issued a County Court claim

meer53

puglover99 wrote: »

What a bunch of muppets

Totally pathetic. Martin Lewis sort your members out

Oh, the irony .........

magpiecottage

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

BCOBS itself is an industry code. It's not (unless I'm mistaken) a legal statute.

While some of the content maybe covered in other legal statutes (search for Payment Services Regulations) I can't see how you can successfully sue for a breach of BCOBS itself.

FCA Sourcebooks do have the force of law. In particular anything that says "R" after it is a rule. (A "G" is guidance and "E" is evidential - i.e. complying with it is considered as evidence that a rule is being met, or otherwise).

You could use BCOBS to explain to the court how the bank was meant to act but didn't. That would help the court to ascertain why you believe they are in breach of contract and how you have suffered a detrimental effect

Indeed

You may be wasting your time there. But if it makes you feel better ... what happened when you went to the FOS?

And there is the crux of the matter.

If a complaint is upheld by an Ombudsman (as opposed to an adjudicator) and accepted by the complainant within a specified time limit, it becomes an enforcible debt in its own right. If the business does not pay up, a court will only need to see evidence that the Ombudsman's decision was accepted in time to find against the business if it has not been settled.

On the other hand, if the Ombudsman has rejected the complaint and the consumer has rejected that decision (or at least not accepted it) then they can still take the business to court. However, as one of my clients recently warned one of its now former customers, if the matter goes to court at that stage, they can produce the Ombudsman's decision as evidence that the case should not be taken further. The court is likely to take that as a "steer".

The consumer is also now beyond regulated complaint route which (for them) was free of charge and therefore risks a counterclaim from the business.