The Consumer Action Group (CAG) has joined up with Dorset Eye to bring readers all the legal updates and advice. Please share this and enable everyone to benefit.
CAG to join bailiff advisory panel: Bailiff company Marston are putting together an advisory group of outsiders to monitor their operation and to suggest changes to their procedures in order to achieve what they say will be a more ethical and transparent approach. The Group will include some significant figures in public life and the Consumer Action Group have been invited to participate. We have agreed to join the Group. Some people will wonder why the CAG has agreed to become involved with a major player in the enforcement industry in this way. The answer is that we are not becoming involved with the industry at all. Instead we are accepting an opportunity to reflect consumer concerns with the way that the enforcement industry often conducts itself, to provide scrutiny, to offer advice and suggestions as to how Marston can adjust their procedures to provide a greater level of transparency and fairness.
Please feel free to make your comments or criticism about CAG’s involvement in the Advisory Group, in this thread. What are your worst bailiff experiences? The Consumer Action Group is conducting a poll. The results will be fed through to the new Advisory Group – and hopefully they will help make a difference to the experience of others who receive visits from bailiffs. The bailiff poll is only for those who have actually been unfortunate enough to have direct experience of a bailiff visit. If you have not yet had that pleasure, then please don’t vote in the poll. Please help us by contributing to this poll.
BCOBS judgment against Santander – unfair treatment: CAG user MadPriest has just secured a judgment against Santander using Banking: Conduct of Business (BCOBS) BCOBS is available as a simple action by any customer who has suffered unfair treatment at the hands of their bank. It can be brought as a small claim in the county court. This particular claim involved a series of bounced cheques against a bank account in funds and for no discernible reason. The bank also refused to follow their customer’s reasonable instructions even though they acknowledge that the instructions were received. The claim was brought in respect of Santander’s unfair treatment of their customer and for the damage to the customer’s reputation caused by the bank’s unfair treatment in bouncing cheques.
Payday loans – have you been affected by bad practices? A TV production company is making a programme which will look to expose the Payday Loan companies and would like to hear the stories of people who have been most affected by their bad practices. If you have: • Experienced aggressive marketing by Payday Loan companies • Received a Payday Loan without having undergone appropriate credit checks • Excessively ‘rolled over’ your Payday Loans • Been the victim of aggressive collection practices then they’d like to hear your story. Contact
Legal aid is being ruled out of court: Far-reaching changes will effectively prevent anyone earning more than £20,000 a year from obtaining help. From the beginning of April 2013 the chances of getting help with legal bills will be slim. The Law Society estimates 650,000 cases will no longer qualify, including 20,000 employment cases and 200,000 in family law. The cut-off point to be able to get legal aid will be a household income of £32,000, and those between £14,000 and £32,000 will have to go through a detailed means test.
Bar Council issue new court guide: The Bar Council has published a jargon-busting guide to help litigants in person in the wake of the legal aid cuts that came into force at the beginning of April. The 74-page guide, put together by specialist bar associations, offers advice on finding free or affordable legal help, putting a case together, starting or defending a case and what to expect if a case goes to court. It includes specialist sections on areas of law including personal injury, employment, immigration, family, public law and judicial review, housing and bankruptcy and debt. In the introduction, it explains: ‘Whether people use barristers’ services or not, we think we have a responsibility to explain and demystify the legal system to anyone who comes into contact with it.’ The guide tries to explain unfamiliar legal words and jargon and provides a glossary of terms at the end.
Energy Bill Revolution: One in four UK households now live in fuel poverty, meaning they need to spend more than 10% of their income on energy to keep warm. The Energy Bill Revolution is a movement of people committed to ensuring warm homes and lower bills for all. The most immediate and effective way to make your voice heard is to sign their petition for warm homes and lower bills, and to email your MP. This will take just a minute or two of your time, but will mean that the government and your local MP know you care about this issue.
CRB checks to be relaxed: Thousands of job applicants will no longer have to face their criminal past being disclosed to employers, under changes announced by the Home Office. Old and minor cautions and convictions will be filtered out of the information revealed in applications for jobs in England and Wales. It follows a Court of Appeal ruling in January that blanket checks did not comply with human rights laws. All serious violent and sexual offences will continue to be disclosed.
Government fails to reach flood insurance deal: The Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has admitted he was disappointed at failing to secure a new agreement over the insurance of homes and businesses at high risk of flooding. The government has been locked in talks with the insurance industry for months over the future of flood cover as the existing agreement – the Statement of Principles – runs out in June 2013. This agreement between the government and the industry obliges insurers to offer flood insurance as part of standard policies at reasonable rates, providing the government invests in flood defences.
Packaged bank accounts: new mis-selling rules – New rules for banks and building societies to prevent the mis-selling of paid-for ‘packaged’ current accounts came into effect on 1st April. The new rules follow fears that some customers have been throwing money ‘down the drain’ in monthly fees for accounts with add-ons such as travel or mobile phone insurance or car breakdown cover which later turn out to be useless to them. Banks will need to share this information with their customers and alert them to policies where they are not covered.
Goodbye FSA, hello FCA: Few will mourn the passing of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) which closed its doors on 31st March. It will be mainly remembered as the watchdog that didn’t bark. It was seen as reluctant to take action against individuals involved in breaking the rules, be they big or small. It was criticised as too slow, too reactive, too dedicated to its rule book. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which replaces the FSA has promised ‘a renewed focus on consumers’ as well as ‘strong enforcement action…’ when encounters market abuse. The FCA has also claimed it ‘will be much more proactive, acting earlier and more decisively than the FSA’. Hopefully the FCA’s statements will be backed up by strong action, sooner rather than later.
Small claims court limit now £10,000: The financial limit for the small claims track has increased to £10,000 for claims issued after 1 April 2013. Lower limits apply to personal injury claims and housing disrepair claims. The limits in Northern Ireland and Scotland will remain at £3,000.
Challenging your ‘bedroom tax’ decision: If you have been issued with a ‘bedroom tax’ decision by your local council you only have one month to challenge it. Govan Law Centre has developed a toolkit guide which explains how you can challenge the cut in your housing benefit from the bedroom tax. The guide provides step by step guidance and illustrations on how to complete a ‘Dispute Form’ – what to say, where to send it to, where you can get further advice, what will happen next.
New Charging Order rules: £1,000 debt could force house sale More than 700,000 households in England and Wales are at risk of losing their homes over debts as small as £1,000. New rules came into effect this month governing the way that creditors can force the sale of property in order to repay outstanding sums on payday loans, credit cards and other forms of consumer debt. A u-turn by the Government means that the £25,000 threshold originally proposed now only has a limit of £1,000.
Guide to Power of Attorney: A new guide explains how a person can manage a bank or building society account on another person’s behalf. It describes the circumstances in which this is possible and how it can be done. It also sets out the documents you will need to show the bank or building society to be able to manage the account. The guide, entitled ‘Guidance for people wanting to manage a bank account for someone else’, can be downloaded free of charge from the BBA, the BSA and the Ministry of Justice websites.
Marston bailiffs acquires Rossendales: Marston Holdings has purchased enforcement firm Rossendales for an undisclosed sum. The deal makes Rossendales a sister firm of enforcement company Marston Group, with the two firms executing around 1.2m court orders per year. The two entities have a field force of more than 1,000 and combined revenues approaching £50m a year.
Toyota, Honda and Nissan: air bag re-call: Toyota, Honda and Nissan are recalling 3.4m vehicles worldwide after discovering a fault with front passenger seat airbags In the UK there are 76,000 Toyotas affected, 15,400 Hondas and 59,058 Nissans. The affected models have all been supplied with front passenger seat airbags by the same Japanese component supplier, Takata. Some of these airbags have been found to have safety defects. Toyota, Honda and Nissan will all be writing to affected customers within the next 30 days.
Post Office to launch current bank account: The Post Office has announced that it is going to launch a current account. While it refused to reveal what kind of account it will be or exactly when it will be available, the move could be massively significant. Initially they will be made available in a small number of branches, before a wider roll-out next year. Despite shrinking its network almost in half in recent years, the Post Office still has around 11,500 branches and already has strong financial ties with Bank of Ireland, which will be providing the banking expertise behind the new launch.
OFT to look into phone games with costly add-ons: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced that it will investigate whether children are being unfairly pressured to buy additional content in phone app and web-based games. Usually these games are free to download, but children have unwittingly racked up large bills buying virtual currency, gems or fruit in games. The OFT is asking for parents and consumer groups to contact it with information about potentially misleading or commercially aggressive practices they are aware of in relation to these games.
Amendments to the Social Fund: The Welfare Reform Act 2012 abolishes the discretionary Social Fund and will be replaced by: Short-term Advances will replace Interim Payments and Social Fund Crisis Loan alignment payments for all benefits from April 2013. Budgeting Advances will replace Social Fund Budgeting Loans for eligible Universal Credit claimants from April 2013. Budgeting Loans will continue to be available to those claiming legacy benefits until all such claims have either been closed or migrated to Universal Credit.
Bailiifs: Form 4 Complaints – URGENT Costs warning If you have suffered improper treatment from a bailiff, you may decide to try and and have his bailiff’s certificate removed by means of a Form 4 complaint. But beware, most complainants do not realise that, where a complaint fails, courts are able to impose costs in favour of a bailiff. Many bailiff companies have turned to instructing counsel to act on behalf of their bailiffs. The cost of such representation can run to many thousands of pounds. There is no warning on the form 4 that pursuing what to some extent complainants say they see as a public duty could cost them large sums of money which they can ill afford.
Natwest: RBS overdraft fees set to soar Millions of customers with Natwest and Royal Bank of Scotland are facing new fees of up to £72 a year for dipping more than £10 into their arranged overdrafts. From July 12, current account customers with the state-backed bank will be charged a £6 a month arranged overdraft usage fee when they go over £10 into the red – on top of existing annual interest of 19.89%. The rule changes also mean that the interest – which customers have on their arranged overdrafts will be cut from its current level of £100 to £10 https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?388985-Natwest-amp-RBS-overdraft-fees-set-to-soar&p=4209402#post4209402
