much for helping

[juicyd]

will look out for it later!

[sitcom123]

My scanner is playing up, but the t&c are as follows

 

1. The money will be credited to your account payment takes into consideration the £750 already paid to you by our client on 8/5/07

 

2 The payment will be in full and final settlement of your claim

 

3. The terms of this agreement are confidential to

 

4. The terms of this agreement are confidential to the parties and their legal representatives

 

5. You agree to keep your accounts with the bank within their agreed limits and in accordance with the terms that govern the account

 

6 You make contact with your Lloyds TSB manager and arrange a review of your account. The bank wishes to avoid further situations which give rise to disputesa A review may be useful to consider whether your current banking arragements are the most appropriate for your needs.

 

7. You must notify the court immediately once payment has been made and provide a copy of your letter to the court for our records

 

Please let us know if you are willing to settle on these terms and if so the bank will credit the above amount to your account if so please sign a copy of this letter as confirmation that you are bound by these terms and return it to us as soon as possible

[GuidoT]

Usual conditions, send the letter in post 10, they have never to date questioned this and usually just pay up.

 

What was the date of the offer letter?

[BARTY]

Guido, she/he has already sent that letter and SC&M are saying as they have not accepted the conditions, they will not settle and it will have to go to Court.

Barty:)

[sitcom123]

letter was dated 13th July and they wanted reply by 27th July. I posted my letter saying no to conditions on 16th or 17th July which they have received but are not paying

[GuidoT]

Sorry did not read far enough back - I have now.

 

I have to take back my post 15.

 

Given the prospect of having the claim stayed at the hearing in Oct until next year, I personally would accept the offer with the conditions if you are content with the sum.

 

Did SCM actually respond in writing to the letter in post 10?

[sitcom123]

No they have not replied yet, but the lady at SC&M who i spoke to today said they were sending out loads of letters at the beginning of the week to everyone who has accepted without agreeing to the terms to say they wont be paid out and it will proceed to court, so do you think I should send a letter now agreeing to them?

[GuidoT]

This is new for SCM, they never before objected. I can see why they have changed tactic as it gives them an opportunity to get out of the offers they made pre OFT announcement and attempt to string matters out until the conclusion of the OFT test case.

 

If it was my claim, then yes, I would just accept rather than wait some considerable time for money, or heaven forbid get nothing if the test case is lost by the OFT.

[sitcom123]

Do you think Lloyds will pay out if I send a further letter to say i accept the conditions or will they not pay now as I have sent a letter saying i dont accept them?

[sitcom123]

Bump... help anyone please

[juicyd]

Sitcom sorry for delay, but I see you have been helped and I agree that you should immediately write to SC&M saying that you wish to accept the offer on the terms it was originally made. The conditions are meaningless as far as i can see - what possible action could they take against you for breaching any of them? If you breach the agreement to keep your account within limit, they already have a remedy - they intend to whack a £35 charge on you!! Please refer them to the FSA Direction to firms having the advantage of the waiver. This clearly says the bank should be writing to you saying that goodwill offers made will remain open for acceptance for 2 months from the date of their letter. Have you had such a letter? If not they are in breach of the waiver and you should complain to the FSA. If you accept the offer on their crappy conditions, they should pay up.

[sitcom123]

the letter stated i should reply before 27th july do you think i should ring the girl and speak to her at SC&M again, saying I will fax through acceptance letter

[GuidoT]

As juicyd says send a written acceptance as the SCM offer letter directs.

 

Be prepared that SCM may well now say their offer period expired on the 27 July and therefore the offer has lapsed.

 

I would then give a week and phone them to chase payment, certainly do not raise the 27th point with them.