How I became a Litigant in Person
#evictionbuddies
Jeff Lampert, former founder and chairman of Heritage Plc:
I became a Litigant in Person (LiP) after the barrister I was employing said to my solicitor: ‘I’m not going to put those 2 reports into court. If Jeff insists on putting them in, he either does it himself or finds another barrister.’
This occurred just two days before a Court of Appeal hearing and a week after the barrister had received the reports. These were reports that Grant Thornton (the admin receivers to Heritage Plc) had said didn’t exist.
The same reports later became subject of a House of Commons debate.
At that time, my barrister chose to believe Grant Thornton’s assertion that I had seen these reports, rather than my affirmation that I had not. In 1998, Grant Thornton were a firm of well- respected accountants – so it was a case of my then barrister believing a professional instead of me, which he was entitled to do. I don’t believe that would happen now.
Jane Farmer, the PG Widow
I was forcibly thrown into a world of expensive litigation at a time when I was subsisting on £30/month for food and could not afford heating. ‘Consult your legal advisor’ is a standard phrase that makes me livid; who has a legal advisor to hand when they can’t afford basic living costs?
I was led down the route of legal aid but was told at the last hurdle that my home was worth more than £100k so I didn’t qualify.
Ironically, it was my home I was fighting for. For a time, I put my trust in a small-town solicitor who turned out to be no match for the game-playing antics of an aggressive, salaried, bonus-led, corporate banking lawyer. In effect, I had just as much work to do but couldn’t talk to the claimants due to legal protocol – this was very unhelpful. I couldn’t intervene when my solicitor did the wrong thing but was bound by what she did. She was constrained by how much I could pay.
Then I witnessed an argument between the opposing legal teams over who had `first call` on my home to pay their fees. That’s when I became a litigant in person.
Broken Lending - Jane Farmer`s letter to Kevin Hollinrake MP
Dear Kevin,
Many thanks for your input the other day regarding the abuse of Personal Guarantees. Your suggestion to look at the Lending Code was an interesting idea, which I have followed up (point 13 is particularly relevant in my case). In 2008, NatWest had signed up to the Business Banking Code – a precursor to the Lending Code.
I find that the personal guarantee, to which I lost my home, was subject to:
Lack of any written confirmation of terms for the ‘product’ at inception
Lack of required notice
Lack of disclosure under legal requirements
No adherence to professional risk assessment or ability to repay.
I am setting out these points to NatWest and I hope you will be interested in their response.
Project Heritage is continuing to press for the curtailment of personal guarantees in their current form – a practice which has become open to abuse following unsound precedent.
Best Regards,
Jane Farmer
Historical Cases - Jane Farmer`s letter to Kevin Hollinrake MP
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your time this week in discussing the abuse of personal guarantees.
“We are all on the same page and will keep fighting for Justice. “
You commented that your preferred aim was/is a Financial Services Tribunal to ‘get cases back into the courts’. I would agree with this in many respects but this can go horribly wrong for litigants in person, as evidenced by Emily Dugan’s article.
diyLAW suggests an alternative to overburdening the court system with Personal Guarantee-cases, which we have been discussing at length with LexisNexis and the Judiciary. Will you look into this concept?
Mindful of ‘solutions rather than problems’ the solution to the abuse of personal guarantees may be Areopa’s concept, in which a major bank has already shown an interest. We invite you to look at this.
You also referred to the accepted principle, now mysteriously missing from the Lending Standards Board`s rules; banks always first commit to look at business assets before determining whether personal assets are appropriate. That isn’t what happens. We are convinced that the abuse of this principle has proliferated due to perjury in Jeff Lampert’s case.
Kind regards
Jane Farmer
The first #evictionbuddies - Jane Farmer`s letter to Kevin Hollinrake MP
Emotions
Jeff is my eviction Buddy
I feel a very strong empathy with Jeff; we have both suffered abuse and loss by being evicted on the back of a personal guarantee. We both know what happened to us was wrong and we have a desire to fight back. Jeff is knowledgeable, bright and grounded. He’s a family man with a background in business and legal spheres. He knows the right questions to ask me.
We recognise the standard excuses, the chicanery and cover-up. We share what we are going to do about it. You could call it communication therapy.
We share the detail of how these terrible things happened to us and our families - and how we feel about it.
Jane Farmer
Jane Farmer`s Impact Statement
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Jane is my eviction Buddy because:
Eviction is a "Journey to Hell and Back". We are both at the same stage on the way back?
Jane is a very bright lady. She understands the emotions I am still going through and empathises with my feelings, without a long introduction.
Jane and I want the same outcome - to stop this happening.
We share the detail of how these terrible things happened to us and our families - and how we feel about it.
Jeff Lampert
#evictionbuddies - Jane Farmer`s email to Kevin Hollinrake MP
Dear Kevin,
I am sorry we couldn`t have the Transparency Taskforce meeting last Friday.
At the meeting, we wanted to demonstrate a prize-winning article written by Emily Dugan, which we were involved in initiating. The article demonstrates Emily overcame resistance from the Ministry of Justice in order to produce the piece. We believe Emily's ability as an Investigative Journalist is required to bring the abuse of Personal Guarantees more into the public arena. Jeff Lampert will approach Emily again. Is there anything that you or the APPG would like to say about personal guarantees (PG)?
We wanted to introduce you to the concept of #evictionbuddies. Which is a hashtag on twitter we will circulate to all potential victims of #PGcrimes. Jane Farmer and Jeff Lampert would be the first pair. By using twitter they have become aware of the extent they support each other. They would suggest the APPG has an important part to play, as having an "eviction buddy" in the same Parliamentary constituency could help the concept to be more effective, for example meetings at the MPs surgery.
We also wanted to highlight how important it is to keep the dialogue between you and me public. According to google analytics and twitter figures our emails get read for an average of 4 minutes 38 seconds by 105 people and achieve interactions on social media. I believe our discussions may be bringing some hope to some people living with the fear of eviction.
We understand TTF will rearrange the meeting.
I shall look forward to speaking to you soon.
Jane Farmer
(conversation between Jane Farmer and Kevin Hollinrake - scroll down for more)
Jane Farmer`s email to Kevin Hollinrake MP
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your continued interest.
We are very concerned about a potentially great number of impending evictions due to personal guarantees. Although the Chancellor himself and the Government clearly focus on this issue, we fear the measures being put in place may be insufficient to prevent a potentially disastrous outcome: mass evictions from Principal Private Residences (also known as PPRs).
We are particularly concerned about your description of the situation "If there is a pre-existing PG on other debt facilities then that could be called upon even if the detriment was caused by COVID".
Phase 2 of Project Heritage attempts to provide some redress to those who have been evicted from their homes due to PGs, largely in the last financial crisis.
Many of those evictions have been based on a flawed judgement which relied on a false affidavit entered into the Court of Appeal by Lloyds Bank.
We are looking to involve the FCA into what they have described as "bulk handling of legal claims". We sincerely believe the Judiciary will welcome a "bulk handling of legal claims".
We would appreciate any comments from you, the APPG or Alok Sharma`s department.
Jane Farmer
(conversation between Jane Farmer and Kevin Hollinrake - scroll down for more)
Campaign #BanksMustRepay
Campaign #PGcrimes
"This was not banking, it was highway robbery” Prof. Harper
Jane Farmer shares her devastating story with Professor Nigel Harper, an independent Retail Banking Specialist. She is seeking answers to understand how the Bank managed to get hold of her family home.
Jane Farmer:
Prof. Nigel Harper:
“The acceptable method for dealing with a Formal Demand is to give 7 days for the Personal Guarantor to come up with a viable plan to repay debt.
Since the Lampert-case Insolvency Practitioners have acted outside established banking practices.
The Borrower has the primary responsibility to repay the bank.
Clauses within the Personal Guarantee and Borrower`s Guarantee allow for time to pay.
Every loan is a demand loan, I.e. repayable on demand.
A Personal Guarantor is secondary security after the assets of the Borrower are liquidated.
Once the Borrower’s debt has crystallised then the amount payable under a Personal Guarantee is the liability of the Guarantor.
The Lampert-case changed everything in favour of the banks. They ran amok.
Insolvency Practitioners were out of control asset stripping everything in sight.
Jeff Lampert claims his case was lost on a perjured Affidavit by Lloyds Bank.
This was not banking, it was highway robbery.
The Personal Guarantor is a victim of crime.”
The Abuse of Personal Guarantees
Jane Farmer is a statistic.
She is just one of the - according to our best estimate - hundreds of thousands who have been evicted due to a Personal Guarantee (PG).
The first Jane was aware of this Personal Guarantee was when her husband, Godfrey, told her about it in the ambulance on his way to the hospital after his suicide attempt.
PGs still operate in the same way today.
People are still committing suicide.
We are not able to provide the statistics for PG suicides
Hope from despair
#PGcrimes Latest on social media
Eviction leads to PTSD?
#PGcrimes #bankabuse #fairbanking #litigantsinperson
