Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

[FunkyGibbon]

Sorry guys , I guess these ppi threads have been done to death now, but my story is this,

Some time ago my wife got a call from the claims guys asking about ppi, she said yes and in a few days received a claim pack, you know the rest.

She submitted her list of lenders on the request for information claim pack and waited, a few months passed and she received a letter from one lender saying that as she applied for the credit card and accompanying ppi online of her own free will that there was no case of missold ppi, please stay with me, it gets more interesting.

So after that news she/we said oh well nevermind and forgot about it, now roll on 10 or 11 months she received a letter from the lender and a cheque saying she is due compensation under the none disclosure of commission ruling I think it was, today she has received a demand for payment of fees to the claims guys.

The point which I'll get to now is, because of the oh well nevermind decision she made I we have 3 official complaint forms for the lender and 2 complaint forms for the FSO relating to that lender all unsigned and never sent, so no signed authority was given to the claims guy to pursue the claim, the decision came from the lender direct.

Where do we stand on the fees? Should we ask the claims guys for a copy of the signed authority to proceed if they have it,.and I doubt they do

Best regards

[Kati]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

[MENTION=332]EXC[/MENTION] ??

[FunkyGibbon]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Sorry have I done something wrong?

[Kati]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Sorry have I done something wrong?

nope I was just tagging someone who may be able to help xx

[FunkyGibbon]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Ah ok thanks, I wondered if had pm'd rather than posted

[Amethyst]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Hey xx

HAve TGC just sent you an invoice for their 'commission' ( 36% including VAT ? )

If you haven't completed a letter of authority for this lender I'd be a little concerned how TGC know you had a refund from the commission charges under Plevin ( court case that gave rise to these refunds ).

The original form send back in the claim pack after the cold call, you wouldn't happen to have kept a copy ?

I'll have a scoot about see if I can find one if you can tell me the year you think you signed up ? [MENTION=332]EXC[/MENTION] might know off the top of his head though when he comes online whether that first claim pack response counted as an LOA.

Might have to send a SAR ( Subject Access Request Letter ) to TGC to get all the information.

How much are you looking at ?

[EXC]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Where do we stand on the fees? Should we ask the claims guys for a copy of the signed authority to proceed if they have it,.and I doubt they do

The Claims Guys terms & conditions are contradictory in terms of at what point the contract is stuck.

But as a general rule of thumb the Legal Ombudsman, who has the final say in any complaint, takes the view that if a CMC didn't submit the complaint (claim) to the lender originally, the CMC cannot charge a fee for doing so.

I would make a formal complaint to them on that basis and if they don't uphold it you can then go to the Legal Ombudsman.

[FunkyGibbon]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

Hi, and thanks for your replaies

Have TGC just sent you an invoice for their 'commission' ( 36% including VAT ?

Yes they have, although it's not headed as an "Invoice" but a request for payment

If you haven't completed a letter of authority for this lender I'd be a little concerned how TGC know you had a refund from the commission charges under Plevin ( court case that gave rise to these refunds )

as far as im aware we only supplied lender and previous address information as requested in the claim pack, after Barclays defended the claim (but didnt close the door) we didn't pursue the claim any further despite receiving 3 more consumer questionares and 2 complaint forms for the financial ombudsman service all relating to the same Barclays account and were never sighed or sent by my wife

TCG know the claim was successful because Barclays carbon coppied them the letter they sent to us.

The original form send back in the claim pack after the cold call, you wouldn't happen to have kept a copy ?

sadly not, we send them handwritten information which has been returned to us typed into a letter of authority to be signed and returned, ive so many bits of paper from them i dont know whats what now, as for the amount their asking for £1251.46 of £3476.28, yes she paid ppi for a long time.

I'll have a scoot about see if I can find one if you can tell me the year you think you signed up ?

we started this around sept-oct 2016, don't get me wrong im not trying to get out of paying them for services rendered, but after the initial no claim let down from Barclays we don't recall asking them to chase the claim, thats where the two complaint forms to the FOS come in, they are here with me unsigned, in my mind they've received the CC from Barclays and hope we'll just cough up
[MENTION=332]EXC[/MENTION] "submitted a claim", when Barclays first contacted us with their initial decision it would have been TCG that made the claim based in the claim pack info we sent them, if that counts as submitting a claim i fear we're scuppered
anyways thanks for your input
Shaun

now typed this twice, man i hate computers

[FunkyGibbon]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

A bit of an update, so today my wife received more correspondence from TCG, yet another complaint form to sign for the FOS, as the original PPI claim was defended by Barclays TCG feel we have a case to take to the FOS, my question is, is PPI and failure to disclose commission two different things?

[EXC]

Re: Can the claims guy chase a ppi complaint without authority?

my question is, is PPI and failure to disclose commission two different things?

Yes they're 2 different things.

The usual cause for complaints about PPI is that it was mis-sold, for reasons such as the PPI was never properly explained as to what it was or that the insurance wouldn't have covered you if you had made a claim on it.

The failure to disclose commission (Plevin) is not a mis-selling issue but amounts to an unfair relationship.

[FunkyGibbon]

So to wrap this up, my wife's had to pay TCG, I've looked back on all correspondence from them and after sending them information for the free ppi check the first thing they reply with is a form requesting more information, looks harmless so naturally she obliged, supplied the "more information", signed and returned it, it appears at that point they own your soul and 36% of whatever you get back from the bank, it's a bit sneaky but I see how so many people fall for it with such an innocent request for more info when we had given them enough to go on in the begining, anyway, thanks to everyone who has supplied input on this topic.

Shaun

[glaw1982]

Hiya.

New here but wanted to give my thought on this as I don't believe they were entitled to the "fees" you paid and I think you should make a complaint to them to refund the "fees" you paid. If they refuse, refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

Any claims company asking for "fees" to be paid on a rejected complaint that receives a Plevin related (undisclosed commission) payout more than 6 months after the rejected complaint is potentially committing fraud. The Government (MoJ) have issued instructions on this (see section 3):
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ment-companies

You don't mention that you signed a new letter of authority, however, in the event you did, then you were right to pay them. If you didn't sign a new letter of authotity then they have no entitlement to the money. If they refuse a refund, then immediately refer your case to the Legal Ombudsman.

It may also be wise to inform their regulators, Ministry of Justice of their practices as they have stated:


The Ministry of Justice has also stated the following:

"If a CMC seeks further fees from clients where the
contract has concluded, this may be in breach of
General Rule 1 which requires you to conduct your
business with honesty and integrity. It may also be
considered an act of fraud by false representation
(Section 2, Fraud Act 2006)"

See page 2:

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...n-Aug-2014.pdf

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

[FunkyGibbon]

Hi, thanks for your input, to make the post short the process went like this
Initial contact by phone
Received claim pack, filled in returned
Received followup, yes you've had ppi but we need more info
Info supplied, signed, returned
Received a letter saying ppi has been defended with the offer from TCG to push it further or we the claimants can persue the claim further
my wife figured she didn't want the hassle so did nothing
At this point we should have told TCG to close the case but didn't as the claim was defended we though that it would end there
One year later and she received a letter and cheque from the bank saying she was entitled to compensation for undisclosed commission, the letter was also copied to tcg so naturally the twice daily phone calls started, letters, demands through the post
We made them wait three months until they sent a copy of the original LOA which we thought was just the harmless request for more info to aid them track down ppi through various banks over the years

So much for a short post, I'll follow your links and read, thanks again

[glaw1982]

Hi. I still believe a new LOA would have been needed as is stated in the links above. Again this will depend on what your original LOA stated, but going from the guidance (included in the links above), the CMC's authority ends with the rejection (as long as it was over 6 months ago). Did you receive any further correspondence from them between the offer to refer to the FOS and the request for payment?

I think it's awful that CMCs are automatically requesting fees on these payouts and more disturbing that they are using scare tactics to persuade people into paying it when most would have received a payout without any intervention.

I would definitely dispute and make a complaint and see how you get on.

There was a news article which I have tried to find but can't locate at the minute (will continue to look). In the article the poster wrote to the newspaper to look into the fact that they had received an invoice for fees following a Plevin related payout. Apparently, the bank copied in the CMC automatically as they were on file, but admitted this shouldn't have happened. The CMC also stated that they shouldn't have billed them for the fees.

One other thing I have seen of late is that the CMCs are using different reference numbers from the original mis-sold complaint that on the invoice for the Plevin fees (without receiving a new letter of authority). Not sure if this is the same for you, but does kind of indicate they are making it look like a "new" claim.