Jester Vs First Direct - OFFER Accepted :)

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I never for one minute think you were being patronising. You asked a perfectly valid question, but one I already knew the answer to.

Keep going Scooby. You're insights are an inspiration and great help to me

Sorry did not mean to be patronising it is just that without the letter and even ignoring tha All monies clause the judge will look at your ability to pay - which long term may look impossible. If it comes to that then you must try and retain control and ask to sell the house yourself. Otherwise the costs will spiral and you will have no opportunity to control the SP.

Also it will again buy you more time and you may find a job.

I am sure you must be really tired after all the fighting you have done but lets hope you can at least get a few months to try and sort yourself out.

Does anyone think it may be worth adding to the letter the figures from OTR

In other words :

I am aware of XXX cases where First Direct paid out sums totalling XXX to previous claimants before the waiver . I was quite willing to face them in the courts to argue my case and attempted to have my Stay lifted - however I was refused this opportunity and feel that if my case had come to court a matter of weeks earlier the bank would have repaid my ,without appearing in court, and I would not be in my current precarious position about to be made homeless withoutacomodation for my three children.

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I 'think' that is where the one in my court bundle came from !

there used to be an 'easy to use' claim numbers list.....I have no idea if it is still there. Listed indivdual settled claims with amounts and claim numbers.

Anyone more CAGGY know?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...et-claims.html

hope this works

you can do the list by bank


Sorry did you have the Norgen case details?

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Norgen ?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Sorry my fault - can not blame this one on the keyboard

Norgan


<Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society v Christina Norgan





<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; LETTER-SPACING: -0.15pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society v Christina Norgan
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http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...an#post1581182

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Firstly, thank-you everyone for the advice, assistance and suggestions made to me in drafting this letter.

Having taken on-board all the suggestions, I now present the letter in it's current format waiting to be sent out to the FOS. I want to send this out before last post today (it will be going via recorded delivery and marked URGENT on the envelope) as time is of the essence (this time next week I will be in Swansea County Court with RBS)..

I know that cut and pasting it here will completely ruin the formatting, so bear with me. It is formatted a lot better than this in it's original MS Word format.

Thanks everyone.


July 22, 2008
Financial Ombudsman Service,
South Quay Plaza,
183 Marsh Wall,
London.
E14 9SR
Dear Sir or Madam:
FOS Reference Number: XXXXXXX
As you are no doubt aware, in the light of the ongoing test case hearing between the Office Of Fair Trading (hereby referred to as the OFT) and the leading high street banks regarding the fairness or otherwise of the bank charging regime, the FSA has today announced a new waiver to be put in place. The waiver will supercede the previous one issued in July 2007 and is not due to expire until January 2009.
Upon reading the conditions of the new waiver, I was extremely interested in the FSA’s definition of what constitutes Financial Hardship. Given that the Royal Bank of Scotland have issued court proceedings against me to repossess my home (a hearing that will take place on 29th July 2008), this is taking on a new sense of urgency.
Therefore, I would like to bring to your attention the FSA’s definition of Financial Hardship and why I believe I qualify to have my claim against First Direct dealt with on this basis.
The new FSA Waiver defines Financial Hardship in the following terms:
2. In making an assessment of financial difficulty the firm will take into account:

a. evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;
I have been unemployed since August 2007 and since then have been making every effort to secure alternative employment. I do not have any current offers of employment but I am continuing my efforts.

b. evidence of the following events:
i. items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;

First Direct have withdrawn all banking services from me in light of my financial difficulties. There have been numerous items returned on the account which can be easily demonstrated by viewing the transaction history on my account.

ii. failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;

I have enclosed my up-to-date income and expenditure budget sheet. The majority of my commitments are being handled by a Debt Management Company (the XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX).

I am also struggling to meet my mortgage payments and my mortgage provider (First Active, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group) has issued court proceedings in order to repossess my home.

The hearing will take place in Swansea on 29th July 2008, where the RBS Group will be seeking leave to repossess my home.

This is despite the fact that I am currently only two months in arrears with my mortgage payments and have made considerable efforts to reach an agreement with RBS.

iii. discontinuation of regular credits;

The main income to my account previously was my salary which totalled approximately £3750 Net per month. This has been reduced to £0 as the DWP take all of my Job Seekers Allowance benefits (£107 per week) to pay to First Active as part of my mortgage payment This does not even cover half of our required minimum payment needed to make interest-only payments. I am sure you will agree that this is a substantial fall in income.

iv. notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;

As indicated above, my wife and I are subject to court proceedings with the RBS Group who are seeking to repossess the family home. I have arrears on the mortgage payments and, despite a written agreement with RBS to make interest-only payments over the next three months, I am struggling with meeting these payments. My wife only earns £535 per month. We also receive a further £700 per month in tax credits. From these sums of monies, we have to find an interest-only payment of £873.87 per month in order to keep possession of our home, pay all our fuel bills, feed ourselves and three children and generally try to live our lives. We are well below the poverty line in regards to living finances and have no available disposable income as a result. The sum of money we are claiming in unfair bank charges from First Direct is £8184. This sum of money would enable us to fend off this repossession order and give us the breathing space we need whilst I continue my efforts to find employment

v. regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;

We have been unable to obtain, nor do we desire to further indebt ourselves, further borrowing. We have rescheduled our debt payments completely by handing the management of payments and negotiations over to a specialist Debt Management Company (the XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXX).

vi. making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest

Our credit facilities have all been withdrawn.

vii. repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty).

First Direct withdrew all banking services to us in October 2007. However, the mere fact that we had a claim for Unfair Bank Charges totalling £8184 proves that we were incurring charges of more than £500 per annum. Furthermore, after we started our Bank Charge Reclaim in February 2007, First Direct continued to hit us with further bank charges between February and October 2007. We estimate these further bank charges to be in the region of £900.

As you can plainly see, we are in severe financial hardship. We have very little income and the very realistic possibility that we will soon be homeless to add to our problems should the RBS Group be successful at Court on 29th July in repossessing our home.

All we ask is that the Financial Ombudsman Service would re-examine our case with First Direct. First Direct (HSBC) are a large financial organisation with considerable funds available to fight a long drawn-out battle with the OFT. The current situation with the new Waiver being put in place means that we are unlikely to see any resolution in the Bank Charges Test case between the OFT and the leading banks before the end of 2008. In our current situation, we cannot afford the luxury of waiting that long for such a resolution. If First Direct were to refund the £8184 in Bank Charges that we believe were unfairly taken from our bank account over the course of the last 6 years (i.e. 2001 – 2007), our outlook would improve significantly. Whilst it would not be a long term solution, it would certainly assist us in our battle to keep our home from being repossessed and even give us some breathing space to keep up our mortgage payments whilst I secure the employment which will enable us to become financially able to meet our commitments.

I am aware of 51 cases where First Direct paid out sums totalling £140,176.71 to previous claimants before the introduction of the waiver. I was willing to present my case in the courts, however my claim was stayed and I subsequently applied to overturn the decision. I was unsuccessful in this. Since that application my circumstances have worsened considerably. I am of the opinion that had my case gone to court a matter of weeks earlier, First Direct would have repaid my charges without argument and I would not be in my current position where I face being made homeless without accommodation for my three children.

Your assistance in resolving this matter would be gratefully received. I therefore respectfully ask you formally for this assistance.

I would like to stress that this matter is particularly urgent as we have recently discovered that we have an All Monies Mortgage clause which we were previously unaware of. We have been told that this may mean that RBS Group may not be able to issue a suspended re-possession order. I therefore need your assistance to prepare my defence in full for the court hearing on 29th July 2008.

If you agree to re-examine this case, would it be possible if we could ask you to you draft a letter that we may present to the Judge at Swansea County Court stating your agreement that we are in severe financial difficulty and that you are currently examining our case with First Direct on our behalf.

Yours sincerely,

[Amethyst]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

This has been reduced to £0 as the DWP take all of my Job Seekers Allowance benefits (£107 per week) to pay to First Active as part of my mortgage payment This



needs a full stop.... plus DO the DWP take your JSA ?

[Amethyst]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Otherwise EXCELLENT Good luck xxx

[Budgie]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Jester I am very impressed, what a brilliant letter, well done to you and to all who helped.

I just noticed, this morning, on a thread on MSE

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...466832&page=94

Quite a few people have been getting their claims paid out recently, some on hardship grounds and some not. Might it be worth adding a sentence or two to this effect in your letter. Also have a glance at the thread and see if there is any information there you can use to your advantage re First Direct.


Also are you planning to copy your letter to First Direct and RBS ?

Rgds Budgie

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Wasn't planning on it. Do you think it worth it ?

[Amy]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Wasn't planning on it. Do you think it worth it ?

I would copy it to the respective CEOs and to the entire board of Directors of both companies (and your MP), I did when my Barclays claim was going through. I didn't get an answer, but somebody will have seen it.

[jet_black]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

I've been through repossession myself, so I have a fair idea what you are going through. If the worst comes to the worst and you do lose your home, it really isn't as grim as you think, in our case it gave us the opportunity to leave the town we are in and move to where we want to be via a mutual exchange.

I hope all goes well for you mate (((((((hugs)))))))

[Jester]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Eess gorn in da Royal Mail. Recorded Delivery like !!

Will let you all know what response I get (if any) !!

[TUTTSI]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Jester, that is a great letter and hope the right person picks up on it as a matter of great urgency. I wish you and your family all best for the forthcoming hearing.

Just a thought have you tried offering First Direct extended payments on the mortgage, by increasing the amount of years I believe there was a famous case Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan.

[Tempty]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Fantastic letter jester,
I really do hope it does the trick for you, that small breathing space could well make all the difference.

keep yer chin up hun , we're all routing for you
fingers very firmly crossed

Tempty xx

[Amethyst]

Re: Jester Vs First Direct

Hi Jest

Hope your Karaoke weekend was joyous and you aren't being sued for too many glass breakages.

Let us know what happens when you talk to your sol about the mortgage....and i hope you get chance to post up your work for the hearing too before hand. Give FOS another shove, and FD too on the hardship front.

Ame
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