Rory I know it's just semantics but technically I don't think they have refunded my charges. The Letter from Ashurst (the English solicitors acting for Abbey) said it was a goodwill gesture, made no reference to the decree or the charge for payment and the cheque was from their own a/c. This is a bit puzzling because I had sent the fax of the Decree and Extract to Dundas & Wilson the solicitors representing Abbey up here, They told me my a/c would be credited asap. Do you think Abbey have got their wires mixed up and I might get another refund! That would be nice wouldn't it:D Cheers

Well after a lot of trouble Abbey have paid up at last. I had been told that my case was on HOLD even though I had my decree and had a Sheriffs Officer serve a charge for payment. I managed to contact their solicitors in Edinburgh and after telling them they had 48 hours to pay up or else I will get the SO to serve an attachment I got a cheque in the post this morning. WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO:D :D :D I WON All I can say to people is to keep going perseverance pays off in the end. I'm off now to scan the cheque, make a postcard of it and send it to a certain staff member! Cheers

Pujaban You have not said which bank it is, of course they recieved it you have proof as the SO would have sent you a letter telling you where/when/how it was served. I would just phone the bank back say you have 24 hrs to pay me £xxxx else I'm going back to the SO. Cheers

Punjaban Try to talk to the legal dept if you can get the number. Tell them you will be requesting an attachment (they'll know what that means) if you do not have your money in your account in say 24 hrs. If they do not pay then just go back to the Sheriff's Office, that served the extract for Payment and they will sort out the rest. As Rory says the banks will become very focused once a Sheriff's Officer starts making out attachments for equipment in the branch. They will have another 14 days to pay but once that has elpased the Sheriff's Officer will go back and start removing equipment which could in effect shut the branch down or at the very least cause them a lot of problems! I also had two banks ignore payment orders but after a few phone calls Lloyds have now paid up and Abbey have said they will pay this afternoon! Don't forget you get interest for every day they are late:) Cheers

Punjaban I'm assuming that you wrote to the banks and told them you had you decree and extract for payment and asked them for your money. If they have not paid then you need to go to a Sheriffs Officer. (you can find them in the phone book) they will then formally serve the bank the charge for payment, the bank then has 14 days to pay up or request a recall. If they have still not paid up then you can go back to the Sheriffs office and get an attachment, but that really should not be needed. I used Scott + Parker at 279 St Vincent St they were very helpful and on both occasions served the relative papers the next day. You just need to take your extract for payment and the fee which is about £25 (you get this back) to the Sheriffs office and they do the rest. Don't worry you will get your money it took Lloyds over 3 weeks to pay up for me!

We'll after a lot of chasing I finally got my cheque from Lloyds on Thursday!! They still owe me £16 in interest which I will write to them and demand but not going to loose sleep over it! WOOHOOO I've WON I've WON :-DI've WON :-DI've WON :-DI've WON :-DI've WON I's been a long six months but thanks to all the wonderful people on here it's not been too bad! Contirbution on its way!

Well the phone call to Lloyds must have done something because I got home on Thursday and lo and behold a Cheque for £1531.16 . However I'm writing back today to demand the additional 80p per day interest they forgot to add as it was paid 21 days late! Not going to let them get away with anythind. Also popped in the Abbey branch just on the off chance the money had gone in and must have put the wind up them with the thought of an attachment order, they phoned back an hour later and told me the Legal dept will be in touch with me today, They have till 4pm then it's off to the Sheriffs office.

We'll after 3 weeks away I thought I would come home to find both my claims settled and have the money in my account How wrong could I be? On Thursday the 16th of August the Sheriff's Officer served Charge for Payment of Money on both Lloyds and Abbey. Giving them 14 days to pay or ask for a recall. Well I got home yesterday and checked my accounts and post box no cheques no payments I phoned the court just to check if they had tried a recall but no and the date allowed for a recall (30th August) has passed so no chance of a recall/sist. So I though I would phone the banks and find out what was happening Lloyds after being on hold for almost 20 minutes I finally get put through to their solicitors, gave them my details and asked where my cheque was, put on hold again for 10 minutes and was finally told "yes we have your claim we are dealing with it". I said but there nothing to deal with you lost where is my cheque? I was then told "you'll have to wait at least 10 days" before we can send it out I said payment was due by the 30th. I asked if ignoring court orders was normal and the lady at the other end just laughed and asked if there was anything else. So I said" No I'll get an attachment order and will laugh when the Sheriffs officer start removing computers etc... from your branch" To which she replied "go on then!" So thats what I'm doing even though it wll mean more cost (I know i get it back) and it could take a while to get my money. I can't belive that Lloyds will actually allow goods to be removed from a branch but it looks like they are stupid enough to let it happen. Now for Abbey, phoned abbeys complaint team got put through very quickly and spoke to Wayne, who whilst I was half way thru explaining things says "it's on hold". I carefully explained all about the decree and the charge for payment and he said we wrote to you on the 8th of August and told you "it's on hold". I asked if he had heard what I'd said about the charge and he said yes but it doesn't matter because it "it's all on hold". At this point I asked to speak to his supervisor he said they did not do that but he would go and ask them, waited a few minutes and back came Wayne "yeah I've explained it all to them they now about the decree and the charge" I thought great getting somewhere at last and then he said "and it's all on hold. We are not dealing with any more cases you'll have to wait for the OFT decision". I could have screamed I asked to be put thru to the legal dept but they don't take calls so he said he would email them my details and ask them to call me but he was sure they would say the same. "whats that" I asked You've guessed it. "Well that everything is on hold like I've been telling you". So I said never mind I'll just get an attachment. So thats both banks that now face having attachments I would love to be in the branch if and when that happens:) anyway not giving up going back to the Sherrifs officer in the morning. Just looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer (and spend a bit more) to get my money.

Leenie This is bad news! I can see most Sheriffs reacting in the same way unfortunately, did you use the argument that the high court case may not be relevant to your case and until the case is submitted and the relavancy proved it would be wrong to award a sist on this basis? Cheers

Hi leeniesmith77 I'm sure you've already done your homework but one compelling arguments, (which seem to be going down well with judges in England) against your adjournment (sist) is that until the OFT actually hand in papers no-one can tell if the forthcoming case will decide the arguments for your case. If the banks solicitors does not have details then I think it would be hard for a sheriff to award a sist they might ask for another contiuance to allow them time to get details about the case but hopefully you'll get a sheriff who wants the case dealt with quickly. As far as i can see you might be the first to resist a sist so to speak! Good luck and let us know what happens:-D

The "generic" letter you got seems to be more relavent to the situation in England and Wales. You have a return date so the bank needs to tell the court they intend to defend and attend the prelim hearing .At this stage they could ask for an adjournment. If they dont lodge a defense or lodge a defense and not turn up to the prelim then you will get your Decree in Absence. If they do turn up or write to the courts and request an adjournment then you will need to use all the argurments given in the other threads why your case should continue. I have not seen any posts of banks doing this so far in Scotland. As for not settling any claims until after the test case if you have or you get an extract for payment then the banks will have to pay up or else face sheriffs officers removing equipment from the office or branch you served your papers on. The only exception is they could ask for a recall of decree but again they need a good reason and then all that happens is you get a new return/calling date. They still have to lodge a defense and turn up to the hearing else they loose again! The banks try and frighten you off by making miss leading statements that whilst not technically wrong have you thinking that you have no chance which we all know is not true:-D Cheers

I used to work for Abbey in Glasgow (I still work in the same building but now work for Resolution/Capita). Abbey still have a large amount of staff in the building and one of the depts was dealing with reclaiming of bank charges. I just found out from a colleague that today it was closed down completely all the temp staff have been let go and the permanent moved to other jobs. My colleague has talked to one of them it seems Abbey will now just send one reply letter saying all claims are on hold because of OFT/court case. This of course does not affect what you do (prelim followed by LBA followed by Court claim). But just thought you might like to know. Gossip is that it was costing Abbey far too much to keep the dept going anyway with temps working 12hrs+ a day! and permies getting loads of overtime. but who believes in gossip:cool:

I'm sure someone with a lot more legal knowledge than me could give a fuller/better explanation, but the Scottish system of small claims and summary cause does not have a stay. The Sheriff can if he wishes order an adjournment of the hearing until a later date so I would assume that the banks would have to attend the prelim hearing and request this for some vague date in the future and there is no guarantee the Sheriff would agree, you would use the current anti-stay arguments that are being used in England to try and persuade the Sheriff that an adjournment is not in the best interest of justice etc....etc.... and lets not forget if the banks do not turn up to the prelim which they don't seem to do much then you win!!!!! So it looks like it is BAU up here in Scotland for claims under £750 or £1500 if you accept the additional risk of Summary Cause Cheers

Yes you could use the English system and whilst there would appear to be no automatic "Stay" in place and it is still down to the individual Judges it seems almsot certain the the banks will ask for a stay and it is highly likely to be granted. You can always challange this stay but this cost more money £35 without a hearing £65 with (and of course that means you would have to go to England!), and there is no way of guessing the outcome. I suppose one advatage of using the English system is that you will be able to claim back 6 years and that if you do so now you will not loose two years worth of charges waiting for the high court decision and you might get lucky and find a judge who does not allow the bank to request a stay, but using the English system does have a number of drawbacks (which have been discussed many times on this forum) which need to be carefully considered. At the end of the day it's up to you, weigh up the pro's and con's and see what comes out best Cheers

Deso IMHO it would be very unlikely that you would get a solicitor to take on an ordinary cause for bank charges especialy in light of the recent OFT/FSA announcement. As for costs yes this would be expensive but if you won (which you should) then the other side would have to pay your costs. However most solicitors would probably want to have "something on account" first before they begin. It might be worth just getting £1500 by using summary cause. Then waiting to see what happens with the hight court case. You could then go after the rest at a later date! Whilst this High Court Case is good news it has certainly put a spanner in the works for those in the middle or about to begin legal/FOS action. Cheers