Barclays is refusing to comply with the wife’s S.A.R

[bankcharges0]

It is my first time starting my own thread, so please forgive me if I ask silly questions.

 

The damages are:

 

Extra costs incurred in addition to court costs, due to the Defendants failure to comply - this includes the cost of additional correspondence and time spent preparing documents, I estimate this cost to be £55.00.

 

The unnecessary stress caused, due to the Defendant inaction/action for not complying with the Claimant’s Subject Access Request, as a result, the Claimant is seeking damages from the Defendant at the discretion of the court.

 

The above are what we plan to enter in the Particulars of claim section?

 

We would also like to seek for damages (distress) on particulars section?

 

Reason for this would be that my wife is 6 month pregnant and her present in court would act as a physical evident in front of the judge. We will also bring her hospital notes and NHS exemption card to support our claim. I believe this one is usually a difficult one to claim for?

For this reason, I might to ask the judge or court if possible could I act as a 'Mackenzie friend' with the right to speak to the court on her behalf. I believe this is possible only in special circumstance/judges discretion?

 

In reply to your question saintly_1 "the site helper".

 

I must admit that we only called the "0845 609 0806" number which they told us to call.

In fact, we called earlier in the week to tell Barclays that the LBA set out in my wife's letter had expired and were full response still forthcoming. The call was partly recorded. The agent whom we spoke to agreed to call us back on our say so. She was aware that the call was recorded. The agent 1st defence was that the reference number that they have given us was to do with a complaint. We quickly dismissed this. Her next defence was that my wife account was closed for such a long time that she should visit her local branch to produce a signature specimen. We quickly dismissed that as well, as my wife’s had already produced her UK Passport, TV Licensing Renewal Notice and Home Insurance Documents as a proof of her identity in her initial letter. We also gave them further information when they replied to our letter of reminded. This information was her maiden name, list of her previous addresses. I went on to say to the agent should this been required; surely, Barclays ought to have put this in writing. Is Barclays telling us the reason why they wanted us to call the local rate number was purely to fob us off? We have always made our position clear as of what we are requesting for in our letters.

 

10 minutes we called, back again as luck has it we got through to the same person whom we spoke to last time. As we found out from our previous call, our call wasn’t recorded properly. We told her this and asked her to call us back. She refused and went on to say, “Actually their call centre was inbound call only”. Nevertheless, we proceeded with the conversation on our expenses with the call properly recorded. Technically, we reached nowhere. We made it clearly that we were now in position file for a county court action against Barclays. This call was also recorded.

 

Following day, we called again this time we got through to some chap. On the background we could hear the girl that we spoke to the day before on another call. The agent sounded somewhat “render speechless” as he briefly kept my wife on hold to read a note on his screen. He came back online. My wife asked him for a call back straight away, he agreed this was about 7.40pm. The agent never called her. 7.45pm we called about 3 more times apparently the office has closed "packed up" for the day.

 

However, their automated answering machine stated that the office was open from 8am – 8pm.

 

It sounds like Barclays like to record their calls for legal and training purposes however, when you record yours call with them, they go into hiding.

 

The next day they wrote letter saying, as they have not heard from my wife they are closing her file.

 

I wander WHAT file?

 

We have evident of the calls on my mobile phone record and in audio.

[welshcakes]

Hi bankcharges

 

As someone who experienced a 9 month fob off from Barclays in delivering SAR data, I urge you to file a claim against them for DPA breach without delay.

 

Barclays acknowledged and even filed a Defence to my claim even though their Defence was riddled will factual errors and I had absolute proof.

 

I put in for damages and costs and Barclays paid up and wrote several times urging me to call off the case. Because they took so long, my response was to advise that my costs of pursuance had increased and that they would have to send a further cheque by a certain date in order for me to discontinue.

 

Although they were a little late, they sent the second cheque and 7 years worth of statements for all my accounts.

 

I soon learnt to conduct everything in writing and I corresponded with Adrian Ruffhead, Legal Executive, Legal & Compliance at Barclays H/O. Although he got info wrong in the early stages, this was I believe because he was fed the wrong information from the Customer Service Team with whom I had originally corresponded.

 

Once he and I got emailing and he realised I was steadfast in my intent to go to full hearing, he bent over backwards to get everything out to me.

 

Don't be put off by Barclays threatening closed files and time deadlines - this is your claim and they are in no position to dictate terms.

 

I am about to file my second breach claim against them and I shall be putting down my hourly rate at £9.50 this time round. I am confident they will pay up everything without the need for court and I will get all the data I require.

 

Your damages/costs seem fine. I would attach a Schedule of Costs (breakdown) to date (so it can be updated).

[MARTIN3030]

Yes nice work and like you say,it can be difficult to claim for stress/anguish as you have to demonstrate this with clear factual evidence but in your case you have that.

As you say it is discretionary.

Looks fine to me keep us posted.

[bankcharges0]

You have to try and outsmart these people “Barclays”. Obviously, Barclays is playing dirty. We have decided to pay them a visit sometime this week at our local branch, just to cover all angles. After our visit, I plan to leave them in an awkward position in order to file a County Court action against them by the end of the week.

I am not a gambling person, but I feel that we are better off going to court.

[bankcharges0]

Hi Welshcakes

You quoted “I am about to file my second breach claim against them and I shall be putting down my hourly rate at £9.50 this time round. I am confident they will pay up everything without the need for court and I will get all the data I require”

? Why the hourly rate at £9.50 ?

? Is their an Act of Parliament that govern such rate, mind you I’m not a professional ?

I was going to claim the National minimum rate at £5.35 as I don’t want my case to be thrown out in court.

[welshcakes]

Hi bankcharges

 

Replied to your PM - sorry, should be £9.25, not £9.50 which is hourly rate set by court

[bankcharges0]

Hi Welshcake

I am in the middle of creating a spreadsheet with breakdown of my cost.

? Do you include the expenses that you incurred before the 40 days or after ?

? Do you include the hourly rate “£9.25” on each occasion that you had to write or speak to Barclays ?

As you could see, I am a new comer to this forum. It is important that I get it right first time round. I do not want Barclays to wriggle out of this one.

Any tips is welcome

[welshcakes]

Hi BC

 

Technically, you should only be including costs incurred after the other party has failed to comply.

 

The £9.25 applies to the accumulated time you have spent up to (and including actually attending court).

[bankcharges0]

Cheers for that Welshcakes.

I am feeling bloody minded. We have sent then another LBA giving a further few days to comply. The icing on the cake is that we will attend our proposed local Barclays branch to collect these documents with proofs of the wife's identity. I just want to cover all angles.

[bankcharges0]

Hi BC

 

Technically, you should only be including costs incurred after the other party has failed to comply.

 

The £9.25 applies to the accumulated time you have spent up to (and including actually attending court).

 

 

Ok that is interesting.

 

? If that was the case, am I correct to say on the day I will attend to the court to submit my N1 form I should claim £50 + £9.25 as apart of my expenses ?

 

On the N1 form, what do I tick "Yes or No" on the section that asked Human Rights Act 1998?

[welshcakes]

Hi BC

 

You tick No on the Human Rights box.

 

Should you need to attend court, the £50 applies as your costs for Hearing Attendance and as I understand it from a Magistrate friend, is meant to reflect time which you are compelled to be at court which you would otherwise be utilising freely (be that working, shopping, sitting at home watching daytime tv - is irrelevant as it is still a burden on your time).

 

The Attendance Allowance incorporates the £9.25 hourly rate as you would be expected to be giving your full attention to the matter during that time anyway and you can't double count it.

 

If however the court timetable is delayed for example and you are required to remain in on the court premises for more than 4 hours, you can additionally claim £9.25 for each partial hour (eg 20 mins = £9.25, 1hr 5 mins = £18.50). Furthermore, you can claim costs of one purchased meal and refreshments over 4 hours.

 

You can additionally claim £9.25 for the travel time to and from court (as well as mileage ay 40p per mile & parking).

 

To present this at the hearing, you would need to present an 'Estimate of Costs' breakdown ie one that includes the reasonably anticipated costs you expect to incur on that day. At worst, if you have over-estimated, the judge can require you to do a quick recalculation and knock off the small difference.

[dar£n]

CPR 27.14 claim for loss of earnings.....unless recently updated it was previously a max of £50.....I claimed it in my first claim and had it added to the final amount.

one member even added the price for the stamps etc ...and got it...LOL

[bankcharges0]

My intention is to claim all the expenses that I have incurred after the compliance date.

These includes cost for i.e. stamps, envelope, taxis fee to visit my local branch, telephone calls, Royal Mail Recorded Signed For, print, photocopy, etc

I want to go for the whole lot.

[welshcakes]

Quite right too BC! Barclays didn't even require sight of my breakdown (expenses not literal) when I went for non-compliance claim, they were tripping over themselves in the end to avoid going to court. I would say however that they played the game til a few eeks before hearing date; entered Defence etc.

 

It was only when I started emailing 'rigorously' with a member of the BLT (Adrian Ruffhead) that Barclays suddenly changed their approach and entered into 'meaningful dialogue' instead of spewing out automatied and entirely irrelevant responses.

 

They took so long that after they sent the first cheque, I pointed out that my costs had increased, quoted the increased figure in an email and hey presto, a second cheque was sent with a letter desparate for me to confirm I would be discontinuing.

 

All this after an initial stern Defence which was littered with factual errors.

 

Non-compliance is not one they can even contemplate winning and it has no relevance to the Test Case.

 

If you are asked for a breakdown, make sure it states 'up to xx/xx/2007' so you are able to update/increase it as you go along'/