Hi, I'm new round here - Business overdraft and Natwest

[chippy36]

Hi,
This is my first post and after receiving a welcome message from Celestine I thought I should post my first thread here - so I do hope I have got it in the correct area.

The background to all this is that I am a NatWest business customer who is in the property sector. I am looking at my rights in asking the Bank for True copies of agreements that I have had with them and am unsure whether the law is different for business agreements as opposed to consumer agreements.

My overdraft was pulled in 2009 after many years of successful trading as the bank claimed to withdraw its support for property sector businesses.
I was able to switch banks and am still trading however in order to clear the overdraft with NatWest They (NatWest) agreed to a loan facility which was to be used to clear the overdraft.

The loan forms were completed and signed by both myself and the bank.

4 months later the bank reverted to me to ask how I intended to clear the overdraft as the loan that had previously been agreed hadn’t progressed due to “Incorrect documentation”. I feel this is nonsense and am almost sure the gentleman I was dealing with who agreed the loan was overruled by his superiors before the funds were allocated and as such is making lame excuses as to what went wrong

Over the last year I have been negotiating with the bank to no avail and all the time the bank is piling on “unauthorised borrowing charges and interest” amounting to a further£4k on the overdraft.
With negotiations now failed I am intending to write to the FSO to complain and as such have a couple of questions for the forum

1. Am I within my rights to request, and are they obliged to respond with, a true copy or the original overdraft agreement and also a true copy of the loan agreement I signed recently
2. If both I and the bank signed the loan agreement is that agreement binding

I’d like to thank you all in advance for any help or light you can shed on this

[leclerc]

Re: Hi, I'm new round here - Business overdraft and Natwest

Can I asked you whether or not you were asked for further information?
Have you asked the bank whether they requested further information because "incorrect documentation" does not mean that the credit check failed but that there needed to be more information provided?

I would perhaps go down the line of bank error, ie that you made arrangements with NatWest to do a loan to clear the overdraft and that for some reason you were never informed that documentation was missing nor were you ever given the opportunity to provide them. For that reason the charges that were unauthorised should be refunded plus the interest and the loan done correctly and credit scored.

See what they say. Did you ask them the questions I have suggested and did you receive anything in writing? I would get anything in writing so that there is no ambiguity as to what they have said.

[chippy36]

Re: Hi, I'm new round here - Business overdraft and Natwest

Hi Leclerc and thank you for your response.

I apologise the loan was “Incorrectly documented” not “Incorrect documentation”

The loan idea was proposed by me on the phone and a few days later (in which time which I assume credit checks were made) I received a call from the bank agreeing to the loan. Basically I told them that the only way I could clear the overdraft was for them to provide me with a loan which they agreed to do so.

The loan agreement was sent to my local branch (as the business manager I was in discussions with was remotely based) and I was told to call at the bank to sign the form witnessed by the branch staff.

This I did and 4 months later I get a letter asking how I intended to clear the overdraft as the loan that had previously been agreed hadn’t progressed due to “Incorrectly documented”

I initially wrote back asking them to elaborate on this but they haven’t.

I’d also appreciate your thoughts on

1. Am I within my rights to request, and are they obliged to respond with, a true copy or the original overdraft agreement and also a true copy of the loan agreement I signed recently
2.
If both I and the bank signed the loan agreement is that agreement binding

Thanks?

[leclerc]

Re: Hi, I'm new round here - Business overdraft and Natwest

If the agreement was never formally followed through on then I would be surprised about that.

What have the bank said about this loan agreement? It's a bit odd that they waited 4 months before stating to you or writing to you declining it..... I think you have the right to ask the question about what happened with the communication between the bank and yourself in terms of informing you of their decision because had you known there was an issue then you would have sought to rectify it.

The next question is more to do with the ultimate resolution: if they decline the loan today what can you do to clear the overdraft? Would you ask for them to refund charges on the basis that their failure to communicate with you lead to further charges and interest on top of the interest already accruing on the overdraft?