Can I sue this Payday Loan's Company?

Salvaticus

Hi All,
Hopefully I am posting this in the correct section of the forum.

I had a mountain of debt and, over years, and with the great help of PayPlan (THANK YOU GUYS!), I am now officially debt free... well two years ago even, and still am.

A company has been consistently emailing me periodically over the past few years with demanding/ worrying emails, even though the balance was settled. I have asked for, and had them confirm (on numerous occasions) that it was a computer error and have asked and had confirmed they will remove my contact details and never contact me again.

This has happen around 6 or more times over the past two years (emails to back it all up). Recently, they then "sold" the debt, which had already been settled (and I have written confirmation from them, and corresponding "settled" status on credit file... but they "sold" my details, including my personal contact details to another company.

I hit the roof. Well, to be honest, I was in tears. All the pain and worry came flooding back, I couldn't sleep, my partner thought I'd gone back to my bad ways...

I emailed everything with proof emails backing it up to PayPlan, all company email addresses and also the Financial Obmudsman Service. (FOS)

This morning FOS emailed to say they'd been in touch with the company in question and had agreed a compensation of £100 for the inconvenience and a promise not to contact me again.

My question, in case anyone can help, or sign-post me in the right direction, is;

1) Can I sue the loans company for harrasment
2) Can I sue them for breach of Data Protection Laws

If anyone could help, I would be VERY grateful!

Also - good luck to everyone taking positive steps to get themselves out of debt!! :T

adindas

Salvaticus wrote: »

Hi All,
Hopefully I am posting this in the correct section of the forum.

I had a mountain of debt and, over years, and with the great help of PayPlan (THANK YOU GUYS!), I am now officially debt free... well two years ago even, and still am.

A company has been consistently emailing me periodically over the past few years with demanding/ worrying emails, even though the balance was settled. I have asked for, and had them confirm (on numerous occasions) that it was a computer error and have asked and had confirmed they will remove my contact details and never contact me again.

This has happen around 6 or more times over the past two years (emails to back it all up). Recently, they then "sold" the debt, which had already been settled (and I have written confirmation from them, and corresponding "settled" status on credit file... but they "sold" my details, including my personal contact details to another company.

I hit the roof. Well, to be honest, I was in tears. All the pain and worry came flooding back, I couldn't sleep, my partner thought I'd gone back to my bad ways...

I emailed everything with proof emails backing it up to PayPlan, all company email addresses and also the Financial Obmudsman Service. (FOS)

This morning FOS emailed to say they'd been in touch with the company in question and had agreed a compensation of £100 for the inconvenience and a promise not to contact me again.

My question, in case anyone can help, or sign-post me in the right direction, is;

1) Can I sue the loans company for harrasment
2) Can I sue them for breach of Data Protection Laws

If anyone could help, I would be VERY grateful!

Also - good luck to everyone taking positive steps to get themselves out of debt!! :T

I have not done that before but it seems for the case like, you could capitalize it,

If I were you I would renegotiate the compensation with estimation of how much it has costed to sort out this problem. This could be your professional time, and probably as you said Harassment and breach of Data protection. For this scale of trouble I would aim for £1000+ compensation. £100 sounds too cheap for the trouble they have caused you.

lincroft1710

Do you realise how much it would cost to bring an action against a company and if you lose, how much you could end up paying for their costs? You cannot use MCOL for this type of claim.

lovinituk

lincroft1710 wrote: »

You cannot use MCOL for this type of claim.

Why not? Small claims is for claims under £10000. Someone on the motoring sub forum successfully sued a parking company for breach of data protection through small claims court. And costs are not usually awarded in small claims court.

Please note that does not mean I think the OP has a case!

Salvaticus

adindas wrote: »

I have not done that before but it seems for the case like, you could capitalize it,

If I were you I would renegotiate the compensation with estimation of how much it has costed to sort out this problem. This could be your professional time, and probably as you said Harassment and breach of Data protection. For this scale of trouble I would aim for £1000+ compensation. £100 sounds too cheap for the trouble they have caused you.

Thank you for this. Yes, I have gone back to the person mediating asking them to review and revise their offer of compensation, reminding them of their breaches of both Data Protection Laws and FCA Laws (and their written admission/ apology to this).

I've asked them to revise their offer, otherwise I will look to do down the route of them being fined for their breaches, which as I understand it, I would not personally benefit from financially, but they would (if found guilty), be facing a much higher bill.

Thank you indeed for your input!

Salvaticus

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Do you realise how much it would cost to bring an action against a company and if you lose, how much you could end up paying for their costs? You cannot use MCOL for this type of claim.

Hi! Yes, I believe I would have to either go on a "no win, no fee" basis or foot the bill myself. Through a small claims court, the costs wouldn't be too much for me personally I don't think, but am still researching this.

It's the fact that the Financial Services Ombudsman have made an "opinion" on this, in my favour... that gives me hope that I can really tighten the screws on these unscrupulous people. Thanks for your input too

bargainbetty

To sue you would need to prove intent, rather than administrative failure/error, which is what this most likely comes down to. You will need to demonstrate and prove your active losses. Since the intervention of the FOS has obtained a confirmation that the error has been rectified and you have been offered a sum of compensation, what are your actual losses? You can rarely claim for time spent, unless it has caused you to miss days of work - you can't just add up the hours and stick a number on it.

If you bring a case yourself, you will struggle to find a single solicitor who will encourage you to incur costs for what would be a minimal increase in compensation.

Lincroft1710is correct - you will incur a lot of costs to get very little back.

You could ask the FOS to increase the compensation, which might get a bit extra.

Edit: Then, you can report them to the ICO and get them in trouble anyway.

Salvaticus

bargainbetty wrote: »

To sue you would need to prove intent, rather than administrative failure/error, which is what this most likely comes down to. You will need to demonstrate and prove your active losses. Since the intervention of the FOS has obtained a confirmation that the error has been rectified and you have been offered a sum of compensation, what are your actual losses? You can rarely claim for time spent, unless it has caused you to miss days of work - you can't just add up the hours and stick a number on it.

If you bring a case yourself, you will struggle to find a single solicitor who will encourage you to incur costs for what would be a minimal increase in compensation.

Lincroft1710is correct - you will incur a lot of costs to get very little back.

You could ask the FOS to increase the compensation, which might get a bit extra.

Edit: Then, you can report them to the ICO and get them in trouble anyway.

Thank you so much for this. The kind lady from the FOS just called me and has agreed to forward on my email asking them to come back with a better offer and if I don't agree with it, I'll go down the FCA / DPA breaches route... sure I might not see a penny for any fines, but at least it might stop them doing it to others.

I'll be sure to update this thread with any response from the loans company in question and what route I take from there.

Thanks everyone for your input and advice (and so quickly too!) Thanks!

adindas

OP I think you would better speak to professional advice from CAB.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/small-claims/

And ask for their professional opinion.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court

Small claim court is not that expensive and you could submit it online.
https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees

And they will be thinking twice not to award you £1000 (say) for trouble they will get if you take them to small claim court.

If you read this forum regularly, reasonable number of people here get about £100 compensation from the bank just because of a small hassles. £100 compensation for such trouble they have caused you is in insult.

Salvaticus

Thanks for the link to the Small Claims Court - I'm asking the kind lady at the FOS to include that in her the email to the loans company... let them scratch their heads and see how much they fancy their chances.

Cheers all!

Arleen

adindas wrote: »

£100 compensation for such trouble they have caused you is in insult.

Luckily court system doesn't work on insults but damages. What has an actual loss you incurred OP? How do you plan to prove it? Heck, how do you plan to prove that they did so intentionally, which is usually a requirement to be awarded any damages in the first place? This isn't a type of case where you can get paid for emotional distress, and that seems to be your only "loss".
They also didn't breach data protection act, at least not in the way you think, and you are getting money as a gesture of good will, with slight hope that you won't complain about it further. But you are not out of anything yourself here.

This isn't a TV show, courts will not give you a bonanza but they are here to only make you square, not better as you were before. So listen to @bargainbetty advice, ask for more compensation and, once you get it, complain to ICO which will get them in trouble.