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Plz Help! Bank has paid £10,000 from my deceased OH account to another party.
kazza1000
Posts: 86 Forumite
Can anyone/someone please help me with this.
I have recently raised a complaint with Bank of Ireland about gross negligence. I think the letter i sent them is self explanatory. Any help/ advice would be so appreciated - I just cannot afford to get legal advice.
Letter was sent to bank on 6 Jan.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to make a formal complaint about the above account.
This account was opened in 2002 by me, my husband xxxx and xxxx. It was initially funded with a deposit of £10,000 provided from my husband’s personal bank account and was related to a new company registered with Companies House. All 3 directors were signatories on the account and the signatures of two account holders were required to withdraw funds from the account.
My husband passed away on 9 April 2003 and the account was then frozen while probate was in progress. The balance of the account at this time was confirmed by Bank of Ireland to be £9963.42. This confirmation was made in writing by the bank to my solicitor xxxx.
Probate was granted to me on 9 August 2004 (copy certificate enclosed) enclosed and my solicitor proceeded to request that funds from the account be passed to them. Following that they received communication from Bank of Ireland to say that the balance of the account was now nil. On further investigation it was discovered that on 21 October 2004 xxxx (3rd partner) had withdrawn all the funds of £9963.42 from the account in cash. The bank did not approach either me or my solicitor with regard to this transaction.
The only explanation that I have been able to extract from the branch was that they had done a search with Company House and as they had found that both me and my husband had been removed from the Directors list they had made xxxx request to empty the account. I then discovered that xxxx had, at a time when my husband was extremely ill, taken the steps to remove us from the business without our knowledge.
However, I believe that Bank of Irelands actions with regard to this account are grossly negligent. I was still a signatory on this account at the time funds were withdrawn and was also granted the probate to my husband’s estate and all bank account funds and do not believe that they had any right to allow anyone access to funds without my knowledge and consent. Within a few days of the bank realising that they had made this mistake they refused to communicate with either me or my solicitor, either in writing or on the telephone. In fact, during one telephone call to the branch I was reduced to tears when I was told that the branch Manager had been advised by your solicitors that he was to have no further communication with me. I was extremely distressed by this and I have had no further communication with the bank from then until 2006 when I requested that the statements relating to the account be issued to me. These were sent on 3 April 2006.
I realise that a considerable amount of time has passed since these actions have taken place but at the time I was not emotionally able to deal with this complaint properly whilst dealing with my husband’s death and the grief of our two young children and the bank’s previous attitude towards me made me feel completely unable to deal with you. The banks total refusal to communicate with me about this issue has caused a significant amount of distress. It has only been recently that I feel able to re-address these issues.
The loss of this money has caused severe financial hardship to me and my children and I am happy to provide you with the relevant medical records which outline the stress that was being caused to me by this financial and emotional pressure at this time.
Please now supply me with all the records relating to this account and the actions taken by Bank of Ireland surrounding these events and carry out a full investigation into my compliant. I believe that you should be refunding me with the full amount of the balance of the account plus statutory interest and a compensation payment for distress and inconvenience. I would also advise you that xxxx Solicitors are no longer acting as my representatives and therefore you should communicate with me directly. I have recently sought advice from both the FSA and OFT and if I do not get a satisfactory response to this letter I intend to progress my complaint at the next level.
I look forward to receiving a full response within 8 weeks.
xxxx
Bank of Ireland replied to me the next day (very quick!) to acknowledge complaint, apologise for any distress or inconvience, have raised a full investigation about all issues and will have a full response to me by 3 Feb.
Anyone any thoughts? Thanks in Advance
I have recently raised a complaint with Bank of Ireland about gross negligence. I think the letter i sent them is self explanatory. Any help/ advice would be so appreciated - I just cannot afford to get legal advice.
Letter was sent to bank on 6 Jan.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to make a formal complaint about the above account.
This account was opened in 2002 by me, my husband xxxx and xxxx. It was initially funded with a deposit of £10,000 provided from my husband’s personal bank account and was related to a new company registered with Companies House. All 3 directors were signatories on the account and the signatures of two account holders were required to withdraw funds from the account.
My husband passed away on 9 April 2003 and the account was then frozen while probate was in progress. The balance of the account at this time was confirmed by Bank of Ireland to be £9963.42. This confirmation was made in writing by the bank to my solicitor xxxx.
Probate was granted to me on 9 August 2004 (copy certificate enclosed) enclosed and my solicitor proceeded to request that funds from the account be passed to them. Following that they received communication from Bank of Ireland to say that the balance of the account was now nil. On further investigation it was discovered that on 21 October 2004 xxxx (3rd partner) had withdrawn all the funds of £9963.42 from the account in cash. The bank did not approach either me or my solicitor with regard to this transaction.
The only explanation that I have been able to extract from the branch was that they had done a search with Company House and as they had found that both me and my husband had been removed from the Directors list they had made xxxx request to empty the account. I then discovered that xxxx had, at a time when my husband was extremely ill, taken the steps to remove us from the business without our knowledge.
However, I believe that Bank of Irelands actions with regard to this account are grossly negligent. I was still a signatory on this account at the time funds were withdrawn and was also granted the probate to my husband’s estate and all bank account funds and do not believe that they had any right to allow anyone access to funds without my knowledge and consent. Within a few days of the bank realising that they had made this mistake they refused to communicate with either me or my solicitor, either in writing or on the telephone. In fact, during one telephone call to the branch I was reduced to tears when I was told that the branch Manager had been advised by your solicitors that he was to have no further communication with me. I was extremely distressed by this and I have had no further communication with the bank from then until 2006 when I requested that the statements relating to the account be issued to me. These were sent on 3 April 2006.
I realise that a considerable amount of time has passed since these actions have taken place but at the time I was not emotionally able to deal with this complaint properly whilst dealing with my husband’s death and the grief of our two young children and the bank’s previous attitude towards me made me feel completely unable to deal with you. The banks total refusal to communicate with me about this issue has caused a significant amount of distress. It has only been recently that I feel able to re-address these issues.
The loss of this money has caused severe financial hardship to me and my children and I am happy to provide you with the relevant medical records which outline the stress that was being caused to me by this financial and emotional pressure at this time.
Please now supply me with all the records relating to this account and the actions taken by Bank of Ireland surrounding these events and carry out a full investigation into my compliant. I believe that you should be refunding me with the full amount of the balance of the account plus statutory interest and a compensation payment for distress and inconvenience. I would also advise you that xxxx Solicitors are no longer acting as my representatives and therefore you should communicate with me directly. I have recently sought advice from both the FSA and OFT and if I do not get a satisfactory response to this letter I intend to progress my complaint at the next level.
I look forward to receiving a full response within 8 weeks.
xxxx
Bank of Ireland replied to me the next day (very quick!) to acknowledge complaint, apologise for any distress or inconvience, have raised a full investigation about all issues and will have a full response to me by 3 Feb.
Anyone any thoughts? Thanks in Advance
0
Comments
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Was this an account in the name of a Ltd company?0
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Hi, thanks for replying.
Yes, it was in the name of ltd company with 3 directors as signatories on the ccount. 2 signatures were required for withdrawals etc.0
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