Tweet
I am looking for help as I do not know where to look!
My husband is being sued by Lloyds for an amount on personal guarantee for business overdraft.
He had a limited company and applied for a business overdraft with Lloyds. This was in 2006. He distinctively remembers avoiding signing a personal guarantee for it.
The original overdraft was for 2 years, and required an extension to be signed in June 2008. There was an extention letter to the company in June 2008 asking for a signature, which was not signed. In June and July of that year there were enough funds in the account to repay the overdraft but the bank did not follow up on its extension letter.
2 months later the company was placed into liquidation. Once they realised this, Lloyds went after personal guarantee pupping pressure on my husband.
He tried to reason with them and took the claim to Ombusdman. The whole process took almost 3 years with various appeals etc but the Ombudsman did not seem to even read the argument, siding with the bank instead.
Last spring Lloyds finally took it to court. My husband's defence was:
Based on the above, in August my husband made a 31.14 request for the missing documents: a more convincing copy of the personal guarantee, the original executed business credit agreement and the signed overdraft extension offer letter. The bank simply ignored this.
He then sent another request last month, saying that if they do not comply within 14 days, he is intending to apply for the claim to be struck out.
2 weeks later he received a strike-out application from Lloyds solicitor via the court. They did not provide any additional documentation, only a long opinion about why they think they are right and that the defence should be struck out. The strike out hearing is later this month.
What does he say in court? We have absolutely no funds for legal representation, so he has to defend himself.
Lloyds Solicitors say that Lloyds has the signed original PG but how can the defendent see this original?
Also, do the document irregularities matter since this is not consumer credit?
Also, they say becuase he was the director of the company and also the guarantor, he is assumed not to require any legal advice.
Is this right? How can a person with only school education and only 2 years of business experience be deemed legally competent to the degree of not requiring any advice?
Also, if the original credit agreement/executed extension do not exist but there is a bank record that the company was using the overdraft, is the debt still valid and PG still triggered?
Sorry for a long post but I just do not know where to look for strategies here.
We obviously do not want a summary judgement based on stuck-out defence, and as a minimum, want a full hearing!
Thank you!
My husband is being sued by Lloyds for an amount on personal guarantee for business overdraft.
He had a limited company and applied for a business overdraft with Lloyds. This was in 2006. He distinctively remembers avoiding signing a personal guarantee for it.
The original overdraft was for 2 years, and required an extension to be signed in June 2008. There was an extention letter to the company in June 2008 asking for a signature, which was not signed. In June and July of that year there were enough funds in the account to repay the overdraft but the bank did not follow up on its extension letter.
2 months later the company was placed into liquidation. Once they realised this, Lloyds went after personal guarantee pupping pressure on my husband.
He tried to reason with them and took the claim to Ombusdman. The whole process took almost 3 years with various appeals etc but the Ombudsman did not seem to even read the argument, siding with the bank instead.
Last spring Lloyds finally took it to court. My husband's defence was:
- the personal guarantee document appears irregular - no initials on pages or numbers, nothing to suggest they are not 4 separate pages
- on ne page it is called "guarantee", on another it is "deed", and it is also an indemnity. The document is confusing and does not comply with banking code for such documents
- as my husband remembers resisting signing the personal guarantee, it is not clear how it was obtained. then internal bank record only starts 17 days after the date on he personal guarantee
- at no point was he advised to take independent legal advice. There is no section in the personal guarantee document suggesting to take legal advice
- the copy of the original business overdraft agreement has not been produced
- the only credit agreement document produced is the overdraft extension letter signed by bank manager with no other signatures
Based on the above, in August my husband made a 31.14 request for the missing documents: a more convincing copy of the personal guarantee, the original executed business credit agreement and the signed overdraft extension offer letter. The bank simply ignored this.
He then sent another request last month, saying that if they do not comply within 14 days, he is intending to apply for the claim to be struck out.
2 weeks later he received a strike-out application from Lloyds solicitor via the court. They did not provide any additional documentation, only a long opinion about why they think they are right and that the defence should be struck out. The strike out hearing is later this month.
What does he say in court? We have absolutely no funds for legal representation, so he has to defend himself.
Lloyds Solicitors say that Lloyds has the signed original PG but how can the defendent see this original?
Also, do the document irregularities matter since this is not consumer credit?
Also, they say becuase he was the director of the company and also the guarantor, he is assumed not to require any legal advice.
Is this right? How can a person with only school education and only 2 years of business experience be deemed legally competent to the degree of not requiring any advice?
Also, if the original credit agreement/executed extension do not exist but there is a bank record that the company was using the overdraft, is the debt still valid and PG still triggered?
Sorry for a long post but I just do not know where to look for strategies here.
We obviously do not want a summary judgement based on stuck-out defence, and as a minimum, want a full hearing!
Thank you!
Comment