davehaley vs cahoot

[davehaley]

I've been reading these forums for a couple of months now and have started on the track to regaining some of my consumer power.

 

Story so far

A couple of mails sent to cahoot asking for my money back and to stop charging me these fees. These failed misrably.

 

Prelim letter sent 2nd Aug 2006 - usual "if your not happy then sod off" reply.

LBA letter sent 25th Aug 2006 - another "if your not happy then sod off" and an offer to refund £130, accepted as partial settlement, this was a nice surprise and equals the amout owed to me for crediat card fees, used this money to pay for MCOL

MCOL filed on 15th Sept 2006. now waiting for cahoot to see that I am serious and pay up. They could have saved themselves £500+ in intrest and £120 in court fees if they had payed up before this point but ever mind.

 

Another account already opened with the Halifax so will use this one if cahoot turn nasty.

 

Does anyone know a bank that has lowered it's fees down to a more reasonable level?

[livelylad]

I've been reading these forums for a couple of months now and have started on the track to regaining some of my consumer power.

 

Story so far

A couple of mails sent to cahoot asking for my money back and to stop charging me these fees. These failed misrably.

 

Prelim letter sent 2nd Aug 2006 - usual "if your not happy then sod off" reply.

LBA letter sent 25th Aug 2006 - another "if your not happy then sod off" and an offer to refund £130, accepted as partial settlement, this was a nice surprise and equals the amout owed to me for crediat card fees, used this money to pay for MCOL

MCOL filed on 15th Sept 2006. now waiting for cahoot to see that I am serious and pay up. They could have saved themselves £500+ in intrest and £120 in court fees if they had payed up before this point but ever mind.

 

 

Another account already opened with the Halifax so will use this one if cahoot turn nasty.

 

Does anyone know a bank that has lowered it's fees down to a more reasonable level?

 

good luck:D

[davehaley]

Cahoot have acknowledged the claim on 26th September, sent them a quick e-mail to customer services just to give them a chance to pay up now to avoid further court fees and interest but just got a standard reply saying no. The MCOL is considdered served on 22nd September so they have until 20th October to put in a defence.

[Micking]

Cahoot have defended the full amount I am claiming for so have now received and sent back the Allocation Questionnaire and will wait for the court date...

Will keep you posted!

Michelle

[davehaley]

That's about right for them. Looking at all the other threads for abbey and cahoot it seems like they like to take it all the way. I don't know about you but it just makes me more determined.

[davehaley]

Got my letter from DLA yesterday informing me that they have filed a defence. Now waiting for the AQ to come through but I have a problem. I am away on holiday in spain From next friday for 10 days so it's going to be a bit tight if I get the AQ sent through this week as it won't give DLA long to try and negotiate a settlement when I get beck before I have to send the AQ back.

 

Something interesting on the defence:-

 

9. Further or in the alternative, even if the said fees are not proportionate to the Defendant's administrative expenses incurred (which is denied), the Claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate and the claimant is not entitled to claim repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the account.

 

Is this bit standard? I haven't seen it anywhere else.

[davehaley]

After a week on holiday I have come back to find nothig from Cahoot or DLA Piper. After looking on the MCOL site I see that cahoot have not filed a defence 5 weeks after being served with the claim so I have started judgement by default. According to the nice people at MCOL they can still file a defence today and this will overrule my judgement but if they don't then they will have to either pay up or appeal. My feeling is that they will go for the latter.

 

Since the start of my claim they have charged me another £195 so I am getting ready to start to the whole process again just as soon as they pay up.

[jkop]

i got this bit in my defence i got on saturday - fairly standard really.

 

 

Got my letter from DLA yesterday informing me that they have filed a defence. Now waiting for the AQ to come through but I have a problem. I am away on holiday in spain From next friday for 10 days so it's going to be a bit tight if I get the AQ sent through this week as it won't give DLA long to try and negotiate a settlement when I get beck before I have to send the AQ back.

 

Something interesting on the defence:-

 

9. Further or in the alternative, even if the said fees are not proportionate to the Defendant's administrative expenses incurred (which is denied), the Claimant remains liable to pay such fees as may be found to be proportionate and the claimant is not entitled to claim repayment of the full amount of each charge made to the account.

 

Is this bit standard? I haven't seen it anywhere else.

[davehaley]

Called DLA Piper yesterday to let them know they have not entered a deffence and they informed me that htey are longer acting on behalf of abbey for bank charges issues. The kind lady then gave me the number to contact at abbey.

 

Phoned abbey and let them know about the lack of a defence. They seemed confused about the process and didn't know much about the case, anyway she thanked me for letting her know that they had not filed a defence and she would have a look at my file and get back to me. That was late yesterday afternoon, no call as yet.

 

I expect them to start making the 50% offer soon, of course this will be rejected immediately.

[jkop]

same here - she wanted to make me an offer but hasn't called. She also forgot to file defence to the court - even though she sent it to me! I think they are bogged down by the amount of claims, I don't think that they are going to get their defence in time (due tuesday) if they don't I've done all I can in telling them I shall be filing for judgement by default

[davehaley]

After filing for judgement by default I today recevied a note from MCOL so I presume that Abbey now have one as well. This should but a rocket up thier backside to get moving.

 

On another note I have asked cahoot to refund all the charges (£220) since I filed my claim. 2 mails and many phone calls and the refused to budge until I mentioned the court action against them and then they offered £105 as a gesture of goodwill but with the condition that I take no further action on these charges. My response to them will be "no, it's my money and I want it ALL back".

 

Here we go again.:grin:

[davehaley]

Called abbey today to ask if they wanted to make me an offer prior to me asking for a warrant of execution and they had the cheek to ask why I hadn't sent a defence into the court for them as they had forgotten. After I picked myself off the floor I reminded them that as they are the defendant and they are the "proffesionals" then they should be a bit more on the ball.

 

Anyway, she was going to have a look at my file and ring me back today hopefully with an offer. No call as yet and I kinda get the feeling they might have finished for the day so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Does anyone know what the next steps are? Do I have to ask the court to send the bailiffs in? Or will abbey be able to appeal against the judgment?

 

I haven't seen many cases go in this direction so it's getting a bit lonley.

[Lager_Lou]

THEY asked YOU why you hadn't entered a defence for them??!!

 

Lost for words.

[jkop]

pmsl they did the same to me - forgot to post it off.

[davehaley]

Yes it's true. Maybe if one day this case actually got to court they might want me to defend against myself. Obviously there short of resource, I can't think why!

[davehaley]

Called abbey yesterday on the offchance we could start some dialogue and get me my money back but Inga was only bothered about the fact I had asked for judgment by default and would not talk about settling until that was sorted.

 

Just received a letter this morning from Tom Cummins at Ashursts.

 

"we have recently been instructed to act on behalf of Abbey National Plc in this matter.

 

We refer to the judgement by default dated 31 October 2006. We are writing to notify you that the Defendant has made an application to set aside the Judgment. The defendant filed a defence through it's then solicitors DLA Piper, on 12 October but, inadvertently , the claim number was incorrectly cited on the fax cover sheet. The defendant is therefore contending that the defence was filed within the time period reqiored but doe to an oversight on the part of the defendants then solicitors the filing was not processed by the court. We would be gratful if, in the circumstances, you do not contest the Defendants application. We reserve the right to draw the court's attention to this letter."

 

They put the wrong claim number on the fax cover sheet, how very shAbbey of them.

 

But what does this mean, will I get a chance to object to the set aside or is there no point?

 

Could I use this as a bargaining tool, is it worth phoning abbey and seeing if they want to settle on the understanding that I don't object?

[jkop]

TBH they will probably get away with it - whether you object or not. Abbey are really inundated and are getty very sloppy. They didn't post of my defence (even though they sent to me!). TBH I'd just get things moving onto the next stage.. sooner you get the AQ back the sooner you get a court date the sooner they willl offer full settlement.

[davehaley]

Thanks for the words of wisdom, I will do that.

[jkop]

Double post again - whats up with the forum today!

[davehaley]

Well they got away with it, the court have accepted thier defence (it cost them £65 to have the judgement stayed) and transferred my case to Dewsbury court. I guess I just sit back and wait for the AQ to come then I might give abbey a call to see if they want to settle before they waste any more of thier money on court fees.

[davehaley]

This confuses me more by the day. I thought Abbey had got the judgement set aside but after a call to the court and then a letter yesterday it turns out I have a court hearing so the judge can decide on wether to grant them to the set aside.

The question is, is there any point in going to court as they will get thier own way anyway. Would I be better agreeing to the set aside without going to court and then getting things moving quicker?

[davehaley]

I have another question. In my original claim I didn't claim the interest charged but after going through my statements for the last year I have found that in the list of charges thay sent me they missed some off. Whilst adding in the missing charges I thought I would see how the interest added up and to my supprise it £92 in one year.

 

Is is now possible to ammend my claim? As I am at the court stage I get that I will have to fill out an ammend claim form and pay £35 ammend charge.

[davehaley]

Any body got any advice, cahoot are in court tomorrow to try and get the judgement by default overturned.

 

Do I need to go and do I need to take any documents?

[davehaley]

Good news

 

Abbey got the set aside so I got an allocation questionaire to be back at the court by 31st Jan. Thinking I might as well give negotiation a try I called abbey and to my surprise they were actually quite helpfull. I called on Monday to get things rolling and then again on Wednesday once they had managed to work things out.

To my amazement I managed to negotiate them to refund all the charges claimed + interest+ recent charges + fees minus about 2%. I am more then happy with this as it will put the whole thing to bed and mean I can pay most of a credit card off thus reducing interest charged on it.

 

The confirmation letter should be here tomorrow and the money should be in the bank before the allocation questionaire is due in so no need to scrape together £100 court fees.

 

All in all it looks like another win.

 

When I get the money I will post back here with the good news.

[121o121]

Hi Dave

 

Have you received anything in writing from them yet?

 

PS. Did you either yourself or Abbey go to court re the set aside?