Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

[juliesharp]

Hi I received a claim form from Northampton and the particulars of claim were "This claim ralates to unpaid nursey fees for the defendants children who attended the nursery without payment and left without giving proper notice period"

I have attached the defence i sent back to them but have now recieved a Allocatiopn Questionaire to fill in, where do i go from here...I felt the nursery is being totaly unfair, we had been using them for 3 years.

[fuzzybrain]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

Hello hun (guess who!!)

Just to give a bit more info. Ju needs to have the AQ returned to the court by the 1st July.

Ju also mentioned last night about them charging £35 for late fees when the contract stated £10 - Ju - Do you still have the contract you signed with them stating was the breach of contract fees? - if so give me a copy and i'll scan it up here for you.

Also Ju paid a deposit (can't remember how much now) - this isn't mentioned on the claimants POC

I'm guessing that Ju needs to put something in the AQ about getting the nursery to justify their claim and state how the amount they have claimed has been arrived at?

[Amy]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

Do you owe them anything? If so, how much do you owe? How much do they say you owe? How much have you paid out in late payment charges?

[juliesharp]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

sorry, they are claiming595.20 plus 60 solicitors fees. i dont know how this is made up?? probably paid them about 150 in late paymentr fees. i have no idea how much we owe them as they have never sent us a statement . they are saying we owe them for not giving a months notice which would be around 300.00 but seeing as they barrde us, we did not leave on our own accord dont see why i should pay the amount.
Thanks for you help Jen and everyone else on here!!!

[Amy]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

When you sent in your defence, did you send it to the court and submit it as a full defence?

[juliesharp]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

i sent it online as a defence disrect to Northampton

[Amy]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

Good.

Submit your AQ and see if what happens. The nursery might start negotiating with you.

[Amethyst]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

they will have to respond to the defence in some way - it could have been worded better but all the requests for information are in there.

I assume you entered the defence as defend in full and no partial admissions.

the nursery will also have to pay to lodge their AQ which if they are just hoping a court claim would scare you into paying might get them to back off.

have you asked, in writing, for statements or anything to back the claims up from the nursery direct ? since receiving the claim. Also do you have their terms and conditions.

[juliesharp]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

we do have there terms and conditions but the nursery has said that they changed during last year and we were notified (i have nothing in writing) have asked for statements but nothing as yet. Is there anything else i need to put i the AQ which i have not covered in the original defence? Thank you for your help again

[Amethyst]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

I think you should add some draft directions to the AQ to get the nursery to stump up the info if they are blanking your requests, with an unless order - ie give us proper info or claim struck out. Will have a proper think this evening - how long do you have to get aq in ?

[fuzzybrain]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

Ju needs to get the AQ in by the 1st or 2nd of July i think.

[fuzzybrain]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

Bumping on behalf of Ju :tinysmile_twink_t2:

[juliesharp]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

sorry, yes i have to have this back to them by the 2nd July. Thanks again guys, all help is much appreiciated

[Amethyst]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

okay

DEFENCE ENTERED

As this is the first time we have seen a request for the amount stated we cannot properly defend ourselves as we have no bearing on how the sum has been reached in the first instance. On no instance has a final statement been given to us, neither has this figure been presented in any shape or form with a chance for us to settle the amount if correct.

The statement is that the claim is for “defendant’s children who attended without payment and left without proper notice”
We would like to make it clear that we had financial difficulties and had asked for an extra 3 working days to settle the account but were told in no uncertain terms that this was not possible and our children were to be barred from the crèche. The claimant will tell you that this is because we broke a previous agreement to pay an extra amount for Olivia, but they will be unable to show this amount on an invoice as this was not produced to ourselves. With our moving house and returning to work from maternity leave at the time, we accidentally failed to pay the extra amount. On realisation of our error we had informed the crèche directly that we would drop a cheque in to them and clear this up which they agreed was fine.

Due to the children being barred from the crèche we had no choice but to make alternative childcare arrangements. Unfortunately this took a week to arrange of which we suffered financially with loss of earnings.
Kidease has held both our children’s deposits in lieu of notice which we have NOT asked for the return of as yet. Payment is made in advance so I cannot see how the children have attended without payment being made??...Kidease would obviously not let this happen.
Kidease are saying we are in breach of contract, surely a charge of 35 pounds for a late payment fee for which we were charged, when there terms and conditions state ten pounds is the same breach?

Once again, any normal company would send a full settlement invoice to allow for completion instead of immediately taking futher action through the courts which is unnecessary

So the AQ wants to ask for directions ordering the nursery to supply the information


statement of account
terms and conditions signed
witness statement


you to supply ? evidence that the children were asked to leave / evidence of payments & letters / witness statement (confirm that you would be able to supply those within 14 days) the court likes directions to apply to both parties and you would ask the case be struck out if they dont supply (and conversly if you don't so need to make sure you can)

[juliesharp]

Re: Being Taken to Court.....any help would be great.

As they stopped us attending(because we were behind on payment
), can they still charge us for the months notice that we did not give them even though it was not us they effectivly pulled them out from the nursery to another, just feel we were forced into it and therefore should not have to pay for the notice period that i had no option of using...where do i stand legally on this.


thanks in anticipation!!