Removing wife from bank account

Rocco13

A friend is going through a messy divorce and her soon to be ex husband has removed her from a joint bank account with Barclays without her permission and is diverting assets. Barclays state they only keep records for 6 months which I find hard to believe, is this correct or does she go the FCA or demand the document from Barclays again?

MX5huggy

What document? 

Daliah

He didn't need her permission to remove her from the account. It's in the T&Cs she agreed to when her name was added to the account that "any one of you can give us any instructions about your joint account".

The FCA will not play a role in this as it does not deal with consumer complaints. You probably mean the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which I doubt will do anything as they can only get involved if a formal complaint to the bank has been unsuccessful. As your friend is no longer an account holder, she is unlikely to be able to raise a complaint about the account.

Presumably your friend has a solicitor who handles her side of the divorce? The solicitor will know what her legal rights are to the funds that are/were in the account.

badger09

If she hasn't already done so, your friend should immediately register a dispute on the account with Barclays. 

tacpot12

I find it hard to beleive that Barclays don't keep records of their customer instructions for more than 6 months. It's very risky seeing as you have six years to sue them for any mistakes they make, so they are not keeping evidence they might need to defend themselves. Your friend is a case in point; is she has a valid complaint, Barclays have no evidence to refute her claims. Sounds like she is being fobbed off.

Daliah

badger09 said:

If she hasn't already done so, your friend should immediately register a dispute on the account with Barclays. 

It appears she has missed that boat as she is no longer named on the account. She really needs her solicitor's advice.

Thrugelmir

The account should have been frozen. 

Daliah

horse door stable bolted close

The T&Cs are clear. Either account holder can give any instruction. 

Grenage

Barclays keep records for a long time.  I submitted a data request and received 23 years of transactions and correspondence going back to when I opened the account.

It weighed a ton.

tacpot12

Daliah said:

horse door stable bolted close

The T&Cs are clear. Either account holder can give any instruction. 

I'd interpret this as either account holder can give any legal instruction. You can't really expect that Bank to hid behind their T&Cs if any account holder instructed them to steal money from another customer. 

The husband could have instructed the account to be closed, but by instructing the removal of the other joint holder, they are potential stealing the money. It's only theft if they don't intend to share it according to the divorce settlement. So I think probably Barclays have not accepted an illegal instruction from the husband, but he owes your friend an equitable share in the contents of the joint account.

She should sort this out via her solicitor, not Barclays. 

John464

tacpot12 said:

Daliah said:

horse door stable bolted close

The T&Cs are clear. Either account holder can give any instruction. 

by instructing the removal of the other joint holder, they are potential stealing the money.

But they don't need to remove the other account holder to empty the account
'all my worldly goods I thee endow'
means what it says
Either one could take the lot and its not stealing
So don't say it if you don't mean it.