Frozen joint account

DominicG

It appears that being a victim of a frozen joint account is not too uncommon. As the money in the frozen account is jointly owned by the account holders, but if one party is holding the account frozen and will not unfreeze it, is this tantamount to holding the other person to ransom. If all reasonable measures have been taken and yet still one account holder is refusing to give up a fair share of the frozen money, is a possible solution to launch an online money claim for the ransomed funds? This would seek to prove that the unyielding account holder is unreasonably holding the money which is owned by and owed to the account holder seeking to access their half of the money?

elsien

What is the reason that the account is frozen and what steps have you taken with the bank so far?

eskbanker

DominicG said:

It appears that being a victim of a frozen joint account is not too uncommon. As the money in the frozen account is jointly owned by the account holders, but if one party is holding the account frozen and will not unfreeze it, is this tantamount to holding the other person to ransom. If all reasonable measures have been taken and yet still one account holder is refusing to give up a fair share of the frozen money, is a possible solution to launch an online money claim for the ransomed funds? This would seek to prove that the unyielding account holder is unreasonably holding the money which is owned by and owed to the account holder seeking to access their half of the money?

Personally I can't see such an action succeeding, in that the money is already legally owned by both parties so there's no debt to claim in court, but I'm not a lawyer so you might find a different answer from one of them!

pochisoldi

As I see it, in theory you are going to court to force someone to do something, which isn't a money claim.
However the reality is that you are going to court to obtain a sum of money to which you are entitled, which sounds like a money claim to me.
Another way of looking at it, is that the person who is not permitting the hold to be released has created a debt to the other account holder(s), and as such the debt would be enforceable in the courts.

Any money claim would really be a court room discussion on who owes who and how much.
I would suggest a letter before action (LBA) towards the hold out.
You might want to warn the other party that if court action is started, the fee will be £x.
If there is a dispute about how much, and the other party is not permitting any payout then state that the court fee "would be £y if the money is not in dispute not released within 7 days, of £x if no money is released"

The letter before action should be accompanied by the paperwork that needs signing to release the money, which should be returned to whoever sends the LBA. Note that the other parties should only sign after the form is returned, lest the form gets "edited" and submitted by the holdout.

PochiSoldi

DominicG

elsien said:

What is the reason that the account is frozen and what steps have you taken with the bank so far?

Frozen after a disagreement over a withdrawal. Subsequent written agreement to divide remainder is not being honoured. Bank is moot.

km1500

the bank will freeze the accounts until both account holders agree on what needs to happen

you are right in that court proceedings are the way to go if agreement isn't reached but it wouldn't be a money claim it would be the high court