Beneficial Finance PPI Claim

[ANNALH]

The only document they sent me was a copy of the original agreement with HFC (which they said in a letter they did not have but arranged to get it from HFC for me). They did not have the correct paperwork!

 

They have refused to send me d of a, or copy default notice.

[ANNALH]

There is no sign of the £1296 seperately on the final statement from HFC unless it is in one of the unidentified transactions i have mentioned.

 

The balance before those items above was £4435.5 which is what i owed HFC it is correct i have checked, then they deducted £116 and £180 for some reason and then £1507 before 'charging off' the remaining balance.

[ANNALH]

Thanks.

 

I will withdraw my claim.

 

Regarding the settlement letter we were talking about yesterday i will start at a settlement offer of 20% in return for me withdrawing my claim as i want to try and offer them something in return for them accepting my low offer. Any ideas how to word a letter to be persuasive?

 

Thanks.

[ANNALH]

Tomorrow I will be sending these letters to Wescot unless anyone can advise me on the wording.

 

1.

Sara De Tute

Wescot Credit Services Ltd

PO Box 137

Dunedin House

45 Percy Street

Hull

HU2 8HF

5th February 2007.

 

Dear Mrs De Tute,

 

Ref: Claim x, x-v-Wescot Credit Services Ltd

 

I write concerning the above claim.

 

Since filing the claim I have had a change of circumstances, to continue with the claim I will have to instruct a solicitor and as such counsel to represent me, I believe this will make the claim commercially unsound for myself and due to this I am prepared to discontinue my claim on the

following grounds:

 

That we enter into the following consent order :

1.The claim is discontinued.

2.This is in Full and Final settlement of the claim.

3.No costs awards to any party.

 

If you are unprepared to accept these terms I will instruct a solicitor to represent me in court.

 

I will wait until 14th February for your reply, if your client is not prepared to accept my offer by this date I will make instructions.

 

I await your position on the above.

 

 

 

 

and.

2.

 

Sara De Tute

Wescot Credit Services Ltd

PO Box 137

Dunedin House

45 Percy Street

Hull

HU2 8HF

5th February 2007.

 

Dear Mrs De Tute,

 

Ref: Claim x, x-v-Wescot Credit Services Ltd

 

I write concerning the above claim.

 

You will by now have received my letter informing you of my intention to withdraw my claim for the reasons in that letter.

 

I trust also we can come to an agreeable compromise regarding the settlement of my debt of £2299 in light of the fact that I am withdrawing my claim.

 

Having reviewed my financial situation it seems to reinstate monthly payments would be ridiculous due to the little I have to offer, and in order to bring this account to a close as soon as possible I would therefore like to offer you the sum of £450 in full and final settlement of my debt to Wescot Credit Services/Wescot Group. If this is agreeable I would be able to pay this sum immediately as soon as I have your acceptance in writing.

 

Yours sincerely

[ANNALH]

ttt

[stan5131]

Anna. If you are intent on sending this letter, then I would change the wording a little. It gives more of an impression that you have no hope of winning and therefore will give them the impression that they have no reason to barter with you.

 

Perhaps Karnevil will better advise, but looking at bank charges, the banks always send letters to us claiming they will be successful in defending, even though they know they will not. Its a bit like the banks writing to us saying "we havent a cat in hells chance of winning if you take us to court but are still asking that you accept 1/3rd of what we owe you" If you see what I mean.

 

Its up to you hun. Just my thoughts.

[ANNALH]

Anna. If you are intent on sending this letter, then I would change the wording a little. It gives more of an impression that you have no hope of winning and therefore will give them the impression that they have no reason to barter with you.

 

Perhaps Karnevil will better advise, but looking at bank charges, the banks always send letters to us claiming they will be successful in defending, even though they know they will not. Its a bit like the banks writing to us saying "we havent a cat in hells chance of winning if you take us to court but are still asking that you accept 1/3rd of what we owe you" If you see what I mean.

 

Its up to you hun. Just my thoughts.

 

Hi Stan,

 

which letter should i change? the offer letter? so i need to give more of an impression that i have no hope of winning, is that right?

 

Thanks

[stan5131]

No. exactly the opposite, you need to give the impression that you think you have a good case. The letter you have done reads more like you dont feel you have a chance of winning. Its both letters really. Wait until Karnevil has a look. Make sure she agrees with me. x

[ANNALH]

Thanks Karn,

 

If I withdraw my claim first then i have nothing to offer them thats what i was worried about.

 

But i think you are right. I will redraft the second letter when wescot have agreed to the terms of me withdrawing the claim.

 

Any ideas on hw to word the offer letter?

[ANNALH]

Thanks Stan.

 

So letter 1 sounds like i dont think i have a hope of winning? so should i say i am withdrawing for different reasons, such as my time etc?

[ANNALH]

maybe i should say something like the costs of my time will be more than the amount i am claiming so it will not be worth it - you know, exactly what they say when they offer to settle due to costs of defending being more than the amount we are claiming..lol

[stan5131]

Say something like, in view of the costs and time involved in bringing this action, I am prepared to withdraw my claim on the following conditions:-

[ANNALH]

OK. This is the letter i sent today;

 

 

 

Dear Mrs De Tute,

 

Ref: Claim x, x-v-Wescot Credit Services Ltd

 

I write concerning the above claim and your letter dated 31st January 2007.

 

I would like to remind you of the fact that you admitted to me in writing in your letter dated 5th September 2006 that you didn't have the correct documents before commencing collection of the debt. You had to request the documents from HFC bank in order to provide them to me.

Therefore a Judge will certainly not be satisfied with your 'paper trail' and would rule against you.

 

However, in view of the time and costs involved in bringing this claim I am prepared to discontinue my claim on the following grounds:

 

That we enter into the following consent order :

1.The claim is discontinued.

2.This is in Full and Final settlement of the claim.

3.No costs awards to any party.

 

If you are unprepared to accept these terms I will instruct a solicitor to represent me in court.

 

I will wait until 14th February for your reply, if your client is not prepared to accept my offer by this date I will make instructions.

 

I await your position on the above.

 

Yours sincerely

[ANNALH]

I havent had a reply from Wescot yet so I am going to submit my court bundle.

 

The items I have included are;

 

Summary of my case

Correspondence

Latest schedule of charges

List of Transactions

Relevant Case Law Summary (for charges I used the list in the court bundle from this site, for defaults i used the Woodchester v Swain case) I couldnt find anythin else for CCA non-compliance etc.

UTCCR 1999

UCTA 1977

SOGA 1982

CCA 1974

Is there anything else i should put in?

[ANNALH]

Bump

[ANNALH]

The Deed of Assignment is different from the signed original credit agreement.

 

You have received a copy of the signed credit agreement from HFC.

 

You cannot claim all the money you have paid them as the debt is enforceable.

 

You can keep going for the penalty charges on the account - which were charged by HFC. It appears westcot did not add any charges to the account, thus there are none to reclaim from westcot,

 

You also said you have received a refund of charges from HFC.

 

If HFC refunded the charges (which were a lot less than the default balance) there is no reason for them to remove the default.

 

I would make an offer to Westcot to settle your account.

 

I will ask someone else to have a look to but this is how I see the position at the moment.

 

Karn,

 

The refund i received from HFC was for charges of £240 which were added to the account as it went on. My current claim is for charges of £1296 (which along with the £240 were included in the default balance, making the default overstated by £1536) which appears to be either the HFC's collection charge or a charge added by Wescot, but was not listed on any of the statements and Wescot have not been able to suggest what this was.

 

The default is still overstated and I still want back the £1296 in charges and as Wescot havent yet accepted my offer to withdraw I am continuing on that basis.

 

I am submitting my court bundle on Monday which explains all this and I have not mentioned my offer to withdraw.

[stan5131]

Anna. Looks ok to me. You are quite right. £1286 is still unaccounted for and they are obliged to explain this amount or remove it. I would include a copy of the letter with your court bundle showing that you attempted to resolve this matter.

[ANNALH]

Thanks Stan,

 

I have included all correspondence in my court bundle showing the many attempts i made to resolve this.

 

Do you think i should include the offer to withdraw letter?

[stan5131]

Yes. I think its important to include this aswell.

[ANNALH]

OK Thanks.

 

Is there anything else i have missed out my bundle?

 

I have now put in (under relevant case law) extracts from CCA section 77, 78 and 127.

[stan5131]

It look like you have covered everything to me. However, wait while Karn is around for her input.

[Laiste]

Hi Anna,

 

God, I really wish I had read your thread before today, so that I could have helped you in the early stages! I have to say that I believe you filed your claim somewhat hastily, before considering or getting the appropriate advice on what grounds to file your claim. That said, I think there are grounds for pursuing a claim against them, but it includes issues that you haven't raised, you are probably not aware of them. It will involve amending your claim, using the application notice form, but it may just make all the difference between winning or god forbid conceding defeat to these parasites!

 

Under no circumstances include any letters in your court bundle offering to settle the dispute with them. Anyway, these letters should always be marked without prejudice, so they can't be used in the proceedings or against you by the other party in court. It is commonplace that parties enter into negotiations during a case to try and resolve the issue, but in the event that such discussions break down, the without prejudice marker stops either party from securing an advantage in court.

 

Can you let me know if you are prepared to amend your claim and pursue this matter, as there isn't much point in going in lengthy detail, if you are content with proceeding with your claim as it stands.

 

Just to let you know, so you don't think I'm going to send you on a flight of fancy, I have successfully got rid of a debt with Egg that was in excess of £5000 and I'm in the process of doing the same with HFC that is over 10000, I am also claiming back all the monies paid to them.

 

Let me know what you want to do asap, as the app notice needs to filed very soon if you want to do this! I am prepared to give you my contact details so we can sort this out quickly.

 

Regards,

 

Laiste:)

[ANNALH]

Hi Anna,

 

God, I really wish I had read your thread before today, so that I could have helped you in the early stages! I have to say that I believe you filed your claim somewhat hastily, before considering or getting the appropriate advice on what grounds to file your claim. That said, I think there are grounds for pursuing a claim against them, but it includes issues that you haven't raised, you are probably not aware of them. It will involve amending your claim, using the application notice form, but it may just make all the difference between winning or god forbid conceding defeat to these parasites!

 

Under no circumstances include any letters in your court bundle offering to settle the dispute with them. Anyway, these letters should always be marked without prejudice, so they can't be used in the proceedings or against you by the other party in court. It is commonplace that parties enter into negotiations during a case to try and resolve the issue, but in the event that such discussions break down, the without prejudice marker stops either party from securing an advantage in court.

 

Can you let me know if you are prepared to amend your claim and pursue this matter, as there isn't much point in going in lengthy detail, if you are content with proceeding with your claim as it stands.

 

Just to let you know, so you don't think I'm going to send you on a flight of fancy, I have successfully got rid of a debt with Egg that was in excess of £5000 and I'm in the process of doing the same with HFC that is over 10000, I am also claiming back all the monies paid to them.

 

Let me know what you want to do asap, as the app notice needs to filed very soon if you want to do this! I am prepared to give you my contact details so we can sort this out quickly.

 

Regards,

 

Laiste:)

 

Laiste,

 

Tell me more, I am intrigued.

 

I will certainly consider amending my case if there is something i have missed.

 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts (hopefully tonight as I am due to take my bundle to court in the morning!)

 

Many thanks

[Laiste]

Hi Anna,

 

Ok, you have never received a Default Notice (DN) the onus is them to prove that it was sent. If it wasn't sent to you by recorded or guaranteed delivery, they are going to have a hard time proving that it was served correctly and that the contract came to an end because the DN was not complied with. So, in effect bringing the contract to an end without giving you an opportunity to remedy the breach is unlawful. You can claim damages for the unlawful ending of the contract, as you did not receive the DN.

 

If you had been sent the DN in all likelihood it would have penalty charges included which also makes it invalid. You cannot issue a DN with unlawful charges included.

 

Have you considered making a claim under harassment laws? I am sure you can remember the volume of neverending threatening and aggressive calls you received, along with the hostile letters. You could claim damages for harassment under the Administration of Justice Act 1970 and The Protection From Harassment Act 1997.

 

The way to get a genuine copy of the DN and details of how often they called you and details of calls, is to request the info using from them giving them 7 days to respond. If they fail to respond, which they will, you would file an application notice with the Court, stating they are refusing to provide evidence and asking the Judge to issue an Order compelling them to furnish the info. The Judge would then give them a period of time to comply, if they don't the Judge may throw their case out and grant you Judgment by Default. My guess is as far as providing details of calls they have made, they will be very reluctant to furnish this info to support a claim of harassment.

 

Laiste.

[ANNALH]

Thanks Laiste,

 

Thats very interesting. So should i submit my court bundle as it is and then amend my claim? What form do i need to fill in to amend my claim? do i need to apply for a stay so i can amend my claim?

 

Many thanks