Ombudsan didn't uphold - further letter?

hairbrain05

Thank you for your e-mail of 12 August 2009. I confirm I will contact you further once I have had an opportunity to review your further comments.

Yours sincerely,
xxx
Adjudicator



________________________________________

Good afternoon,

I am aware that it has been some time since your final response regarding my case against RBS, where you decided not to uphold my case.

It has come to my attention that I did not receive a copy of the Financial Hardship Closure letter, is it possible that you could arrange for me to have sight of this.

Many thanks

chicqa

hairbrain05 wrote: »

Thank you for your e-mail of 12 August 2009. I confirm I will contact you further once I have had an opportunity to review your further comments.

Yours sincerely,
xxx
Adjudicator



________________________________________

Good afternoon,

I am aware that it has been some time since your final response regarding my case against RBS, where you decided not to uphold my case.

It has come to my attention that I did not receive a copy of the Financial Hardship Closure letter, is it possible that you could arrange for me to have sight of this.

Many thanks

I hope they will come to you regarding this.

Good Luck
xx

hairbrain05

thank you! I am certainly trying xx (I'm sure the FO think i'm trying also ;o)

hairbrain05

here's my response to request of copy of the financial hardship closure letter..... anyone know if this is the norm?


'In this regard, I should explain that there is no financial hardship letter per se. As explained in my letter dated 24 April 2009, upon closing a financial hardship complaint we the bank to hold a record of your request for a refund of bank charges and contact you with regard to this case once the outcome of the current legal proceedings are known.

However, if the bank does not contact you upon the conclusion of the high court case you may refer the case back to us at the time. Please bear in mind, however, that due to the volume of comlaints about bank charges, the bank will require sufficient time to contact all of its customers and therefore, it may be sometime following the legal outcome that the bank contacts you.

If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.'

natweststaffmember

hairbrain05 wrote: »

here's my response to request of copy of the financial hardship closure letter..... anyone know if this is the norm?


'In this regard, I should explain that there is no financial hardship letter per se. As explained in my letter dated 24 April 2009, upon closing a financial hardship complaint we the bank to hold a record of your request for a refund of bank charges and contact you with regard to this case once the outcome of the current legal proceedings are known.

However, if the bank does not contact you upon the conclusion of the high court case you may refer the case back to us at the time. Please bear in mind, however, that due to the volume of comlaints about bank charges, the bank will require sufficient time to contact all of its customers and therefore, it may be sometime following the legal outcome that the bank contacts you.

If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.'

Then ask them for the exlanation as their decision ie the Banks' since they did not provide you with their reasoning why they didn't consider you to be in financial hardship.

hairbrain05

thank you again! ... latest email.. I can but try...

Good morning,

Thank you for your letter which I received Fri 21st August, advising that there was no ‘hardship closure’.

Whilst I appreciate it is sometime since your previous decision I would like some further explanation of this decision that I am not in financial hardship.

As I noted previously, I feel that the charges for earlier years, whilst the account was in joint names, should be considered for refund. Clearly I had no influence over the situation of the account immediately prior to the sudden death of my partner, and any debts that the bank has been required to write off are not connected to me as the account ceased to be in joint names during 2005.

Kind Regards,

TG82

Best of luck - you deserve it! x

hairbrain05

Thank you for your e-mail which I received upon my return to the office on 26 August 2009.

I confirm that I will contact you further once I have had an opportunity to review your comments.

hairbrain05

... I confirm that my assesment of your complaint and the reasons why I do not consider it necessary for the bank to do anything further than it already has were explained more fully in my letters of..

You say in your email that charges incurred while you and your late partner held an account injoint names should be refunded. In this regard, I would like to reiterate that the legal proceedings regarding charges levied by the banks isyet to be determined by the High Court. The law is one of the things we are required to take into account when we consider cases and the High Court proceedings are intended to clarify the law. Therefore, as the outcome of these proceeding will have a bearing on complainst such are yours, we have decided tat we will await the legal outcome and will not investigate bank charges complaints at this time.

As such, my review of your complaint is limisted to considering the bank's obligation udner the Banking Code to treat custonmers in financial difficulty
positively and sympathetically. As I explained in my previous letter , when dealing with financial hardship complaints there are a range of remedies which I would expect the bank to consider in order to comply with its obligations under the Banking Code.

The bank's obligations under the Banking Code extend primarily to the customer's level of indebtedness with it and in this case, the bank told is that it 'wrote off' your late partner's debt. By taking this step the bank wil no longer pursue the debt. In doing so, the bank has complied with it's obligations under the Banking Code to treat you positively and sympathetically as it has removed any debt owing to it under the account. Accordingly, I do not consider any of the other remedies mentioned previously to be appropriate in these circumstances.

In light of the above, the bank is not under any obligation to offer you a refund of charges at this stage. However, as I explained previously, the bank will be expected to retain a record of your request for a refund of any remaining charnges and consider the issue when the outcome of the court case is known.

For the reasons above and those set out in more detail i my previous letters to you, I do not consider that your complaint about financial hardship by upheld.

however, if you disagree with this, please write to tell me by 17th Septemeber 2009 - setting our your reasons and including any evidence that you have not already provided and that you think is important to your case. I would be grateful if you could let me know now if you plan to reply fully but do not think you will be able to meet the deadline."

hairbrain05

Would I be wasting my time replying again!?

I don't feel he has answered my questions. I argued that they should consider refunding the charges whilst the account was in joint names as I had nothing to do with the account when my ex partner died.

Whilst he believes the bank has acted sympathetically as they have written off my ex partners det - I don't believe they have as the debt had nothing to do with me. My name has not been on the account since 2005 - therefore they would not have been able to pursue me for the debt?