Barclays will not let horse charity take £220,000 donations to a different financial institution: SALLY SORTS IT

I run a charity providing equine therapy for people with disabilities, who’ve experienced trauma and require other additional needs.

Recently, we decided to change our structure from a charity to a community interest company called Delta Blue Unicorns CIC and needed a new bank account.

We chose to set this up with Virgin Money. 

However, our current bank Barclays is refusing to release £220,000 held in the account.

This has been going on for two months and we still don’t have the money which we need to run the organisation. Please help.

F.D., Banffshire.

Sally Hamilton replies: Switching bank accounts should be straightforward – even for a voluntary group. But you were asked to jump over hurdle after hurdle just to move the organisation’s cash out of Barclays – and still it sat on your cash.

You felt your charity, which you work for unpaid and use your own money towards funding, was being held to ransom by the bank, causing hardship to the horses in your care and the beneficiaries of your services.

Maybe Barclays was reluctant to lose you as a customer, but it had a funny way of showing it.

From what you told me it had every chance to retain your business. Last year, you asked the bank if you could adapt your existing account so it could be used with the new structure of your operation, but it took months even to respond to your initial query, by which time you had run out of patience with its poor service and decided to switch to Virgin Money.

Virgin Money also has the advantage of having a branch in your local town – indeed it is the only bank left. This means if you want to visit the bank you can just nip there rather than make a 120-mile round trip to Aberdeen to visit Barclays.

As background, you explained that you wanted to change your organisation’s structure to a community interest company as it is more appropriate for an equestrian centre with a local focus. When you set up in 1998 this wasn’t an option.

Your organisation is funded by donations and fundraising activities such as open days. It also sells branded clothing and the horses can be sponsored for a small annual fee. It charges for classes and courses which can be paid for by those using them or by charities or local authorities.

As well as many volunteers, it also has permanent staff to pay – a key reason you needed to get your new account in order quickly, along with the need to meet frequent vet and feed bills.

You described the excuses made by Barclays as ‘endless’, often requiring another form, another signature, another phone call, another branch visit and so on over the past two months. You say you were always polite on the phone, but no one seemed to take ownership of your case.

Nothing moved forward even though you complied with the legal stuff, with both a solicitor and the Office for the Scottish Charity Regulator confirming the transfer is legal. Barclays eventually said it may consider transferring the balance to one of its own bank accounts in the community interest group’s name. This vague suggestion was the last straw. You complained to the bank about the whole fiasco but have, so far, not received a response.

You then came to me in the hope I could ride to the rescue.

I contacted Barclays and asked what was holding things up and to please release your funds pronto. Just three days later, it transferred your £220,000 to the Virgin Money account and closed your Barclays one. You were mightily relieved.

Barclays told me it is reviewing its business processes in relation to your case. Despite chasing

Barclays continuously for a full response on what was behind the delays in closing your account, it failed to provide a formal statement by the time of going to press.

Hoover engineer’s botched repair caused a flood 

We had  a Hoover washing machine that was ten months old and needed repair last August. Hoover sent out an engineer who fixed the machine but forgot to reassemble it correctly and, after he had gone and we used it, it flooded our ten-month-old kitchen and newly laid laminate floor.

The engineer came back and admitted his mistake and we started the process to seek costs to put our kitchen back to its former glory. But Hoover, part of the Haier Group, only agreed to meet half the costs and said I should claim the rest on my home insurance. Please help.

C.R., Folkestone, Kent.

Sally Hamilton replies: After seeking two quotes from local tradesmen – as instructed by Hoover – you calculated the cost of repairing the damage to your kitchen and floor would come to about £3,300.

So, you were none too pleased to be fobbed off one month later with a settlement sum of £1,550.

You didn’t see why you should have to claim on your home insurance, which would incur extra costs for you in terms of the excess you would need to pay towards the claim and probably result in a higher insurance premium at renewal.

I agree. Their appointed engineer slipped up – by his own admission – so the company should pay to fix the damage.

You wrote a sternly worded letter to Hoover with your objections to its ‘full and final’ settlement. 

This appeared to put it in a bit of a spin and, a month later, it came back with an offer of £2,200 – again in ‘full and final settlement’.

Displeased by this, and not understanding how it worked out its sums, you emailed customer services twice more but got no response. You couldn’t find a phone number to discuss it with a human being. What a surprise.

At a loss as to what to do next – and totally fed up with your kitchen now bathed in a nasty odour from standing water under the floor – you came to me.

I contacted Haier and repeated your objections to its settlement. I am pleased to say that a week later, after a full review of your case, it had a change of heart and agreed to pay your claim in full. You were delighted.

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.