Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

[dannyski]

Hello, I tried using the form but I keep getting an error message about the message being too short so here is the requested information:

Date received: 03rd Sept 2015
Creditor: Symetric Systems t/a bank smart
Solicitor: None
Particulars:
1. £6103 for claims management services supplied by the claimant to or for the defendant at the request of the defendant particulars of which have been supplied to the defendant.
2. The claimant also claims the sum of £80 in respect of debt collection agent fees, pursuant to the claimants terms of business.
3. The claimant claims the further sum of £1765 in respect of statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the county court act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year.
4. The claimant claims the further sum of £180 in respect of legal and other administration costs pursuant to the claimants terms of business.
5. The claimant also claims statutory interest at the above rate of £1.36 from the date hereof to payment or judgement whichever is the sooner.
6. Costs.

Aprox claim is £8583

Reason: PPI claim

I have completed the acknowledgement of service on the 10th Sept 2015

The debt is not statute barred.


Other information:
Contrary to what they have written in part 1 of the particulars, no particulars have been supplied. I enquired with this company years ago about PPI claims but ended up dealing with the bank directly and concluded my PPI claim back in early 2013 I think. I do not remember signing a contract or agreement. I literally have no paper work from them and the first thing I have heard about this is this court letter. I acknowledged the claim on the 10th September.

Thanks in advance.

[nemesis45]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Your defence will hinge on what if any services Symetric Systems actually provided and the terms and conditions of any signed agreement between you and them.
Was this a " no win no fee" deal?

I'm guessing that SS actually made contact with creditor initially and then did little or nothing more and now the " creditor " has informed SS that the claim has been settled?

nem

[dannyski]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Hello,
To be entirely honest, I don't remember as it was so long ago- I remember talking to them on the phone and that was about it. I'm almost certain that it would have been a 'no win no fee' or I would not have entertained it in the first place.

Unfortunately that's all I know - the question I have is what do I put down as my defence? What I have written above is literally all I know about the situation.

[dannyski]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

[MENTION=332]EXC[/MENTION] may be able to help: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...art#post575915

[EXC]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

I'll ask [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] to take a look re your defence. She might suggest doing a few things before entering one.

In the meantime:

1) So you acknowledged the claim on 10 September, have you received anything from the court since?

2) What was the settlement amount you received from the bank and do you have any paperwork relating to it?

3) Are you saying that you received nothing in writing from Bank Smart from the time you first spoke to them to receiving the claim?

[Amethyst]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Gosh, Yes I would be asking for a copy of the contract, terms and evidence that you did actually sign up with this company. We're a bit short on time though. Is the claim direct from them or through a solicitors firm?

Have you checked your emails for anything from this company since speaking to them on the phone ?

What's the issue date on your claim form ? approx wise if you received it on the 3rd Sept your defence is due 1st Oct so we need to get a chivvy on.

your defence will need to be pretty much either no contract or unfair terms, depending.

As EXC says do you have anything in writing from the bank, or FOS, or letters you sent the bank etc to get the refund ?

[dannyski]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Thanks for your replies, to answer your questions,

• I have received nothing from the court since my acknowledgement of claim (which I filed on-line).
• The claim is direct from them.
• The date on the form is 3rd September, so yes will need to file a defence over the next day or so.
• There is nothing in my email from them, but if they do have an email address it may well be a different one to the one that I am using now,
• I personally have nothing from the bank, I'm not big on keeping paperwork but at the time the bank manager was an old friend of mine and dealt with much of it for me - he is no longer with the bank though. When I got the money back (about 13k in total) it was mostly organised over the phone, the bank rang me (I remember as I was away and it was a Friday afternoon) and then sent me a cheque - a while later they contacted me again and made another payment.

I know the above is not particularly helpful, I wish I could tell you more - I'm sure at the time I would have had letters from the bank but they would have quickly been filed in the fire for as far as I was concerned I had the money back and that was that. Oops.

[Amethyst]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Ok.

Have you communicated with Bank Smart at all since receiving the claim ?

Sounds like it's going to be an out and out denial of having any agreement with Bank Smart.

They will have a copy if you signed a contract or letter of authority though so really think back if you signed anything and sent it back in the post. They couldn't have acted at all for you in reclaiming PPI without a written letter of authority.

The question is, how did BankSmart know you had received a refund ?

Particulars:
1. £6103 for claims management services supplied by the claimant to or for the defendant at the request of the defendant particulars of which have been supplied to the defendant.
2. The claimant also claims the sum of £80 in respect of debt collection agent fees, pursuant to the claimants terms of business.
3. The claimant claims the further sum of £1765 in respect of statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the county court act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year.
4. The claimant claims the further sum of £180 in respect of legal and other administration costs pursuant to the claimants terms of business.
5. The claimant also claims statutory interest at the above rate of £1.36 from the date hereof to payment or judgement whichever is the sooner.
6. Costs.

mmmmm just thinking aloud

1: Save where otherwise accepted within this Defence the Particulars of Claim are denied. In particular the Defendant denies entering in to an effective and binding Agreement with the Claimant as alleged by the Particulars of Claim, or at all.

2. The Defendant is not aware of owing any sum to the Claimant. the Claimant's very brief particulars give no breakdown of how the sum has been calculated or to what it refers.

3. Paragraph 1 of the Particulars of Claim states 'particulars of which have been supplied to the defendant' - this is denied. No information, or indeed contact, has been received from the Claimant prior, or subsequently, to the Defendant's receipt of this claim.

4. The Defendant denies having received any Claims Management Services from the Claimant as claimed. Therefore the Defendant also denies paragraphs 3.4 and 5 of the Particulars of Claim.

5. The Claimant has not produced any documentation or evidence prior to bringing this claim therefore the Defendant has not had opportunity to inspect any alleged contracts or agreements if such exist.

6. The Defendant denies the Claimant is entitled to the relief as claims, or at all.

strike request?

[dannyski]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Thank you, that very nicely sums up my defence - and in legal terminology that I would not have gotten close to! Should I put on the end that I invite the court to strike out the claim?

As for them knowing about that the claim had been settled, I have not got a clue - I guess we might find out if this ends up in court.

[EXC]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Thank you, that very nicely sums up my defence - and in legal terminology that I would not have gotten close to! Should I put on the end that I invite the court to strike out the claim?

I think so but best that [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] agrees.

It might be worth adding a paragraph stating that until you had received the claim form you had had no communication from Bank Smart previously, including a letter before action.

[EXC]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

By the way it's worth saying that if you did sign something with Bank Smart, this is the term in their contracts that they'll be relying on. It means that they can charge you regardless of who actually made the PPI claim. We think this unfair.

[Amethyst]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Bit of historical reading http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...over-t-amp-c-s

I think you should give your bank a call in the morning (or now) and ask them how Bank Smart were made aware of your PPI claim details when you have not signed any authority for them to share that information. If they say they have such, ask them to fax it over ( or whatever people do these days - email lol)


Silly question, but you got the claim 25 days ago.... have you done any digging at all in that time ? It'd obviously be better to have sent requests for info off with at least 7 days to spare so we could put that in the defence. It's sortable, but we're running blind now.

Sadly lots of people forget filling in these bloody banksmart forms, we've had a number of issues with them lately from people who signed up in 2011 or so and completely forgot.

Really need as much knowledge as poss before bunging in any defence. If it turns out you did sign up legitimately and they had Third Party Authorisation you might then have to amend your defence ( £155 down the pan) and switch to the unfair terms argument ( which isn't guaranteed as its a new argument with this contract really - so risking (limited) costs )

[dannyski]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

That was an interesting read.

I gave the bank a call today but as I no longer bank with them, I have to put my request in writing or go into a branch with some ID - which I will try and do tomorrow - there is also some confusion as to whether I need to go to TSB or Lloyds...this'll be fun...

As for digging, I have been through what little paperwork that I do have, non of which relates to Bank Smart, and tried to recall in my head what happened but unfortunately I've also been to Crete during that time so this couldn't have come at a worst time!

I do think that I have something to add though - now I think about it (and discussed it with the wife), I don't actually think that I contacted Bank Smart about this PPI claim - I seem to recall contacting them before 2013, maybe even by a couple of years, about a Credit Card PPI claim of around £1700. I know - this makes the situation even more murky...

I'm willing to pay the £155 if the defence needs changing at a later date - I am 100% in Inspector Morse mode now over this and will get to the bottom of it, starting with the banks themselves!

[Amethyst]

Re: Symetric Systems T/A Bank Smart

Ahh do you think you signed a contract with them for that Credit Card PPI claim - and did you get a refund from that claim ? We have had this kind o issue before - BankSmart seem to think if you sign up with them for one claim they have rights of 35% of any claim you ever make for anything, ever.

If you're happy to amend later then go with the 'don't know what you're talking about' defence to get something in and prevent a default judgment, and dig about in the background while they have their 28 days to reply.