The Alliance & Leicester had until Friday to lodge their defence. Cheque received on Saturday dated 17.11.06 in full settlement of claim. I am absolutely over the moon! Donation will be sent as soon as cheque is cleared. Thanks everyone for their help and hopefully this helps other people who are wanting to recover their ERCs.

Just a quick update. I've sent a form N1 to Leicester County Court which has been served on the A&L. They've returned an Allocation Questionnaire to the court and I've received copies. Just sitting tight, waiting for 28 days now. This is such good fun!

I attended the Preliminary Hearing this morning. Abbey's representative stood up and said that their clients had made me an offer but hadn't had any response from me. They could see by my face that I hadn't received an offer and when I asked when it was sent out, the answer was yesterday! I was fully prepared for that. I saw a copy of the letter and they're offering me the full amount less £10 (why they've reduced the amount I do not know). The case has been deferred for 2 weeks for negotiation. Got home, checked my mail and.... nothing so I tried to phone DLA Piper but the person dealing with my case was "away from her desk" all day. Grrrr. Stalling tactics as usual. I gave myself a big pat on the back for this morning's efforts though. I quite enjoyed the whole experience, what a confidence boost!

Attended the Preliminary Hearing this morning. Abbey's representative stood up and said that their clients had made me an offer but hadn't had any response from me. They could see by my face that I hadn't received an offer and when I asked when it was sent out, the answer was yesterday! I was fully prepared for that. I saw a copy of the letter and they're offering me the full amount less £10 (why they've reduced the amount I do not know). The case has been deferred for 2 weeks for negotiation. Got home, checked my mail and.... nothing so I tried to phone DLA Piper but the person dealing with my case was "away from her desk" all day. Grrrr. Stalling tactics as usual. I gave myself a big pat on the back for this morning's efforts though. I quite enjoyed the whole experience, what a confidence boost!

Brilliant, thanks for that. I've checked my bank account and so far - nothing. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

No such luck I'm afraid. I called the court last week the day after the Return Date and was told the hearing would go ahead.

Hi everyone I'm copying this from the Abbey forum to see if any of you have any tips for me. I've been lurking in the background following the process and doing okay with it but now need some advice. I've raised a small claim in the Scottish courts against Abbey for c. £700. The Return Date was last Tuesday and I'm due to appear in court for a Preliminary Hearing tomorrow morning. I've been preparing a court pack (from the library) but all this talk of Allocation Questionnaires etc, has got me a bit confused. I know the Scottish system is different so can anybody explain what might happen tomorrow? Do I need to take the court pack? I haven't had any correspondence from Abbey's solicitors with settlement offers so I'm assuming that tomorrow will go ahead. Thanks in advance.

All the information that I have is this: "What you must do: The day after the Return Date contact the Court to see if there has been any response by the defender. If the defender denies the claim the case will call and you must appear or be represented in Court on the Preliminary Hearing Date. (In this one circumstance you do not need to lodge a minute with the court)." I did contact the court on the 18th October and was told then that Abbey has denied the claim and I will therefore have to attend.

Hi everyone I've been lurking in the background following the process and doing okay with it but now need some advice. I've raised a small claim in the Scottish courts against Abbey for c. £700. The Return Date was last Tuesday and I'm due to appear in court for a Preliminary Hearing tomorrow morning. I've been preparing a court pack (from the library) but all this talk of Allocation Questionnaires etc, has got me a bit confused. I know the Scottish system is different so can anybody explain what might happen tomorrow? Do I need to take the court pack? I haven't had any correspondence from Abbey's solicitors with settlement offers so I'm assuming that tomorrow will go ahead. Thanks in advance.

OK, so the A&L have replied to my LBA with a standard response which repeats what they said before ie. that they don't agree with me. A couple of questions? I haven't had a breakdown of how their fees are calculated, do I need this? (They referred me to a section in the T&Cs which explains the %age that they take as an ERC.) Do we claim the whole fee anyway, regardless of their actual costs, the same way we do for bank charges? Should I now just file a MoneyClaim? Hmm, that's 3 questions!

LBA sent dated 15th September claiming £2014.60 ERC + £60 returned DD fees. Let's hope the A&L don't drag this out (although I expect they will).

Thanks for replying Dolly. I've already sent my first claim letter and the 14 days is up tomorrow. What is the next stage - I'm presuming I now need to send a LBA? Is there a letter template I can use?

Well guys, I've been following this section of the site with great interest. I sold my house and redeemed my A&L mortgage in August 2005. I was in a 2 year fixed rate which started in March 2004 & redeemed early 17 months later at a cost of £2014.60. I copied Zoot's letter (fantastic Zoot, thanks) requesting that amount plus £60 of late payment fees back & have today received the following reply: "I have noted everything you have said but I am afraid we do not agree with your views on the legality of the charges you highlight in your letter. As such, I regret that it will not be possible to agree to your request to refund the charges to you. The fees totalling £60 relate to unpaid direct debit payments and have been applied in according with A&L's tarriff of charges. The Early Repayment Charge of £2014.60 has been applied in line with the terms & conditions of your mortgage which you accepted. I enclose a copy of your mortgage offer & have highlighted the part that explains about the repayment fee period*." (also noted below) Highlighted bit from the Mortgage Offer document in exact words: "The repayment fee period means the period of time starting on and including the day of funds release and ending after the following periods have expired. The repayment fee means a sum of money equivalent to 180 days (ie. approximately six months) interest at the basic rate during the period starting on the day of funds release and ending after 2 years. Now, I'm assuming that the repayment fee is the £2014.60 ERC. Frankly, I'm confused. I'm quite clear on the £60 charges but I'm not quite sure where to go next with the ERC. Any advice would be gratefully received. (Note: Statement description is Early Repayment Charge £2014.60)

I've posted this in the Lloyds TSB forum but thought it might be useful here because the claim was raised in Scotland I raised a small claim against Lloyds TSB in the Scottish Courts. I have around £1500 of charges but split the claim so that I could keep within the small claims track. Lloyds solicitors denied the claim and a court date was set. At this point, I panicked! However, 5 days before I was due in court, I had a call from Lloyds Sols. They had sent me a letter the previous week (which hadn't reached me), offering a full settlement because they were concerned that I would end up paying court costs. Bless! The confirmation letter came from Michael Thomas from their Credit Operations Legal & Support Dept in Brighton. In it, they asked me to make contact with my branch for an account review & also to return my card. No need for that as they already have my cards & cheque book and my account is frozen. I'm currently receiving advice from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and am on a payment arrangement to pay back £5k debt to TSB. They had already agreed to freeze interest & charges before I raised the court action. I noticed that a few people on this site have been in the same position & didn't want to rock the boat in case the banks pulled their repayment plans. I figured I had nothing to lose so went for it becuase I asked for help at my local branch and they didn't do ANYTHING. They refused point blank to refund the charges when I first started getting into difficulty. I've had £750 credited to my account which has reduced the debt a bit. Unfortunately I'm not able to contribute financially to this site yet but am grateful for the help & support and am more than happy to help anyone in a similar posiiton.

I posted recently to say I'd won my claim and promised I'd get back with the details. I raised a small claim against Lloyds TSB in the Scottish Courts. I have around £1500 of charges but split the claim so that I could keep within the small claims track. Lloyds solicitors denied the claim and a court date was set. At this point, I panicked! However, 5 days before I was due in court, I had a call from Lloyds Sols. They had sent me a letter the previous week (which hadn't reached me), offering a full settlement because they were concerned that I would end up paying court costs. Bless! The confirmation letter came from Michael Thomas from their Credit Operations Legal & Support Dept in Brighton. In it, they asked me to make contact with my branch for an account review & also to return my card. No need for that as they already have my cards & cheque book and my account is frozen. I'm currently receiving advice from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and am on a payment arrangement to pay back £5k debt to TSB. They had already agreed to freeze interest & charges before I raised the court action. I noticed that a few people on this site have been in the same position & didn't want to rock the boat in case the banks pulled their repayment plans. I figured I had nothing to lose so went for it becuase I asked for help at my local branch and they didn't do ANYTHING. They refused point blank to refund the charges when I first started getting into difficulty. I've had £750 credited to my account which has reduced the debt a bit. Unfortunately I'm not able to contribute financially to this site yet but am grateful for the help & support and am more than happy to help anyone in a similar posiiton.