Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

[colsal2001]

I have been sending letters to Halifax (Loan Officer) since 2013 requesting a full refund of my PPI payments made on this loan plus interest. I have copies of my letters and also copies of the Proof of Postage which I completed every time I sent him a letter. All my letters were ignored. Original loan (including interest) was around £22,000) and was taken out in 2006. I never wanted PPI but was told at the time that I had more chance of getting the loan if PPI was taken out. I was self-employed at the time. I did fall on hard times and struggled to make payments. The loan now stands at £8741.46. Quite a large amount has been paid which included the PPI payments I made. Since Restons entered a claim against me the amount now outstanding including Court fees is £9,251.46. My various letters to Halifax went unanswered in 2013 and 2014. I received correspondence from Capquest originally and explained to them that I was waiting for Halifax to respond to me about the refund of my PPI payments. They put the matter on hold on the 7 August 2013 whilst they took instructions. I received a letter from Halifax, Senior manager, Credit Operations in October 2013 stating that as they had not been able to agree a suitable repayment plan with me they have transferred the matter to Westcot Credit Services. Not once has the Senior Manager ever acknowledged my request for the return of PPI payments made plus interest. I wrote to him again on the 12 Feb 2014 stating I was still waiting to hear from him re: PPI mis-sold to me. I never received a response. Then in December 2014 I received a letter from Restons threatening Court action if I did not make payment in full. I wrote to Restons again explaining the above. In January 2015 they entered Court action against me. I filed a Defence stating the above and attaching all letters and proof of postage to the Loans Manager at Halifax. It appears that Restons are rather unhappy that I have entered such a Defence. I received a letter dated 11 February 2015 from Restons asking me to withdraw my defence and attaching an Admission form. Their reasons are: "We are aware that you have filed a Defence to the Claim issued against you, whereby you allege that this account was in a PPI dispute with Halifax prior to the assignment. We can confirm that all PPI complaints should be directed to the original creditor, Halifax. PPI is a separate issue and if a complaint is upheld the original creditor will refund the policy, it will not be deducted from the balance of this claim". I do not know anyone who has received a cheque for return of PPI when an alleged debt is partially outstanding. Everyone I have spoken to says it was offset against the outstanding amount. Indeed my father in law owed money to Abbey National for a credit card. He then noticed he had been paying PPI on the credit card. Abbey acknowledged this and reduced the outstanding amount by offsetting the PPI payments he had made (plus interest). I made 2 telephone calls today to 2 different banks. They both confirmed that if PPI payments were returned to a customer who had an amount outstanding on a loan, credit card etc they would not send the PPI payments to the customer but would offset the amount against the outstanding amount. My question is why do Restons think differently. They know I would not receive a cheque. Let's face it just getting Halifax to acknowledge my PPI claim would be a miracle. I want to write back to Restons but I am not quite sure what I can say. Is there anything I can send them to prove they are wrong in their assumption. Incidentally when I filed the Defence I also sent copies of all letters to the Managing Director at Halifax. I have not received a response. I also submitted an official complaint about the Halifax Loan Officer. It would appear that when Halifax sold this alleged debt to Cabot Financial they never told them I was requesting a refund of the PPI payments I had made. I think Cabot are a little unhappy. We are talking about quite a lot of money in PPI payments plus interest. Any help you could give me regarding a response to Restons would be very much appreciated. Thank you

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

With regards to PPI refunds when debts are sold on sometimes people do receive a cheque for the refund, last night I posted on a thread where the OP had received a cheque so it's not unheard of. PPI has to be refunded by the original creditor who mis sold it, not the debt purchaser, Restons are right in that respect.

Would the potential PPI refund clear the outstanding balance? Was PPI the only argument you used in your defence?

After complaining to the Halifax, have you taken your complaint to the FOS? That's always the next step.

Just because Restons have written asking you to withdraw your defence it doesn't mean you have to comply with the request, however, it would be good to have more details to assess your chances of winning this one. The claim is below £10k, isn't it? If so, it will be in small claims, usually no costs involved.

[colsal2001]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

Hi Flaming Parrot, Thank you so much for your response. My above post was submitted some time ago and I have just submitted a new post, although not on this post. PPI was the only defence I used but after reading some posts in the forum maybe I should have asked for documentation in my defence also. If you read my other post you might understand my problem more. When I sent my defence to the Court I also wrote to the Managing Director at Halifax. After nearly a month I have received a response from their PPI department explaining they are looking into the matter. The original loan was for £15,000 plus interest, circa approx. £22,000. I managed to get it down to around £8,700 but fell on hard times (self employed). Now that Restons have issued a claim obviously Court costs have been added. I have no idea how much I have paid in PPI payments, I imagine quite a lot. It would certainly significantly reduce the amount outstanding. Restons keep writing. I returned their Admission 2 weeks ago saying I would be completing the same. They have written again today threatening that if I do not send them the Admission within 14 days they will be making an application to strike out the defence and then seek an order that I pay their costs associated with that application. As can be seen from my post from around an hour ago (not sure if you can see it) I want to complain about Halifax as I had been sending them letters in 2013 and 2014 regarding PPI and asking them to deal. All letters were totally ignored (I have copy letters and proof of posting). This was way before Cabot bought the debt.

Thank you for your time.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

Hi Flaming Parrot, Thank you so much for your response. My above post was submitted some time ago and I have just submitted a new post, although not on this post. PPI was the only defence I used but after reading some posts in the forum maybe I should have asked for documentation in my defence also.

I agree, you should have, and that's the reason I asked whether the PPI refund would clear the balance. If that's your only argument, and you don't even know how much it is, it could be argued that you have no argument to dispute the difference. It could also be argued that you are likely to receive a refund directly from the OC which you will be free to do with as you wish and Cabot would be left high and dry.

If you read my other post you might understand my problem more.

I read your other post first and when I saw you had posted earlier, I went to look for your previous post because you mentioned a court claim.

When I sent my defence to the Court I also wrote to the Managing Director at Halifax. After nearly a month I have received a response from their PPI department explaining they are looking into the matter. The original loan was for £15,000 plus interest, circa approx. £22,000. I managed to get it down to around £8,700 but fell on hard times (self employed). Now that Restons have issued a claim obviously Court costs have been added.

Yes, but the claim is still below £10k, isn't it? So there isn't likely to be cost implications.

I have no idea how much I have paid in PPI payments, I imagine quite a lot. It would certainly significantly reduce the amount outstanding.

Have you not sent a SAR to the Halifax to get all statements and calculate how much you've paid and how much redress you should be looking at? Most people do that when they intend to reclaim. There are some spreadsheets on this site to calculate potential redress value but you need to know how much you've paid to start with. If this was a lump sum loan as opposed to a credit card, it should be easier to calculate the amount of PPI as it's often specified on your credit agreement, as in "total amount of credit = £yxz, PPI = £abc". To comply with the Consumer Credit Act it should be clearly specified. Obviously if you didn't pay off the loan in full you wouldn't have paid the stipulated amount of PPI in full either, but it should aid your calculations to have that figure.

Did you ever send a CCA request for a copy of your agreement? If not, you may wish to do so now, if only for the sake of finding out how much PPI was applied to the loan to start with. As they've not obtained judgment on this account, I'd say they still have a duty to respond to a CCA request.

Restons keep writing. I returned their Admission 2 weeks ago saying I would be completing the same. They have written again today threatening that if I do not send them the Admission within 14 days they will be making an application to strike out the defence and then seek an order that I pay their costs associated with that application.

Are you saying you intend to complete an admission form? :scared: You do know if you did that, you'd end up with a CCJ for the full amount claimed!

[colsal2001]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

Hi, Sorry the last paragraph should have read "I would NOT be completing the Admission form". Do I have any case if I took this to the Financial Ombudsman. I am only in this situation because Halifax completely ignored all my letters. They seemed hell bent on putting it over to debt Collectors rather than responding to any of my correspondence. I don't want the FO's involvement re: PPI but I am very annoyed that Halifax would not deal with me direct, despite my efforts. When I wrote to the Managing Director at Halifax last month attaching all copy correspondence I stated it was an official complaint against their Loan Manager for his total ignorance to my correspondence. I have received no response to that - just a letter from their PPI department who are looking into the matter. Can I presume that my official complaint letter will also be ignored. I am not one to ignore correspondence received. I have always believed that ignoring correspondence can lead to all kinds of problems. Generally debts are passed to collectors when you ignore letters. In this case I ignored nothing, but Halifax ignored me.

Thank you so much for your replies. I really appreciate it.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

Hi, Sorry the last paragraph should have read "I would NOT be completing the Admission form". Do I have any case if I took this to the Financial Ombudsman.

I can't tell you what their decision would be but that is the usual step to take once you have complained to the bank and got no satisfactory response from them.

Note what PT says on this post: https://consumercreditlitigationandd...les-to-follow/

2) Use the law, make the relevant complaints etc

I am only in this situation because Halifax completely ignored all my letters. They seemed hell bent on putting it over to debt Collectors rather than responding to any of my correspondence. I don't want the FO's involvement re: PPI

Why not?

[colsal2001]

Re: Restons acting for Cabot Financial - some guidance needed. Thank you

Hi, Thank you for your response. Below is a letter I have put together to send to the managing Director at Halifax. I know I have written to him before but although I have received a response from their Head of PPI Loans, I have not received a response to my complaint which I sent on the 27th January. Perhaps when you have a moment you could read the same and let me know your feelings on the same. Not sure if I have said the right thing.

"I refer to my letter dated 27 January 2015. I have still not heard from you regarding my complaint of the handling of this matter by your Mr Cameron.

I have received a letter from Martin Green, Head of PPI Loans dated 18 February which is obviously in respect of the PPI payments made on my Halifax loan account. I have received no response from anyone regarding my complaint.

Halifax has placed me under an incredible amount of stress and inconvenience and not to mention my time spent in dealing with this matter, by ignoring my correspondence from 2013 and 2014 (copies of which I sent to you with my previous letter of 27 January). I am being hounded by solicitors acting for the company Halifax decided to sell the debt to.

I am totally appalled by Halifax’s handling of this matter.

I am sure you are aware of the Financial Conduct Authority’s views of how firms should act. The handbook must be complied with by firms authorised by the FCA. In the Handbook at CONC 13.1.6 it sets out the FCA’s view on how firms should act. Constantly ignoring correspondence and then selling an alleged debt to a third party is totally unacceptable. Alleged debts are generally sold on when you, the Bank, are being ignored. In this situation, YOU ignored me.

A firm, when in breach of the handbook should not threaten legal action, it should inform the consumer that the agreement is currently unenforceable. This is not the situation at present as you decided to “sell” the debt and I am now having to deal with solicitors and Court action. All because Halifax chose to ignore me.

The FCA relies on consumers to tell them about creditors failings.

Kindly place this matter with someone who can deal with my complaint.

I will wait a further 14 days (my original complaint being dated 27 January 2015 – my previous letter to you). If I have not heard further at that point I will be forwarding my complaint to the Financial Conduct Authority.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully"

Thanking you in advance.