Barclays changed the mandates on my business account without any permission

kaydeec

Hi,

Hope this is the right section to post this in, sorry if it isn't!

Really need some advice what to do about my bank account, my situation is this:

I had a Barclays business account, me and one other person were the only signatories/mandates on this account, one day I put my card in the cash machine and it retained my card. I went into Barclays and they said my name is not associated with that account at all. Shocked and confused we inquired further and Barclays informed us that a man (someone else who had been a part of the business that the account was set up for) had written a letter to Barclays with letter headed paper saying that me and the other mandate are now 'un-contactable' and he is to be made the new, and only, mandate of this business account. He sent it with a mandate change form he had filled out, and Barclays, upon receiving this letter, simply removed me and the other person's name from the account and handed this account over to the individual who wrote the letter!

We already knew this man wanted his hands on the money so had been into Barclays a few weeks back and asked them that because this man was part of the business, even though he's not a signatory of the business account, would he have any chance of getting his hands on this account (or the money in the account). They told us in no uncertain terms that he would basically be laughed out of the bank if he tried to claim any sort of rights to an account that wan't in his name and that he wasn't the mandate of.

But then soon after that, he wrote the letter and got his hands on it!

The bank contacted their fraud team thinking he may have forged our signatures on the mandate change form, but it ended in the bank telling us that they didn't require our signatures for this mandate change to be made because he had provided them with sufficient things to make the change without needing to ask the current madate's at all (Can that seriously be true?!)

So they've said no fault has been made and it's case closed as far as they're concerned! How can this be right? Surely it's not.?

jonesMUFCforever

I am confused.
You say that you and one other party formed the business but then you say ''we ''contacted Barclays after your card was retained.
Who were the signatories on the account - was the mandate either to sign? Were there any restrictions that required both of you to sign eg loan application or overdraft?

I cannot specifically comment on Barclays policies but I'm pretty sure that other banks would have requested a brand new mandate for someone to take over an account and it certainly would have required both existing signatories.

Who is this mysterious person who wrote the letter?

Me thinks we haven't had both sides of this story.

kaydeec

Yes me and the other signatory contacted the bank when my card was retained and they'd told us neither of our names are associated with the account anymore, even though last time we checked the account was in our names.

the man who wrote the letter, as i said initially, is just another person from the business that the account was set up for. but after the business closed, he told us he wanted to get his hands on the money and keep it, whereas me and the other mandate planned to pay outstanding bills with the left money to people the business owed.

TheBanker

What type of business is it, sole trader, limited company or something else?

If a limited company, what are the roles of you, the other ex-signatory and the new signatory. Are any/all of you directors? Is one of you the Company Secretary? And have you checked with Companies House to make sure their records haven't also been changed?

ChiefGrasscutter

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I cannot specifically comment on Barclays policies but I'm pretty sure that other banks would have requested a brand new mandate for someone to take over an account and it certainly would have required both existing signatories.
.

Correct:
I have a Barclays Mandate change form for our club in front of me.
A change of mandate form (as they call it) is required for adding or removing of an authorised signatory and this form has to be signed by two of the existing signatories.
An Appointment of Bankers form (which I do not have) is used instead if you need to totally change the signatories on an account.

Any new signatories appointed under the change of mandate form also need to fill in a personal ID form with lots of details required for full ID checks.
Edit - spelling correction