Thanks for the reply. So this isn't something I can do myself? Ok. How do I instruct a Sheriff Officer to do that? Is it a case of calling the Edinburgh Sheriff Court (which has jurisdiction for where I live) or would I send them a written letter?

My landlord did not use any of the schemes for my deposit which I found out after leaving the property. I have lodged an initial writ that I put together based on stuff from this thread as well as help from a friend and I got that back from the Sheriff Court with a warrant along with a date, however it is not clear what I need to do now. the letter states "The Sheriff Grants warrant to cite the defender by serving upon him a copy of the writ and warrant on a period of notice of 21 days, and Ordains him to answer within the Sheriff Court House (address) on 16th June 2015." So do I just send the landlord a copy of this letter and the initial writ? Or is there more to it? And is this date when I need to show up in court? Do I need to go to court or is this just a date that the landlord needs to reply by? Tried to find stuff on the sheriff court website but there is no info on the process I'm planning on representing myself as the landlord did not use a scheme at all so there is no doubt that he has broken the law in that respect. Any advice is appreciated

That's great. Cheers for the help! Now I'll go spread the word to my family and friends and help them do the same Cheers, Skyap

I had the same thing. I wouldn't worry about it if you have already sent the information. They filed their AQ on the closing date of the 15th December and yesterday I recieved a cheque for my claim - £1770 Since receiving their copy of the AQ I did nothing, so just hang in there. The £1770 was missing £100 for the AQ though so once I've cashed the cheque I'll need to chase them for that too. I would worry too much about the missing docs until you get a court date but hopefully, like me, that won't happen. I hope that helps.

Woo hoo!! I got my cheque in the post today (well, it came yesterday Special Delivery but I wasn't home!) - £1770.98 I have a few final questions relating to this claim so hopefully someone can help. This amount was all the charges, plus 8% interest, plus £120 court fees. The only thing is, I also paid £100 for the AQ but that wasn't included in the cheque - how do I get that back? There are two copies of a Notice of Discontinuance which Cobbetts say I need to send one to the court and one to them. Once I send this notice to the court, is that all I need to do to call off the court proceedings? There are also two conditions. The letter says, as usual, that they accept no liability etc and that I will be accepting the payment in full and final settlement of my claim on the basis that :- 1. I don't disclose to any third party the fact, or any details relating to, this payment. 2. Write to the court to withdraw my claim. I think I may have already flouted number 1! is that going to be a problem? one last thing - the cheque is made out to me, but also states my account number on it - does that mean I can only pay it into that account? Thanks for all the help I've had on this case. Just a couple more to go now.

Thanks once again for the support. Skyap

My Summary Cause Summons has now been served on the defendant. Does anyone know what happens now? Do I just wait until the first date given by the court? cheers, skyap.

I sent off my AQ in time for the deadline and it was delivered before the deadline too. I forgot to send it to cobbetts - is that a problem? I got a copy of Cobbetts AQ from cobbetts too. Under section G:Further Info, on their form, they have stated that "case management directions cannot be proposed until the Claimant serves a reply to the reuest for further information which was due on 23rd November 2006. In light of this, the defendant may amend its defence or apply to strike out." Do I need to do anything? I got a letter from them ages ago for a CPR part 18 request so I sent the standard reply and included a schedule of my charges along with my account details. Also, their last sentence is referring to the defendant which is them, but I don't know what they mean! Can anyone help?

I'd just like to say about the whole 'service' thing that the banks are hoping to use to get out of calling them penalty charges... if charging me £38 (I'm with Natwest) to TELL me that I am over my overdraft, or to return a cheque, then I think I would like to opt out of having this service. I'd rather they didn't tell me, and didn't return the cheques/direct debits and then I wouldn't have to pay the £38 for a service I'd rather do without

hey sp00ky, I was intruiged by the bit about the ombudsman too. Am I right in saying that on the prog it said that the omnudsman was advising backs to refund all the charges. I haven't submitted any complaints while doing my claims - should I be doing this and would it speed things up a bit if I did? Good program though. I'm sure it will prompt a few more to join in. I've been trying to get the rest of my family to do it for ages!

That's what I thought, it's apparently taken from another guys website - gives the details at the bottom. If you haven't seen in some of the other posts, there's a prog on bbc 2 at 10pm tonight about penalty charges (called Bank Robbery). Should be interesting.

So far, I took the charges from my statements, then used these to estimate charges prior to 2004 (due to the whole microfiche thing - this was before the abbey ruling so not sure if it affects things or not). I then had a spreadsheet for calculating the daily interest for each charge and I applied that to the charges but used the 27.9% instead of 8%. My claim though only states the following: The pursuer claims from the defenders the sum of £572.00 with contractual interest on that sum at the rate of 27.9% annually from the date of service for each charge (together with the expenses of bringing the action). It's a Summary Cause Summons in case you're wondering why its so short! There is a detail of claim bit but it doesn't mention any values. So, I have £572 of charges, should I calculate the interest I have paid on those charges and add it on? I suppose I should really calculate the interest in the interest too? (is that compund interest?) This is getting complicated - I think I should start a new thread? How do I do that, linking to this one? cheers

I may have done it wrong then. I have claimed for the amount of charges, plus interest at the contractual rate. I did it via a Summary Cause so it is just the amount you're claiming for that you put and then say you are also claiming interest and fees. So are you saying then that I could have actually claimed more? I've not actually posted it yet (was going to do so this afternoon) so it may not be too late. It would mean that my court claim differs from my original letters though. Now I'm confused! I hope I haven't confused anyone else!

For most of my claims, it never occurred to me to do this so I have missed out (although, all of my credit cards settled out of court so would I have got the interest anyway?), but with my Barclaycard, I was so miffed about the whole microfiche argument that I estimated the missing charges AND asked for contractual interest from the start! Obviously, they have told me no at every point, except once where they offered me the charges - the £12, but only for the charges after 2004. So now I have submitted a court claim and we'll see how it goes. It makes perfect sense to me that they have charged me about 29% interest on their charges so I want that back. If I've calculated it wrong, I'm sure they'll let me know! I only wish I had done this with the rest!

I was looking at the BBC news online this lunchtime and at the right hand side of the page they have a section for the most read, and the most emailed stories. Number 5 in the most read was an article of claiming back penalty charges! Then I flicked to most emailed and the top two stories were about penalty charges! BBC NEWS | Business | Are penalty charges bank robbery? BBC NEWS | Business | How to claim back penalty charges The second link above is a how-to including templates! Has anyone else seen this?