Jester Vs First Direct - OFFER Accepted :)

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Chased up FOS again today. No joy I'm afraid.

Even though my letter was sent by recorded delivery and marked urgent, the answer I got is that they are currently dealing with letters up to 18th July. Mine was sent on 22nd July and even though it is marked urgent, it will not be on their system until the mail from 22nd is processed and so they are 'unable to help me at the moment' !!

I doubt they will even process it before the end of this week and that will be too late to help with my court case tomorrow.

[Tempty]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I'm so sorry to hear that
I really hope all goes well for you at court.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed (((((HUGS)))))

Tempty xx

[Budgie]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Hi Jester,

Maybe another quick call to the FOS and remind them that you are in Court tomorrow regarding your house repossesion. Surely they can make an exception to their post handling crtieria in your situation.

Also try calling First Direct and see if they have received the copy of the letter that you sent to them and ask if they would be able to give you some sort of reply by either email or fax, again explain about the Court hearing tomorrow.

Finally, don;t forget to call in and see your Sol this afternoon tomake sure thay they are totally clued up with regards to your wishes for how they handle the hearing tomorrow.

Budgie

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Will be thinking of you tomorrow

jan

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I very much doubt I will sleep much tonight. All kinds of scenarios going on in my head right now. Tried to relax by watching a DVD of 10,000 BC. But even that hasn't taken my mind off tomorrow.

We had the mother of all Thunderstorms this evening. Maybe that is a sign that the 'gods' are not happy

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Very understandable - I am sure everybody would be the same in your position.

We had a big thunderstorm here in oxfordshire as well.

Maybe it means bad news for the bank and not you.

We can but hope.

[WendyB]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

We had major storms as well Jest, its not just you. All the best for later

Wendy xxx

[Budgie]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Good Luck Jester

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Any news from FOS yet?

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I had a response from FOS yesterday, but only to acknowledge that they have received my letter and that they will be in touch to let me know how they are going proceed.

However, my jaw nearly hit the floor when the post arrived this morning. On the advice of Tempty, I also sent the same letter to the CEO of HSBC - Michael Geoghegan. I thought it was bit cheeky myself, but amazingly, HE REPLIED.

Not a huge amount in the letter to be honest, but he acknowledges my 'complaint' and has ordered an investigation to be undertaken.

Quite what that means in layman's terms is anyone's guess, but I would imagine it has gone either to their PR department or, hopefully, their legal department.

We'll see what happens, but from past experience of big companies, when the CEO demands their staff to jump, the usual response is 'how high ?'

Will keep you all posted on further progress.

Given that this 'cheek' came off, am wondering if the same bare-faced cheek might work in a letter to the CEO of RBS in regard to the appalling way I was treated over my mortgage. Gotta be worth a go methinks.

[Amethyst]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

BRILLIANT !

And on the last point YES DEFINATELY

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I agree anything is worth a go.

I must admit with A&L I had a lot of trouble with their solicitors and sent an email about their behavior and attitude as they were employed by A&L and were quite honestly useless and very unprofessional. then I got my charges repaid the day before the case was due.


I would maybe do a letter

keep it straight factual and to the point ( and non threatening - i know its tempting but try and keep it as polite as possible)


For example


I wish to bring to your attention my case as I feel that I have be treated extremely badly and with contempt by RBS, at a very difficult time in my life. As an organsation you have paid NO attention to my individual circumstances and
Have made my situation unbearable , When a little sympathy and attention to the particular circumstances would have made a huge amount of difference. I feel I am a victim of the mis-selling of your product and also a clause within th mortgage that I was totally unaware of. Time is not on my side and I would appreciate someone taking the time to read the following.


Here is the history of my case:

Dates
history of contact
court case
etc



I am in the unusual circumstances of trying to reclaim bank charges FROM HSBC of £ on a financial hardship basis - and if I am sucessful this would give me time to secure employment or sell the property myself. I HAVE A LETTER FROM THE CEO CNFIRMING MY CASE IS BEING CONSIDRED


Please try and restore my faith in your organisation by considering my case as your representing solicitors had no intention of even listening to me at all.


I UNDERSTAND FROM RESEARCH THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE CLAUSE - HOWEVER i ALSO UNDERSTOOD RBS PROFESS TO ADHERE TO THE BSC AND AS SUCH IN ADVERTISING LITERATURE STATE THAT YOU WILL TREAT CASES SUCH AS MINE WITH CONSIDERATION . AS YOU CAN SEE THIS HAS DEFINITELY NT BEEN MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.



Then lets send the reply to the papers!!!


Jan

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Cheers Scooby.

I'll write it up over the weekend (alongside the letter to my local MP) and get it off in the post on Monday. As you say, I have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
Anyone know the address of their Head Office ?

I have a feeling it is in Edinburgh. I can find loads of addresses on their site, but not one that is obviously where the Group Chief Executive Sir Fred Goodwin lives.

Do we have this information on LB anywhere ?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Hi

Found this. Last year these were the email addresses of his assistant /private secretary


mary.McCallum@rbs.co.uk

michael.duncan@rbs.co.uk

Someone who conatcted him this way did get a reply.

scooby

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

OK. Have run up a draft using the basis of Scooby's suggestions above. All I need to find now is the RBS address at which Sir Fred Goodwin resides and I am ready to go.




Dear Mr Goodwin:
Re: Mortgage Account Number: XXXXXXXX
I wish to bring my case to your attention as I feel that I have be treated extremely badly and with contempt by RBS, at a very difficult time in my life. As an organsation you have paid NO attention to my individual circumstances and have made my situation unbearable, causing considerable stress and duress to both myself, my wife and our three young children.

A little sympathy and attention to the particular circumstances would have made a huge amount of difference. I feel I am a victim of the mis-selling of your product and also a clause within the mortgage that I was totally unaware of. Time is not on my side and I would appreciate someone taking the time to read the following.


Here is the history of my case:

In August 2007, I found myself in the unfortunate position of being unemployed. Within two months of this occurring, I inevitably started to struggle with my mortgage payments to First Active. But I did manage to keep the mortgage payments pretty much up to date. However, in March this year, I almost went three months behind on my payment schedule. At this point, First Active ceased dealing with my mortgage account and passed my account over to RBS Collections Services. I found RBS Collections Services to be downright rude and aggressive to both my wife and I when we called to make payments or explain why we were late with a payment.

When I knew that the DWP were about to start making contributions to the interest-only part of the payments, I asked RBS Collections Services if the bank would be prepared to accept my making interest-only payments for a short period of time. They were extremely resistant to this. The DWP payments toward my mortgage would not cover the total necessary to cover interest-only payments, but that I assured RBS Collections that I would make that amount up from my own pocket despite it being a sum that I could not really afford. Eventually, after much persuasion, I finally managed to get RBS Collections to agree to my proposal. However, they would only accept my payment offer for July, August and September. After this period I would have to come back with acceptable plans for clearing the arrears. I agreed to this, but also insisted that they put it all in writing.

Approx. 10 days later I received the confirmation of our agreement in writing.

Two days after receiving the written agreement, both my wife and I were served with County Court Papers by RBS (through your solicitors - Cobbetts).

The court papers themselves had claims such as 'Letters of demand and correspondence sent to the Defendants have failed to produce a satisfactory response', and 'No current and/or relevant information is known about the Defendant's Circumstances'.

Bearing in mind what you have just read above, it should be obvious that I had kept your people up to date with everything. You will have voice recordings of every phone-call I have made during the past 12 months to both First Active and RBS Collections. I even had a written agreement of acceptance of my offer of reduced repayment terms.

Also, it was not until I consulted a solicitor prior to the court hearing that I became aware that the mortgage I possess with your organisation was an ‘all-monies’ mortgage. Until this point, I had been unaware that I held such a mortgage let alone know what it meant until my solicitor explained it to me. I still feel that RBS/First Active should have made me aware of this at the time the mortgage was offered as I feel that failing to explain this clause was present is a subject of mis-selling.

At Swansea County Court on 29th July 2008, I was told by the solicitor from Cobbetts that he had been instructed by RBS to seek total repossession and accept nothing less. This means that the written agreement I had received from RBS Collections was not worth the paper it was written on.

It was also of note that your solicitor could not provide details to the District Judge of when I last made a payment to RBS in respect of my mortgage. If he had done some homework, he would have found that payments had been made in both June and July.

The District Judge at Swansea County Court, granted a repossession order to RBS in a hearing that lasted just 3 minutes. Your solicitor even sought to have us evicted from our home in 28 days. Fortunately for us, District Judge Jenkins overruled him and insisted that the standard 56 days would apply.

Bearing in mind that the Prime Minister Gordon Brown has asked the banks to be fair and lenient in their dealings with customers facing difficulties with their mortgage payments in the current climate, I feel that RBS failed completely in this respect.

Despite having made more than 1200 applications for work in the 11 months I have been unemployed, I have still to secure any employment (though it is looking very promising that I have now secured employment as a free-lance IT Trainer). Despite this, I have kept up my mortgage payments to the best of my ability. At the time of the court hearing, I was but ONE MONTH in arrears on my mortgage payments. Prior to finding myself unemployed, I did not miss a single payment on my mortgage. One could say that my payment schedule was perfect. Given the amount of time I have been unemployed, I would consider my payment record over the past 11 months to be remarkable considering I had no personal income.

I am in the unusual circumstances of trying to reclaim bank charges of £8184 on a financial hardship basis from First Direct and if I am successful this would give me time to secure employment or sell the property myself. Early indications from the Financial Ombudsman Service are favourable in this respect.


Please try and restore my faith in your organisation by considering my case as your representing solicitor had no intention of even listening to me at all.


Yours Sincerely,