Today I read a great story in Yahoo Finance which made me smile – and so I thought I would share.
The story goes that in 2009 Warren Nyerges — a retired policeman — and his wife Maureen Collier bought a house for £100,000 on the Golden Gates Estates development in Florida. They paid for the property in cash and did not take out a mortgage. There was no debt on the property.
However, in February 2010 the Bank of America initiated repossession proceedings against them. But, the couple never had a mortgage in the first place and so they won and proceedings were dropped.
However, the couple were still left with a legal bill of £1,500 and so they requested the bank compensate them. They asked repeatedly. But the bank still didn’t respond and so the couple went to the courts to get their compensation. The courts agreed, and told the bank to pay them their due.
After yet 5 more months and still no money, despite phone calls and letters, the couple took the next logical step and got a foreclosure order against the bank.
And so the couple’s lawyer, two policemen, along with a moving van, then reported to the bank to collect desks, chairs computers and anything else of value — even the cash from the tellers’ drawers — to compensate the wronged couple.
And if you want to see the tables turned — you can view TV news reports of the event
It is reported that under this pressure from the law and the media, it only took about an hour for the bank manager to produce a cheque for £3,515.11 to cover the bills the couple had built up.
The bank’s written statement reads: “We apologise to Mr Nyerges that there was a delay in receiving the funds…The original request went to an outside attorney who is no longer in business”
How original to pass the buck to someone who is no longer in business 🙂
Sue
A similar thing has happened here in UK – over the refund of the bank charges that were deemed to be unfair some years ago. There were several instances of people taking their banks to court when the banks hadn’t settled the refund monies. After the Court had given the customers their judgment, the bank didn’t pay so the customers arrived with bailiffs to take computers etc.
Sam
Oh I never heard about that Sue – glad to know it’s not just a one way street!
Johnny Debt
You will be amazed just how many County Court Judgements there are against financial institutions.
It is my intention to go down a similar route with Santander if I do not get my money back!!!
Debt Advice UK
Often these large corporations rely on the fact that we don’t fight back. However with a bit of effort you can fight back and win!