JPS Financial PPI Claims

[Matt41]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice please regarding JPS Financial claims company.

I started a claim with JPS back in 2015/16 to claim back PPI from barclays bank. I then received direct contact from barclays stating they would like to settle the claim directly with me & wont be going through JPS. The claim was settled between me & barclays so i presumed everything was good.
I then received communication from JPS around 2018 asking me to sign a LOA with which i ignored. They have sent me several emails claiming admin charges & threats to pay since 2018 if i dont return a LOA to them?
I haven’t sent them anything or even spoken to them but they keep sending me emails!. I have now received an email stating “NOTICE OF PASSING ACCOUNT TO DEBT COLLECTION AGENCY” they are claiming i now owe them a sum of £672 for works carried out & i have 7 days to pay before they instruct DCB limited to collect it.
Is this an empty threat & do they have any legal authority to do this & do i need to pay the fee? Should i ignore this? I have no idea & any advice would be very welcome thank you.

[EXC]

Hi

Do you have the letter from Barclays? It would be good to see what they said as the wording could be important.

Also it would be good to see the email you've just had if you could post it up.

[Matt41]

Hi thanks for your response.
this is the email i received & no i no longer have any paperwork from barclays as this was back in 2015/16.



Notice Of Passing Account to a Debt Collection Agency



Private & Confidential






Re – Payment Protection Claim - OVERDUE INVOICE IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED



We write further to previous correspondence and numerous attempts to seek a Letter of Authority, a Final Response Letter from the creditor or payment of the invoice issued to you relating to a claim you instructed us to investigate on your behalf.



You will be aware that your invoice remains outstanding, and we have been trying to work with you to settle this claim without the need to invoice you, however we have not had the appropriate contact from you nor has payment been received.



The total outstanding amount is as follows: -

Item	Price	Units	Sub Total
Initial administration	£150.00	1	£150.00
PPI questionnaire	£15.00	1	£15.00
Drafting initial claim	£50.00	1	£50.00
Letters to Creditor	£15.00	3	£45.00
Emails to Client	£15.00	10	£150.00
Letters to Client	£15.00	4	£60.00
SMS to Client	£5.00	10	£50.00
Attending Client	£15.00	1	£15.00
File review	£25.00	1	£25.00
		Sub Total	£560.00
		V.A.T.	£112.00
		Total	£672.00

We therefore write to inform you that this matter will be escalated to DCB Limited if payment of the invoice is not settled, or a resolution of the claim has been made. We of course, would prefer not to proceed with further escalation and should you make full payment (in accordance with the attached invoice) or resolve the claim within the next 7 days there will be no requirement for such escalation to take place

[EXC]

Ok so they don't know if you ever got a PPI refund. How much did you get and exactly when did you get it?

I think you should try and get a copy of the letter you got form Barclays. It may say something like the letter of authority JPS sent with the claim was invalid and that they'll only deal with you.

I would also send JPS a Subject Access Request which might turn something up - template here LegalBeagles

DCB could only act as a debt collection agency and not bailiffs as they'd need a CCJ first. So they couldn't do much more than send snotty demands.

There's a kind of similar complaint on the FOS website here that was rejected Decision Reference DRN-2227371 (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

[Matt41]

Ok so they don't know if you ever got a PPI refund. How much did you get and exactly when did you get it?

I think you should try and get a copy of the letter you got form Barclays. It may say something like the letter of authority JPS sent with the claim was invalid and that they'll only deal with you.

I would also send JPS a Subject Access Request which might turn something up - template here LegalBeagles

DCB could only act as a debt collection agency and not bailiffs as they'd need a CCJ first. So they couldn't do much more than send snotty demands.

There's a kind of similar complaint on the FOS website here that was rejected Decision Reference DRN-2227371 (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

Hello,

so i have managed to dig out my original letter from Barclays which was dated 11 July 2016 as follows:


Dear -------

We have received a letter from JPS Financial ltd about the sale of your payment protection insurance (ppi) policy.

Although you have enclosed letter of authority, you have not provided a valid letter of authority. We have advised JPS Financial ltd that we will contact you directly about your complaint in the meantime. if you want JPS Financial ltd to act on your behalf please contact them and ask them to send us a letter of authority.


I never contacted JPS after receiving this letter.

[EXC]

Ok. I would send the SAR to JPS as previously advised and let us know what they send you.

How much was your PPI refund from Barclays?

[Matt41]

Why would this information need to be disclosed please?

[EXC]

I'm just trying to weigh up the economic benefits of fighting this or not really ie the cost of their current bill versus the cost of paying commission on the PPI refund versus trying to avoid paying anything.

Another factor is that that it's possible that so much time has passed, they wouldn't be able to (or soon won't be able to) take any legal action if 6 years has past from the cause of action (Limitations Act). But in order to determine when the 6 year clock started ticking we'd need a copy of your contract and some further stuff you should get in your SAR to know the sequence of events.

[Matt41]

Ah ok that makes sense well i think it was roughly 6k & yes i will do an SAR, thank you.

[EXC]

Ok so if you disclosed that you'd have to pay £2160 in commission (30% + VAT). They've given you a choice of signing a new LOA (with which they'll find out the refund amount) or paying their fees of £672 so do the math!

Wait for the SAR response and see what you get. The worst way you could offer them a few hundred quid to settle.

[Matt41]

I will send an SAR thank you for your advice. Could you tell me what i would be looking for with an SAR?
one other thing to mention is my only communication from JPS has been through emails but if id changed my email since my claim then i would be non the wiser as they haven’t sent any official letter to me regarding payments?

[EXC]

Just hold off on the SAR for a minute then!

Are you sure they don't know your address?

How did you get involved with them and did you sign a contract?

[EXC]

....on the email you posted up it says they sent you 4 letters (as distinct from emails). Have you moved since 2016?

[Matt41]

Sorry i should of been more clearer. Yes i initially filled out forms etc from a pack they sent me but im not sure exactly what i signed back then. The fact they were asking me to further sign a LOA suggested to me i never signed one in the first place but i cant be sure. Yes they do know my address as they have sent me a couple of letters a few years ago stating i owed them for works carried out but they haven't sent me any other letters in the last year & im yet to receive any formal letter like the email through the post. I have read many reviews online regarding JPS & how they scare people into paying up. Surely if they have been chasing me with threatening emails for the last 4 years they should of concluded this matter years ago. My thinking has been that they have been trying it on so to speak as so much time has elapsed since opening the case.

[EXC]

Ok. It's possible that Barclays have only recently made JPS aware that you got a final response to the claim (although they wouldn't have told them if you had a refund or not). It's happened a lot recently.

What you're looking for in particular in the SAR are the Terms & Conditions, LOAs and the correspondence between JPS and Barclays. Come back when you have the response, they have a month to respond.