How can this be legal?

crittertog

mum23boys wrote: »

I have asked for the form back but they will only give me a copy of the scanned form which is on the computer, the original is archived and I cant have it!

It is a statutory requirement to produce a copy of a contract when requested by the other party. As the veracity of the scanned version is in question, I believe they would find it very hard to justify not sending a photocopy of the original paper form.

mum23boys_2

Hi again,

Thanks so much for your replies! Okay so I gets a copy of PART of my form, I carefully went through it and yes there are some small boxes down the left column of the page & even hubby hadnt noticed those, and I hadnt ticked the "SELL" box BUT the other part which I had filled in and I know I DID tick a "SELL" box on hasnt been sent. So they must only look at one part of the form or they would know that the form doesnt tally up whatsover as part of it says to sell and the other left blank!
I have written and sent a letter of complaint last Friday but havent heard
anything, not even an acknowledgment letter!
I have argued the fact that even if i left something blank then as it is a legal document why hasnt it been returned to me to complete??
As, according to their own terms & conditions, forms not properly completed are sent back! All they've been bothered about is gaining my signature just to cash in some of my shares and take it as their commission.
A costly lesson learned on my behalf i'm afraid!

meggsy

Interesting article here in The Times ...

"You may be contacted by an asset reunification company. These specialise in reuniting “lost” shareholders or beneficiaries with assets that are rightfully theirs. Many large companies have hired such specialists to track down lost shareholders. For example, BT, Southern Water and O2 have hired a company called Prosearch, which is owned by Equiniti, while National Grid, Alliance & Leicester and British Airport Authority have hired Capita Tracing Solutions".


“If you remember owning company shares but have lost your share certificate, approach the registrar of that company and request a new one - this costs about £25. If you find an old share certificate, either yours or that
of someone who has died, contact the registrar named on the certificate. There are now only three registrars - Capita, Computershare and Equiniti.”

Full article here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article5366476.ece

Wellen

They are a company that get appointed by other companies (eg companys you have shares in) to do a tracing exercise usually for the reason of tidying up the original companies register eg Standard lifes. Equiniti have a similar thing recently with Iberdrola using georgesons to trace shareholders to allow them to claim unclaimed payments eg dividends. In some cases its payments from ages ago never claimed eg cuz cheque was never received or old address details but sometimes it could just be that the payment was put across to georgesons immediately. My best advice for future is to check with registrar to see if the money has in fact moved across to georgesons yet as in some cases if the money is still with the registrar they can reissue the cheque and their fees are more likely to be cheaper ie less then 10% hope this helps people.

billybongo

I too had a letter from Georgesons about reuniting me with my Standard Life shares.

Get this: They wrote in December and in the [very] small print their fee would be 0.5% of the share value. [NOUGHT POINT FIVE]

In January they wrote again and in the [still very small] print the fee has LEAPT up to 10%, 12.5% if acted after this week and a WHOPPING 15% after July 09.

And this is not just for selling the shares - it's if you decide to KEEP them too !!!

I am bypassing these sharks.

I am amazed someone as reputable as Standard Life are supporting this practice.