Is it possible to use the FSA hardship argument also at negotion stages?...

[asdf54321]

First Question: Is it possible to use the FSA hardship waiver on stay argument also at negotiation stages, i.e: when you're still negotiating with the bank and wanting to reject an offer so you can get your full amount?

 

I'm in the situation that I've had an offer of £410 out of £1050 after sending my LBA. I’ve tried to reject it with a rejection letter and the Bank of Scotland/Halifax replied saying that they can’t negotiate any more cases for the meantime until the OFT ruling. But I still had another two months to accept their pathetic offer if I wished.

 

I live in Bristol at and it looks like I'm going to have to accept it as I was just talking the courts today and they haven’t had any requests to remove the stays because of hardship accepted, that's NONE at all and various people have requested for them to be removed.

 

Sounds like a lovely judge or whoever makes the decisions there! As well as them putting ALL the cases on ‘Stay’ I have found out that they have knocked back all hardship requests so far!

 

I'm so skint just now that I can't even afford court fees and have no way of them getting paid for me as I'm not on benefits. So I want to carry on negotiating with the bank if possible and sending them threats that I will claim at court immediately if they don't reply satisfactorily etc.

 

My situation is that I've lost the good job through mental illness, I can't claim benefits of any type because my wife is a 'no recourse to public funds' stamp on her 'spouse visa' since as we just got married last year and she's from abroad and we obviously want to carry on living with each other in this country for the rest of our lives, despite my current mental illness we still keep each other going, and help each other a great deal etc. As soon as you claim any type of benefits you put you chance of long term residency of your spouse in jeopardy because you have to be able to prove that you can support each other financially. I normally can just recently suffered some breakdowns due to various issues.

 

Plus she has a standard £6.50p/h type job and I live with her so I wouldn't be able to claim anyway even if she was British aswell.

 

I have rent arrears, council tax arrears, other bills arrears etc, court threats and have recently received another default.

 

So look like I'm going to have to accept the offer? OR would I be able to carry on negotiating the 'hardship situation' thing if I send the bank a rejection letter, detailing my situation with photocopies of my bills with lots of re letters and threats etc? I'm already late with last months rent and I have another one on the 25th and I may be forced to accept the £410 offer.

 

Second Question: Is there a 'chance' that even if I sign for it, accepting 'full and final offer' that I may be able to get the remainder early next year should the OFT Test Court Case thing rule that the banks have to pay out the remainder even if they have signed for it?

Obviously there's some people that are going to say to me now, "we don't know as we can't predict the future etc etc, BUT what I want to know is there a CHANCE and is it one of the things consumer groups are pushing for? As well as pay outs of bank charge history to be made instantly with interest added on top, without having to write to request for it etc etc.

 

Are there other people out there at are hopeful that this may happen? That those people that have been forced to sign to accept offers due to hardship may have their remainder bank charges paid to them sometime next year?

 

Any help/advice much appreciated,

 

Cheers,

Ray

[asdf54321]

anyone?

[Lula]

hmmm, you could try the hardship thing with the banks, it is worth a go, if you cannot afford a fee at court you can ask for a remission,

 

as for the full and final settement, once you agree to that there is no going back, sorry about that - hope you are feeling better soon

[asdf54321]

First of all, thanks for answering!

 

I don't think there's much point going down the hardship route at the courts because even if I didn't have to pay the court fees, if I applied for the stay to be waived through hardship it would get knocked back anyway, as have ALL hardship cases at the considerate and humane Bristol County Court.

[Lula]

its a disgrace really, take a look in the Abbey thread, there is a case of a stay being lifted there, really there should be some uniformity, everyone (except the DJ's it seems) have been told that hardship cases are not to be stayed, have you tried going back to the bank and telling them that your personal circumstances fall into the remit of hardship and as such the OFT and banks agreed that these would be dealt with?

[jansus]

Found this today on BARCLAYS:

 

Basic Account Customer

 

Join Date: Jul 2007

Posts: 7

 

 

In court this morning - this is how it went.

I was in court this morning along with 25 other people. There was a representative from each of the banks involved. The case lasted from 10am until 2pm.

 

The stay was not lifted for anybody. Our judge was sympathetic to everyone's situations, but gave his main reason as.....

 

'I cannot see from any of the cases that hardship will be brought from the delay, to wait for the OFT case in January and the review in March 2008. I base my decision on the Nottingham Hughes & Mitchel case'.

 

TIPS for OTHER cases - from what I heard today:

• If you are using grounds of hardship for getting your stay lifted, you MUST explain in your skeleton argument how this is a direct result of bank charges. It was argued quite a bit about often financial difficulties are not a direct result of bank charges.

• The judge commented that it is hard to tell the individual requirements on hardship cases using the proforma's from websites. You MUST include with these, your own personal information as well. I also realised that the court is quite accommodating and so do not worry if you are unable to word it in 'law speak'. Your own words will be fine and means the judge will have taken a detailed look at what you submitted before the court date.

The one major benefit to most of us there today is that the judge has ordered that the banks are not able to harass, abuse, threaten (via letters or otherwise) or enforce disputed debts (through collection agencies) arising from charges or closure of accounts, in the interim, otherwise we can put in an application to him directly to strike out the defence (stay) on grounds of abuse

[jansus]

Success at A and L via hardship case route

 

 

Please also read this thread - which seems to contradict the above?

 

This all needs clarification dont you think?

 

Jan

[jansus]

If you go to general there is a thread by crfx250 with a suggested letter that could be sent to the banks - I would emphasise this is a draft only and has not been approved by anyone here - however this is a self-help site so you can decide whther you wish to go down that route - there is also information in the library section that may help you

 

Jan

[asdf54321]

Hi Jan, thanks for the info,

 

The reason I want to apply for hardship at the banks is that I don't think I'll be able to lift my stay (if I went as far as putting the case to court) as I choose not to receive benefits even though I'm entitled to them, I detailed the reason above.

 

After some phone calls to the Ombudsmen they said they would agree to help me after I'd shown hardship to the banks and they hadn't reacted apropiatly after two weeks. Only after I'd done that but specified the hardship should have nothing to do with the bank charges because of the test case claim.

 

Also thanks for the links with draft hardship templates to write for the bank, that's EXACTLY what I've been looking for but this board has grown so big now that I find it hard pin pointing information quickly.

 

Cheers and congrats on the case, I'll be reading those links etc,

Ray

[jansus]

Have you seen the announcement today regarding gathering of information on hardship cases ?

 

Jan

[asdf54321]

No I hadn't, thanks Jan I've just sent off a little Email regarding my little case here.

 

[jansus]

An idea - any comments from mods and others?

 

 

Hi hope this might help.

 

Jan

[JOSH_IOU]

You could sign on the condition it is not a full and finall offer.

 

So you are partially accepting there offer. But you must write a letter to your objection why you are signing on a partial basis.

 

 

And I would sugest you say your are rejecting on a full basis because they have not fully addressed your complaint.

[poppynurse]

I got Abbey to recognise my hardship by filling in an income/expenditure for and complaining to the FOS - Abeey originally denied hardship but then agreed. Theya re still only offering the charges back, no interest or costs but it's a start. It did take several months though and I haven't seen the money yet...

[Filthy Monkey]

Well done. That's better than most for now...