PPI claim company taking me to court for fees.

[Miss-]

Good Morning to you all, (Apologises in advance for the long thread! but its interesting..)

I hope someone or anyone will be able to help me!

I am being taken to court for PPI fees by a Company called Consumer Finance Claims (CFC) . I was awarded aprox £2220 from PPI for a car finance agreement. However, I dispute that the PPI company should be awarded their fees in full as they did not assist me fully with my claim...

I referred my PPI claim to CFC in January 2010. They were extremely helpful as you would expect. My car finance payments were £331 and the agreement was due to run until December 2012. The PPI was aprox £60pcm. I was having difficulty paying the monthly payments due to a change in my circumstances. I spoke to the car finance company regarding reducing my payments until the PPI was resolved but they refused.

Months had passed on my PPI claim and a few letters had been sent back and fourth, I was forever emailing CFC for an update which was normally a response to apologise for the delay and they would be in contact with any developments. In October 2010, I noted I was also paying shortfall insurance and breakdown warranty to the car finance company and I contacted CFC regarding this and I filled out further paperwork relating to these insurances and provided information and an agreement was signed.

By June 2011, I was becoming very annoyed. Communication from CFC was poor. I called CFC only to have a man answer the phone and act as if I was disturbing him and had a poor attitude and basically telling me 'If we have anything to tell you - we will contact you'. This was the last time I called CFC. I sent emails to CFC and the response I received was literally 'Your claim is in progress, you will receive an update in due course' and it was signed Consumer Finance Claims - so without a person's name for me to chase up on.

I decided to bypass CFC and contact Car finance company directly myself for an update. My claim had been referred to the Financial Ombudsman and basically I was one the phone to both parties providing information. I was informed in August 2011 following a phone call to Financial Ombudsman that my claim was successful and they sent a letter directly to myself to confirm this. A week later, I receive a letter from CFC to confirm my claim was successful. I was sent letters from Car Finance company to confirm the breakdown of the money awarded etc. None of these letters were ever sent to me from CFC, despite them receiving these copies too. They also, did not inform me that I could dispute the amount if I was unhappy with this but the Financial Ombudsman did.

I was also informed by the Financial Ombudsman that my claim for shortfall and breakdown had been returned back to CFC, informing them they would need to make an application to the FSCS. This was never done. I requested a copy of this letter. This letter was sent to CFC in May 2011.

Once I received the fees, suddenly CFC remembered I existed and were sending me letters with an invoiced amount for £454 aprox. Their fees are 20% - so this figure is incorrect. I wrote a long complaint to them in December 2011 requesting a copy of our agreement and asking why they had failed to respond to my previous emails and had not upheld by pursuing my claim. I believe they were trying to manipulate the claim for their own benefit, as I was still repaying the car, the more money I repaid on the car the more compensation I would be liable to receive (their fees are deducted from compensation received), as any monies not paid on the account which adjusted/refunded directly on to the account. If you know what I mean!?

Anyway, I received a response from CFC about my complaint 5 days letter! which was very short basically stating they upheld their contract and I needed to pay the account within 14 days or they would refer to court.

I have now been referred to court. My court date is next week! I filed a defence and provided my documents etc.

But really I would just like to know - Do you think I have a case against this company?

- They invoiced the incorrect amount in the first place
- They did not pursue my claim fully for the shortfall and breakdown insurance (I am doing this myself now - independently)
- Their lack of communication was poor
- I had to contact the Financial Ombudsman and Car Finance Company myself (I have letters with proof).
- They have not sent me a copy of the agreement despite me requesting this in December 2011.

They are requesting court fees of £35 plus interest 8%?

I am not unreasonable and I do believe that they should receive part of the compensation but certainly not all of this as they did not do the job fully!

Please help if you can!

[cappo]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Hi Miss i'm sorry, the cmc will take you too court as you would have signed a contract with them for payment, i was in a similier position recently, i used a cmc before i realised these sorts of help forums existed although like yours the cmc did nothing and like you i was presented with a big bill but i had to pay it, i would pay it if i were you unless you've not signed a contract you (i believe) really do not have anywhere to go with this.

[teaboy2]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Hi - If CFC did not get the payments back for you and you had to do it yourself then they are in breach of contract for non performance and therefore are not entitled to said fees.

Afterall you would not get paid for work done by someone else, so why should they get their fees for work they did not do. Non performance of contract is a breach of contract end off. Though to be honest the time spent sat waiting between you signing the contract and eventually taking it on yourselve will be considered by a judge too and the judge will have to decide if that amount of time was unreasonable and therefore can be deemed as non performance of contract by CFC.

[Guest]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Hi
I agree i think that irrespective of the contractual terms there is also an implied duty of care as there is with any contract.

They effectively abandoned the agreement in my opinion and i would pay them zilch..

is this thread duplicated?

Pete

[Miss-]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Apologises I have duplicated this contract as I posted it in the wrong place to begin with!

I will see what the judge says at court and attend with my court hearing documents. I have written to CMC prior to the hearing to find out if they would accept £40 off the contract however, they have not responded.

I will see what the judge says. I didn't even think about the amount of time it took them to complete the case, but I believe this is unreasonable. It was completed in October 2011 - 21 months!

[TUTTSI]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

When you made them an offer £40 off the invoice did you mark this 'without predudice'

As they will use that in court I feel if it looks like they are loosing.

I really do not understand this CMC's they do not earn any money until claim is settled and you would think that they would be pushing it along as well as they do it through the FOS and they are slow at the best of times.

Please keep us informed of what happens in court - hopefully they wont turn up. xx

[Miss-]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

I didn't mark it without prejudice! I didn't think to do that.. Do you think its worth me sending a copy of the letter by recorded delivery and marking it?

I sent the original by email .

[Miss-]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Also please note! with my claim I was still paying towards the finance at the time. I was paying 60pcm towards the PPI.

If they had settled the claim in Jan 2010 I would have received compensation for the money I had paid up to that point.. So I was aprox 13 months into my agreement so premiums paid were at this time which was aprox £780 plus 8% interest.

However, because my claim was settled in September 2011 which was 34 months of payments so premiums paid were £2100 plus 8%.

Any compensation I was awarded would be subject to CFC's fees of 20% (i think). So, therefore this is why I believe they left my claim for months to pass so they could be awarded a bigger pay off.

Any monies I have not paid yet off of my loan agreement would be refunded off the loan amount I was due to pay/ monthly premiums were reduced.

[TUTTSI]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

See what the others say, but I think you have already sent that email without this wording and they will have that and will use it against you. Possibly you could write back and withdraw your offer as they did not respond in a timely maner.

I didn't mark it without prejudice! I didn't think to do that.. Do you think its worth me sending a copy of the letter by recorded delivery and marking it?

I sent the original by email .

[EXC]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

I decided to bypass CFC and contact Car finance company directly myself for an update. My claim had been referred to the Financial Ombudsman and basically I was one the phone to both parties providing information.

Did CFC refer your complaint to the Ombudsman without your knowledge? As the Financial Ombudsman stipulates that any referral would have to have been signed off by you.

[skv123]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Did CFC refer your complaint to the Ombudsman without your knowledge? As the Financial Ombudsman stipulates that any referral would have to have been signed off by you.

Its amazing how many CMC's get consumers to sign the back page of the FOS forms at the outset of claims without explaining what they are.

I think the delay is probably reasonable based on the FOS delays but the lack of updates is somewhat poor especially if correspondence was sent to them and they did not send it on with their advice on the offer etc.

I would be very clear at court about pointing out the fact they have refused to provide a copy of the contract on request, it may also be worth pointing out you raised a complaint that has not been fully addressed. I would also make a complaint to the MOJ about the unreasonable behaviour of CFC in this instance.

Having said all that, you did sign a contract, they did make a referral to the FOS and off the abck of that you were offered settlement. It is somewhat of a blessing they charge 20% and not 25% and furthermore it is fortunate they only charge on the upfront refund and not also what you will save for the rest of the loan.

[Guest]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Hi

Yes a contract was signed and a degree of performance would be expected, i would have thought, there doesn't seem to be much of that here.

Peter

[cappo]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

Hi peter the trouble is the lazy so and so's don't want to do anything for the money they "earn".

[Miss-]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

I was informed that my claim was referred to FOS, However I left it for a few months and when I received no further updates I called up and started liaising with a caseworker who told me that they were waiting for some information from the finance company and when I contacted the finance company they were saying they were waiting for info from FOS. I spoke the caseworker at FOS and asked him to speak directly to the car finance company and that day I received a call back to confirm it has been resolved.

I received a letter that day which clearly states 'further from our conversation today, I can confirm your PPI claim has been successful'. I have my telephone bill which will also show that I was on the phone for some time to the FOS.

In regards to my shortfall insurance and other insurances, this was referred to the FOS who referred it back to CFC and explained the claim would not be progressed as it would need to be referred to the FSCS - This was never done. I have a letter to prove this too.

[Miss-]

Re: PPI company taking me to court for fees.

I had my day in court on Friday! and would you believe they did not even turn up! - The judge said because I had written to the court to request an adjournment it is likely they would a new date would be allocated.

I explained my side of the story, and said I felt CFC had started the claim in a great manner and had kept me up to date however they had almost abandoned their claim and I believed this was because they knew the longer the claim took the higher the financial gain would be for their company. I had my evidence which included my letters and phone records to show I had finished my claim. The judge asked me what I agreed to pay and I said half of the money owed as they only did half the job! - So she made an order for this amount to be paid within 30 days.

Now, at the time I was happy however my friend says I should have said I should have agreed to pay nothing due to non performance. As no one had turned up I would probably have gotten away with this - however the Judge did explain that due to the mix-up with the adjourn request and the claimant not turning up it is likely they could request for the order to be set aside. So, weighing this up, I thought if I agreed to pay half, this might stop them from having the order varied as it will not work out very cost effective.

Either way, I am happy as I do not have to worry about a CCJ as the judge made an order without a CCJ and the costs are to be retained my the claimant/CFC so all in all, they are at a loss.


I will now wait and see if they try to get the order varied. Their request may be denied as they did not turn and they would have to provide a really good reason as to why they did not turn up before another hearing will be set.

I will pay the amount I have agreed and wait another 30 days and see if they try to vary the order... If they try to vary the order and I have to return to court, I will argue that they should not receive a penny!