Reclaiming in Scotland

Flyboy_3

Anyone provide a link for wording your case in the Scottish Courts? I'm gonna out my foot down on this and get it in anyway!

Darlingchik

I am at the stage where I wish to go to court. I have threatened Cout action but received some kind of fob off letter asking me to wait until 5th September. I live in Scotland (rules here say small claims are under £750).
I thought that my bank account was governed by English Law though (isn't it in the small print booklet when you sign up for a bank account?)
Can I use the English System for this? OR is there another route/court I can go to? HELP!!

concernedscot

I began claiming back charges a few months ago from the Royal Bank of Scotland. After sending my second letter-requesting full payment of 850.00pounds I received a letter back offering the goodwill gesture of 500.00 - I was told I could send back a note saying I accept or if they didnt hear from me in 6wks they'd assume I had. This letter arrived 4 weeks ago. Would anyone advise me to send of my third letter - saying I'll take them to court or should I send a letter saying I dont accept this and will continue my claim once the case has been settled. Also wondering if as banks are supposed to have put all claims on hold- will they still be assuming I have accepted after the 6 week period has ended? Also do I follow the same procedures now - bearing in mind I am in Scotland? Hope Ive made sense here- Im starting to panic a bit. I know its only an extra 300 pound but needs must!
Thankyou.

mummyyummy_2

im afraid i dont have your answer but I would also like to know if anyone has any info re this xmyx

mummyyummy_2

thanks for that guys, i am just wondering though if anyone knows because i live in scotland i was not going to go through the small claims court anyway because my charges were more than £2k, what I should do now and also although I sent away for my statements more than 2 months ago and they still havnt sent them, should i be phoning them up to see where they are as the 40 days are defo up...aaahhh its all so confusing now xmyx

Edinburghlass_2

allanstubbs wrote: »

Sorry if this is asked elsewhere, but what does this test case mean in Scotland? Have all cases been suspended here too? If so, are they currently having a test case in Scotland as any result in England shouldn't influence law in Scotland.

The banks are suspending all cases and if the bank apply for a stay on your case then it is up to your local court to decide if they will allow this. The onus is then on you to object to any stay. Its a bit early to say what the courts in Scotland are doing.

Everyone however should at least continue with their claim meantime and read Martin's Emergency Guide here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges-alert

GC-Scotland

Please help!



We need urgent advise as to where to go from here! This is my first post so apologies if some of our questions have already been answered in previously threads but Im still trying to get used to working the forum pages.

We are suffering real financial hardship because over the past 5 years the Bank of Scotland has taken over £3700+ in unfair overdraft charges!!! We wrote several letters back and forth to the Bank (each time enclosing a table of all of the bank charges taken from our account with interest added as per a calculator from the www.moneysavingexpert..com website). The total amount of both the charges and the interest amounting to over £4500!!!

After several letters back and forth, we were sent a letter stating that as a "goodwill gesture" the bank were willing to refund £1660. Their letter said that to accept this payment we did not have to do anything and in doing nothing the payment would be regarded as having settled the matter in "full and final settlement". They deposited this into our bank account before we could respond. We called them and said that silence does not constitute acceptance in Scots Law and that we were not accepting this payment as "full and final settlement" but we would retain this payment as a 'payment on account' (part payment) for the full amount sought and that we would continue to pursue the full amount of the charges (plus interest). The person at the call centre was very unwilling to help any further and merely (robotically) read out a passage from HBOS's policy statement.

However, shortly after this phone call, an announcement was made that several banks and a building society were going to take a test case to the High Court in England. Ever since this announcement the banks have refused to discuss our ongoing claim because they say that they have the authority from the Financial Ombudsman to freeze all claims until after the test case is decided (which we are told may not be until sometime next year).

The bank have also now sent us out letters saying that we need to sign an enclosed piece of paper which says: (1) we accept the payment of £1660 as full & final settlement (and that is the end of our claim) or (2) we do not accept the payment as full and final settlement and that the payment should be returned to them!!!

:mad:

We do not know what to do or where to turn, therefore could you please tell us the answers to the following questions:

(1) Does a pending test case in an ENGLISH court affect the banks ability to freeze our SCOTTISH claim and refused to deal with it until a decision in the English test case is reached?

(2) Does the fact that we are continuing to suffer severe financial hardship and difficulty prevent the Bank from freezing/refusing to deal with our claim? We are still being charged bank charges regularly because of difficulties managing our large overdraft! (We were told that a condition of the Ombudsman's decision to allow banks to freeze claims/complaints excluded those complaints and claims from people who were in financial difficulties. Is this true?)

(3) Should we sign the declaration either accepting or refusing to settle in "full & final settlement" or can we just ignore it completely?

(4) Are we obliged to return this (partial) payment of £1660 to the Bank before we can pursue/proceed with this claim further?

(5) What should be our next step? Because the people at the Bank's call centres only ever want to read from a "HBOS policy statement" each and every time you contact them to progress the claim?

(6) Should we raise a court action at our local Scottish Sheriff Court or will this case be sisted immediately, pending the outcome of this upcoming English test case?

(7) If we DO raise a court action at our local Sheriff Court:

• Is it an Ordinary or Summary action?
• How much does it cost to raise the action?
• Should we raise a court action for the full amount or just the outstanding amount?
• How do we fill out our court action forms or where do we get advice with regards to what to write in them?
• If raising a court action should we include the £800 approx interest accumulated since the money was taken from our bank account or does your interest only start to accumulate from the day you raise a court action?
• If we did raise a court action, does the 5 year time bar wipe out any charges that were taken from our bank account more than 5 years before the date we raised a court action on or from the date we started our complaint with the Bank? We starting this complaint with the Bank away back in January/February 2007 and therefore a small number of the charges were taken out of account between February 2002-July 2002 which are now more than 5 years old!

I appreciate that this posting contains a lot of questions but I think a lot of people will be in the same position as us and are desperate for help! The vast majority of what little advise is available on this topic (subsequent to this test case announcement) is all based on the position in England, where as the position in Scotland is in desperate need of clarification in terns of SCOTTISH claimants who are claiming again Scottish or UK wide banks!

Please help us!!!! We would be very appreciative of any advise or help people can give us!

Thanks

GC-Scotland

owengregory6

Martin, can you help your Scottish viewers please.

Edinburghlass_2

As regards what is happening in Scottish Courts regarding the test case, please read the Govan Law Centre for legal information and in particular this on Grounds to Opposing Sisting...

http://www.govanlc.com/sisted.pdf

As regards starting a claim at your local Sheriff Court, you'll find most of the information you need in the Reclaim Help Thread, linked in my signature, where you'll find a link to court costs and details of your Particulars of Claim. Your local court will help you with the forms.

Any older charges from 5 years before the time you file your claim will be time barred and as the interest is only awarded by the court it does not form part of your claim.

Please read Martin's article regarding "goodwill gestures" here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/oft-bank-charges

owengregory6

Thanks,

So if we take the banks to court in Scotland we will be successful?