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£1000 settlement

from Gary Niemen (gary.niemen@swipnet.se)
In 1997, I gave up my flat in London for voluntary repossession. The shortfall was over £20,000. It has been a long and difficult journey but last week, EVERSHEDS phoned me and said that their client, Abbey National, would be willing to accept my offer of £1000 as full and final settlement. I am of course relieved and overjoyed.

I had quite a good case against Abbey National (right at the beginning they agreed to my offer of £50 a month and then due to an administrative error failed to contact me for three years) and also a number of things in my favour such as other debts, no savings, and the fact that I am self-employed and live in Sweden but I was still surprised that AN agreed to settle.

I would just like to say thank you to all the people from this site who helped me along the way. The site gave me the confidence to keep on arguing my case and gave me some invaluable amunition such as the legal principle of estoppel.

Just in case it helps others, here are some things that I have learnt along the way:

1) Keep all communication written. 2) Don't be intimidated by the legal language and don't be bullied. 3) The people writing the letters are not as intelligent as they might appear. On several occassions I was able to destroy arguments with simple logic and basic human values. 4) Perservere and seek knowledge from sites such as this one.

The very best of luck to all of you caught up in these sort of very trying situations and may stories such as mine give you the encouragement to "fight" on.

Regards Gary Niemen

(posted 8421 days ago)

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