– In the last ten years, have you pawned anything at one of the shops on our Contact Us page?
– Did you not come back to reclaim your property?
If so, there MAY be money owed to you.
In the minority of cases where pawnbroking clients do not reclaim their jewellery, we follow a documented procedure to sell it. From the proceeds of the sale(s) we then take the loan capital, interest accrued up to the date of sale and the reasonable costs of sale (as specified in-store and on our pawnbroking web page ).
There is sometimes a “surplus” sum of money left over which is repayable to YOU.
We do send an Advice of Sale letter to the name and address on the original pawnbroking agreement, setting out the sums and advising if money is indeed owed to you. However, sometimes people have moved / died, the letter does not reach the intended recipient, they do not understand the letter, they have lost their original contract, they consider the amount owed too small to be worth claiming or they fear it is too complicated to claim. It’s a shame to think that not all the surplus we create for clients is collected!
If in doubt, please make contact as described below (NOT by email) so that we can check if YOU are owed anything.
We’re happy to do it, the service is of course FREE and there is NO risk that you will owe us more money arising from such a contract, under normal circumstances.
WHAT TO DO :
(1) If you have it, please bring your original pawnbroking agreement to the store at which it was signed. If instead (or as well) you have any letters from us, bring them.
(2) Bring appropriate identification:
If you are still at the SAME ADDRESS this should be
Photo ID such as a passport or driving licence
AND
Utility bill, HMRC letter, bank statement or similar showing your name, the same address and dated within the last three months
If you have MOVED ADDRESS this should be
Both of the above
AND
Identification showing your name, but in the OLD address or otherwise demonstrating that you lived there when the original agreement was made.
(3) Tell the pawnbroking assistants that you would like to see if there is any surplus repayable to you.
That’s it! We’ll take it from there and in many cases will be able to give you an answer on the spot.
SOME COMMON QUESTIONS :
I’ve lost my ticket, how can I claim a surplus? It is possible to replace the original contract by obtaining a statutory declaration (an affidavit). There is a small cost involved, but our pawnbroking assistants can tell you what is required. In many cases it will still be worth the little cost and effort. We do need either the original contract or a correctly completed statutory declaration before we can pay out any surplus arising.
Does it matter how long ago you sold my unredeemed pledge? Yes, the statute of limitation applies, specifically six years from the date of the Advice of Sale notice.
The pledgor has died, can I ask about or indeed collect a surplus on their behalf? Yes, provided we are satisfied that you have authority to act on behalf of their estate.
Is there a danger that by getting in touch I will owe you money? Unless there was any kind of earlier criminality or fraud etc, NO. Where the sale of property does not create enough funds to recover the loan, interest and costs of sale as described above, we simply write off the shortfall.
Have you ever done anything about these unclaimed surpluses in the past? Indeed we have! Not only have we sent the Advice of Sale notices, but we held an extensive awareness campaign to try to alert potential beneficiaries. This resulted in a very positive article in the Liverpool Echo and coverage as the opening item on one evening’s “ITV Granada Reports!”
Can you just tell me by email?
We do not do business over the internet; for security and data protection reasons email is not appropriate. Please follow the procedure above. If there is a specific reason why this cannot be done, please write to us explaining the circumstances and we may be able to find another way to assist.