Account Errors are you at risk?
If you think you may have been overcharged
- GET PROFESSIONAL HELP. Find out whether you qualify for Legal Aid - a proven account error is a valid dispute. Fees for error checking can be paid under Legal Aid as part of your solicitors fees and disbursements.
- CONSULT your local Law Society Lawyers For Your Business participating solicitor(s) who will give at least 30 minutes FREE legal advice on such problems, and will be able to advise on legal aid matters.
- CHOOSE 2 YEARS from your account(s) where an error is most likely to have happened, and have this period checked for problems. If errors are found, other years can be checked with confidence.
- GET A DETAILED REPORT of any possible errors in the account and either use your existing professional adviser(s) to raise a claim, or initially put in the claim yourself. Preserve your existing relations with the bank or building society, rather than bring in a new negotiator on your behalf.
DO NOT
- ASSUME
it cant happen to me Statements produced by computer were assumed to be infallible until last year. We now know this is not correct. Interest rates agreed at 3% over base can be entered into the computer as 5% or even 8% without anyone -including the bank or society- being aware of a problem. Most businesses and their professional advisors were unaware this could occur.
- ASK your bank to confirm their charges are correct, or accept a casual assurance that there has been no error. Few institutions are able to check potential errors at branch level using computer systems such as ours. We have seen hand-written calculations provided by branches to prove that no errors exist. Hand calculations are not acceptable under any circumstances.
- REQUEST copy documentation unless asked to do so by your advisers. If important letters or forms are missing, it may be because they were not originally sent to you. -Also copy documentation/ statements are often charged for. Don't incur costs unless you need to.
- ACCEPT the first offer you receive. Get errors agreed, have the amounts credited to your account from the day the error arose, and then have your accounts re-checked. Correcting an error from 12 months or more ago will show new errors in charging.
If an error of £1,000 is agreed as from say 2 years ago; all subsequent charges need to be recalculated with that credit back in the account on the date(s) on which it was incorrectly removed. Such consequential loss claims can exceed the amount of the original error!
--And most importantly, NEVER
SIGN
a full and final settlement agreement without making sure that you have claimed the full amount due.
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