Allansons LLP - The Mortgage Overpayment Check Went Very Bad

thoughtful123

Cliff Notes:

• Allansons LLP offered to check if I'd overpaid for my Mortgage
• They went bust and a new firm is being thrust upon us, with threats of £4k penalties for non acceptance/compliance
• Let's band together and chip in a few quid to engage a solicitor and manage this collectively, rather than doing this as individuals. (If it goes that far)

Like many hundreds of other people I clicked on an offer last year for a Solicitor Firm "Allansons LLP" to check on a no win no fee basis whether I had paid too much for my mortgage. If I had, they would take a cut of the refund. Nice one I thought.
A bit later on Allansons LLP went in to liquidation following an intervention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for whatever reason (draw your own conclusions here) and another firm of Solicitors (hereafter to be known as the "Good Guys") Gordons LLP were acting on behalf of the SRA were holding on to the case files and distributing them to people if they wanted to pursue their claims with other solicitors. This is 2019. Fast forward to the dystopian nightmare that is 2021, and this is happening. 
The Liquidators (William Anthony Batty and Steven Illes of Anthony Batty and Company LLP) are now writing to people who got involved in this endeavour with Allansons and:

• asking you to instruct a firm of solicitors called Judge Sykes Frixou to continue with your miscalculated mortgage payment claim(s). 

• suggesting that if you do not do so you will be in breach of your agreement with Allansons LLP and liable to pay costs and disbursements, including a case report fee of £4,000.  

• suggesting that even if you have instructed another solicitor to pursue your case, you are still legally bound by the agreement you signed with Allansons LLP and that you should transfer your case to Judge Sykes Frixou.

It is my belief that If you have a contract with "Party A" and "Party A" becomes insolvent, legally that contract cannot be passed to a predetermined company without your authority, with a threat of a £4000 penalty if you do not comply.
So, I am going to get a lawyer engaged, and see where I stand. See what their advice is. I will post their thoughts below (anonymously of course).
But the thought occurs that rather than 100s of us doing the same thing, why not we all chip in a nominal fee, £25 or whatever and fight this legally if it goes beyond a solicitor's letter? Together we are stronger. At this point just leave a comment below and register an interest if you are a (potential) victim and if this thing escalates over the coming weeks we can look at getting a fighting fund together if necessary. . 
I am not a solicitor, I don't give legal advice, but I am happy to coordinate this thing until we find a solicitor to run it for us, should the need arrive of course.
Have yourself a wonderful weekend, and don't let this situation stress you out. 

MWT

thoughtful123 said:

It is my belief that If you have a contract with "Party A" and "Party A" becomes insolvent, legally that contract cannot be passed to a predetermined company without your authority, with a threat of a £4000 penalty if you do not comply.

Even before you involve a lawyer, take a few minutes and read the contract you had with Allansons and see if it permits assignment without your agreement and see what it says about termination penalties...

[Deleted User]

You're far to eager to sign up with random firms at the moment. Slow down, see what you've already agreed to and only sign further contracts once you fully understand what you're entering into.

You're likely to be best with allowing them to continue with the complaint.  The chances of there being any redress are next to zero, and therefore no fee to pay. Just don't take any insurance policies they tell you that you need.  That's how they make their money on these cases, as there is no realistic chance of success.

dunstonh

Like many hundreds of other people I clicked on an offer last year for a Solicitor Firm "Allansons LLP" to check on a no win no fee basis whether I had paid too much for my mortgage. If I had, they would take a cut of the refund. Nice one I thought.

You thought nice one even though a number of the firms that are in this market rarely succeed but end up making money anyway?     

I dont know enough about this firm to say they were doing.  So, my following comments are generic about those that were.... a number of them were using a model where they got mugs to invest in litigation funding.   Typically marketed as a get rich scheme where investors would fund the litigation costs but share the payoffs on successful cases.   To get more investors, they had show that they had lots of potential claimants lined up.   So, they would run scambook facebook adds and the like to get more mugs to sign up for mortgage claims.        The money wasn't in successful mortgage claims as those rarely succeed anyway.  It was taking money off the investors.

Some of the legal companies would also, later in the stage, get people to sign up for legal insurance if the failed.  Some even got a credit agreement in place to pay for that if it (inevitably) failed.

The whole mortgage overpayment or missold mortgage claims side is filled with dodgy companies.

But the thought occurs that rather than 100s of us doing the same thing, why not we all chip in a nominal fee, £25 or whatever and fight this legally if it goes beyond a solicitor's letter?

You really need to be careful what you agree to of scambook in future.   You are just asking for trouble clicking on advert links on there willy nilly.