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Hi everyone. I'm desperate for some help on this and thank you in advance of any advice or direction you can provide. I'll outline as much detail as I can below - if I've missed anything please just ask
The case relates to a claim being made against my partner (JD) who is a self employed plasterer , and myself, for poor workmanship. The claimant , a customer of ours who JD did lots of work for in Dec 2013, now claims the work is sub standard and will costs £2000 to correct. He has refused JD permission to revisit or re-inspect the alledged problem areas in the house and submitted his claim via MCOL. This is the timeline so far -
10/3/14 - MCOL recvd from claimant. Subsequently allocated to small claims track
28/4/14 - our directiosn questionnaire submitted to court requesting mediation. Claimant refuses mediation
27/5/14 - court confirms case is suitabel for mediation & advises of hearing date on 11th August
No evidence or detailed papers received from claimant during interim period
7/8/14 - 2 working days prior to hearing court confirms to us that cliamnat has NOT submitted any papers. If he arrives in court the case will be dismissed. We decide to submit an N244 to dismiss case ourselves as neither court nor ourselves have received claimant file. We live in France and choose not to travel to court
11/8/14 - hearing date. Nothing heard from court until after hearing. Turns out the court made an error and the claimant HAD submitted his papers but they had recorded it incorrectly on the system, hence the direction they were giving us. District Judge rules for an adjournment to allow claimant to send us papers.
11/8/14 - claimant emails to confirm our French address.
28/8/14 - court order received advising of second hearing on 24/9
6/9/14 - claimant's papers finally received, 25 days after the first hearing & 13 working days before 2nd hearing.
12/9/14 - our defence pack is posted back. we rush to collate it to ensure timelines are met. we are left with very little time to properly respond and organise return trip to the UK. we choose to include a letter requesting the court hear our side in our absence as we cannot afford the return costs or organise our family situation to enable us to travel
24/9/14 - 2nd hearing. Judge finds in favour of claimant.
29/9/14 - on advice from court, we submit N244 to set aside the order
17/10/14 - email received from court advising that the original order issued was incomplete and a whole 2nd page was missing. It rpovided reasons for the judge's decision which we had not seen before now. revised version of the original order issued 17/10. Direction from court is that we have to apply for permission to appeal in the appellant court/circuit court and submitt a further form and fee.
20/10/14 - deadline for payment of original order. claimant contacts us for payment.
20/10/14 - second complaint raised with court over another miscommunication which has caused further distress and confusion. they advise that the pay deadline of the original order still stands (i.e. the first one issued in Sept even though half of it was missing and it took 4 weeks for them to realise & reissue)
Our first issue is that the Court itself has caused significant delay and confusion on this case just by their own administrative errors and miscommunications.
Our seconnd issue is that we regret not making the trip to attend the original hearing in person as we strongly believe the claimant's case was quite flimsy but that the judge took his side more as he was there in person and we were not. Hence we're wanting to go down the appeal road and try and get in front of the judge in person.
Specific technical queries -
i) claimant alledges lots of poor plastering work done by JD. But refused to allow JD the opportunity to revisit the house and assess for himself and/or rectify.(contrary to Supply of Goods and services Act) The Claimant submitted no photographic evidence of poor plastering on walls/ceilings.Just a "statement" from a managing director of a building firm (not a plasterer) who stated he thought it would cost £x to correct. The statement wasn't even in the correct format as required by the court. We submitted a number of our own photos of the rooms in question which clearly showed a clean job but these seem to have been ignored by the court
ii) we have emails from the claimant, received before the job was completed, saying how pleased he was with JD and his work and that he would be happy to leave a review online for him. these were submitted in defence
iii) JD has loads of genuine, positive on-line customer reviews on sites like Rated People. These were submitted in defence but overlooked. The point being that he is not a "cowboy" builder. If the allegations of his work were true then surely he wuld never be able to sustain the high level of feedback over a 12 month period
iv) The claim was made against both JD and myself as co-defendants. This was because I referred to myself in emails to the claimant as JD's "business partner" in that I manage all his paperwork, communications and admin. It was a metaphorical term and not factually the case, JD is self employed & his business is registered with HMRC as a "trading as", not a legal partnership. We rejected that I was personally involved as (a) I never attented the property (b) am not a plasterer and did no work at the house & (c) the business is a sole trader not a partnership - but this was rejected also ??
The judges comments were as follows -
"found against both defendants. whilst it was denied that the 2nd defendant was a business partner of the 1st she in fact held herself out as having such a status in correspondence. Therefore both jointly and severely liable"...how can that be when his business is structured as a sole trader. All I did was handle his emails for him!
Judge " Under rule 27.9 took in to account the defendants evidence in their defence but ultimately assessed the evidence of the claimant who attended> i found him to be truthful and credible> therfore claimant succeeds on balance of probabilities"
If anyone out there can add any comments we'd be extremely grateful. At the moment we're at the stage of considering the appeal application to try and get in front of the judge ourselves or...appointing a solictor in the UK to represent us as we feel that they would be able to undermine much of what has been presented by the claimant. i think it was our error of judgement in not attending the hearing as we were unable to question or challenge/counter challenge specific points in the papers and it is doubtful that the judge will have absorbed all of our pack on our behalf
Sorry it's a bit long winded....
The case relates to a claim being made against my partner (JD) who is a self employed plasterer , and myself, for poor workmanship. The claimant , a customer of ours who JD did lots of work for in Dec 2013, now claims the work is sub standard and will costs £2000 to correct. He has refused JD permission to revisit or re-inspect the alledged problem areas in the house and submitted his claim via MCOL. This is the timeline so far -
10/3/14 - MCOL recvd from claimant. Subsequently allocated to small claims track
28/4/14 - our directiosn questionnaire submitted to court requesting mediation. Claimant refuses mediation
27/5/14 - court confirms case is suitabel for mediation & advises of hearing date on 11th August
No evidence or detailed papers received from claimant during interim period
7/8/14 - 2 working days prior to hearing court confirms to us that cliamnat has NOT submitted any papers. If he arrives in court the case will be dismissed. We decide to submit an N244 to dismiss case ourselves as neither court nor ourselves have received claimant file. We live in France and choose not to travel to court
11/8/14 - hearing date. Nothing heard from court until after hearing. Turns out the court made an error and the claimant HAD submitted his papers but they had recorded it incorrectly on the system, hence the direction they were giving us. District Judge rules for an adjournment to allow claimant to send us papers.
11/8/14 - claimant emails to confirm our French address.
28/8/14 - court order received advising of second hearing on 24/9
6/9/14 - claimant's papers finally received, 25 days after the first hearing & 13 working days before 2nd hearing.
12/9/14 - our defence pack is posted back. we rush to collate it to ensure timelines are met. we are left with very little time to properly respond and organise return trip to the UK. we choose to include a letter requesting the court hear our side in our absence as we cannot afford the return costs or organise our family situation to enable us to travel
24/9/14 - 2nd hearing. Judge finds in favour of claimant.
29/9/14 - on advice from court, we submit N244 to set aside the order
17/10/14 - email received from court advising that the original order issued was incomplete and a whole 2nd page was missing. It rpovided reasons for the judge's decision which we had not seen before now. revised version of the original order issued 17/10. Direction from court is that we have to apply for permission to appeal in the appellant court/circuit court and submitt a further form and fee.
20/10/14 - deadline for payment of original order. claimant contacts us for payment.
20/10/14 - second complaint raised with court over another miscommunication which has caused further distress and confusion. they advise that the pay deadline of the original order still stands (i.e. the first one issued in Sept even though half of it was missing and it took 4 weeks for them to realise & reissue)
Our first issue is that the Court itself has caused significant delay and confusion on this case just by their own administrative errors and miscommunications.
Our seconnd issue is that we regret not making the trip to attend the original hearing in person as we strongly believe the claimant's case was quite flimsy but that the judge took his side more as he was there in person and we were not. Hence we're wanting to go down the appeal road and try and get in front of the judge in person.
Specific technical queries -
i) claimant alledges lots of poor plastering work done by JD. But refused to allow JD the opportunity to revisit the house and assess for himself and/or rectify.(contrary to Supply of Goods and services Act) The Claimant submitted no photographic evidence of poor plastering on walls/ceilings.Just a "statement" from a managing director of a building firm (not a plasterer) who stated he thought it would cost £x to correct. The statement wasn't even in the correct format as required by the court. We submitted a number of our own photos of the rooms in question which clearly showed a clean job but these seem to have been ignored by the court
ii) we have emails from the claimant, received before the job was completed, saying how pleased he was with JD and his work and that he would be happy to leave a review online for him. these were submitted in defence
iii) JD has loads of genuine, positive on-line customer reviews on sites like Rated People. These were submitted in defence but overlooked. The point being that he is not a "cowboy" builder. If the allegations of his work were true then surely he wuld never be able to sustain the high level of feedback over a 12 month period
iv) The claim was made against both JD and myself as co-defendants. This was because I referred to myself in emails to the claimant as JD's "business partner" in that I manage all his paperwork, communications and admin. It was a metaphorical term and not factually the case, JD is self employed & his business is registered with HMRC as a "trading as", not a legal partnership. We rejected that I was personally involved as (a) I never attented the property (b) am not a plasterer and did no work at the house & (c) the business is a sole trader not a partnership - but this was rejected also ??
The judges comments were as follows -
"found against both defendants. whilst it was denied that the 2nd defendant was a business partner of the 1st she in fact held herself out as having such a status in correspondence. Therefore both jointly and severely liable"...how can that be when his business is structured as a sole trader. All I did was handle his emails for him!
Judge " Under rule 27.9 took in to account the defendants evidence in their defence but ultimately assessed the evidence of the claimant who attended> i found him to be truthful and credible> therfore claimant succeeds on balance of probabilities"
If anyone out there can add any comments we'd be extremely grateful. At the moment we're at the stage of considering the appeal application to try and get in front of the judge ourselves or...appointing a solictor in the UK to represent us as we feel that they would be able to undermine much of what has been presented by the claimant. i think it was our error of judgement in not attending the hearing as we were unable to question or challenge/counter challenge specific points in the papers and it is doubtful that the judge will have absorbed all of our pack on our behalf
Sorry it's a bit long winded....
