Acknowledge of Service without a Particulars of Claim - CCMCC

[Ssssssssss]

I’m on my phone and so won’t get opportunity to read those until Monday, can’t seem to view pdf docs on here on mobile.

I did did say to simply write to the court to ask for an extension, you don’t need their agreement or permission because you are in possession of facts that necessitate an extension.

All you have achieved by writing to them is delaying asking the court for an extension until a week or less before the deadline along with their solicitor sprouting more rubbish.

Stop writing to them needlessly, they have made it clear they don’t want to settle or even be reasonable and therefore litigate in the place for litigation - court!

They want the deadline to be missed because then you have no evidence and your counterclaim falls apart, of course they want to argue back and forth of whether there should be an extension without actually commuting to anything.

Hello Jaguarsuk. Thanks for replying on Friday - put things into perspective for us.

OK Monday morning. I've done the following

1. I sent urgent letter via email to the court asking for the extension. I then walked around to the court ( as its not far from me). I went to the urgent issues counter. First they said i needed a consent order. Then i said well can i just ask for further directions then because we already asked the other side about an extension. They then went and spoke to someone else who said we needed to file a formal application at a cost of £100. I then said, well its a joint expert so can we ask for further directions instead then. He then got someone else to come to the counter. She read the letter and asked if the letter was from the expert himself. I said yes. She then said well that should be fine then. I'll see what we can do and refer it to the judge and give you a call as soon as possible or send you a letter with courts decision. She said if its from the expert then they can look into it without a formal application or something like that i think.

I said we had filed our instructions letters etc with the court previously so they were on file ( the ones you told me to file )

I also asked if they needed a copy of the other sides letter not agreeing to the extension and they said not just yet but we could file a copy with the court later maybe.

2. I've drafted letter to expert BUT not sent it yet. Stating we are happy to proceed. We have asked court for extension. Send us the invoice. We will pay our half.

3. I've drafted letter to other side ( not sure whether to bother sending it) saying :- "We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 16^thAugust 2019. With regards to an extension, we are not clear on the approach you describe and so due to the deadline being so close, we have now written to court to ask for the necessary extension along with a copy of the experts letter."

How does that all sound and the letters the other side sent us on Friday.

Thanks in advance !

[Ssssssssss]

I’m on my phone and so won’t get opportunity to read those until Monday, can’t seem to view pdf docs on here on mobile.

I did did say to simply write to the court to ask for an extension, you don’t need their agreement or permission because you are in possession of facts that necessitate an extension.

All you have achieved by writing to them is delaying asking the court for an extension until a week or less before the deadline along with their solicitor sprouting more rubbish.

Stop writing to them needlessly, they have made it clear they don’t want to settle or even be reasonable and therefore litigate in the place for litigation - court!

They want the deadline to be missed because then you have no evidence and your counterclaim falls apart, of course they want to argue back and forth of whether there should be an extension without actually commuting to anything.

Thanks Jaguarsuk.

I wonder if the phone issue might be something to do with whether its fully logged into the site or not ? I have gotten that a few times and I've had to close everything down and re-log in and use chrome ? Does it look like it is going to open the PDF but then a blank page appears instead ? If i can help i will - just let me know.

Thanks - I'm sorry i wrote to them and didn't just write to the court as you said. I guess there was a tiny bit of hope left in me that they would be reasonable but that has now gone :-(

Yes, let me know. Their letter is just saying we don't agree as we don't see that one is needed or something along those lines i think.
I'll draft up something for the court over the weekend so it is ready to go.

[jaguarsuk]

I’m on my phone and so won’t get opportunity to read those until Monday, can’t seem to view pdf docs on here on mobile.

I did did say to simply write to the court to ask for an extension, you don’t need their agreement or permission because you are in possession of facts that necessitate an extension.

All you have achieved by writing to them is delaying asking the court for an extension until a week or less before the deadline along with their solicitor sprouting more rubbish.

Stop writing to them needlessly, they have made it clear they don’t want to settle or even be reasonable and therefore litigate in the place for litigation - court!

They want the deadline to be missed because then you have no evidence and your counterclaim falls apart, of course they want to argue back and forth of whether there should be an extension without actually commuting to anything.

[Ssssssssss]

You titled your letter "Letter of Instruction," so it is the done thing in correspondence to reply with the same title to ensure the recipient is aware of the subject of it. Usually one would put "RE:" before the title meaning "regards," but the expert has missed that.

Hi Jaguarsuk, We decided we would ask the other side quickly and in a very brief email for an extension. If they didn't agree one we were going to do exactly as you said and write to the court for one. We got this today along with the letter of instruction they sent the expert. They didn't say what other enclosures they had sent other than we had seen them already so i am assuming they sent their doctored photos.

I'm not proposing to go into an argument with them but not sure what they are saying here regarding timescales. Shall we just write to the court now - otherwise won't it end up being an open ended thing ?

See attached

[jaguarsuk]

Thanks Jaguarsuk. We are just in the process of requesting that extension now.

Can I just check one thing. The letter that the expert sent that i enclosed redacted a few posts earlier....he has entitled it letter of instruction. Does that mean that he is saying that our letter of instruction is put to one side and this is the formal letter ? I just got confused after reading it again as the basis of instruction doesn't mention the schedules.

You titled your letter "Letter of Instruction," so it is the done thing in correspondence to reply with the same title to ensure the recipient is aware of the subject of it. Usually one would put "RE:" before the title meaning "regards," but the expert has missed that.

[Ssssssssss]

The expert isn't willing to commit to those works because they don't know whether they are necessary. They may be able to tell without those works how the work has been done after all they are professionals in their field enough to be considered an expert. If they have to come back then unfortunately that's the way of it and just how the process works.

Thanks Jaguarsuk. We are just in the process of requesting that extension now.

Can I just check one thing. The letter that the expert sent that i enclosed redacted a few posts earlier....he has entitled it letter of instruction. Does that mean that he is saying that our letter of instruction is put to one side and this is the formal letter ? I just got confused after reading it again as the basis of instruction doesn't mention the schedules.

[jaguarsuk]

Thanks Jaguarsuk. No problems re what you say. Yes i thought he didn't need to provide estimates either but wasn't sure.

Do you have any idea of whether we should leave it regarding the exploratory works ? That's the bit I'm most concerned about because if they don't do that, then the biggest issue won't be investigated fully. And they'll have to come back !

The expert isn't willing to commit to those works because they don't know whether they are necessary. They may be able to tell without those works how the work has been done after all they are professionals in their field enough to be considered an expert. If they have to come back then unfortunately that's the way of it and just how the process works.

[Ssssssssss]

You are going to need to contact the court with a copy of the letter to request an extension of 28 days to the August 21st Deadline on the basis of the timescales provided by the expert.

He doesn't need to provide an estimate of costs because you have quotes to rectify the works.

If the other side have sent instruction and not served you it's just further evidence of their unreasonable conduct.

Thanks Jaguarsuk. No problems re what you say. Yes i thought he didn't need to provide estimates either but wasn't sure.

Do you have any idea of whether we should leave it regarding the exploratory works ? That's the bit I'm most concerned about because if they don't do that, then the biggest issue won't be investigated fully. And they'll have to come back !

[jaguarsuk]

FYI, he has also changed the basis of instruction from his first email slightly. His first email before instruction said :-

"....X would review the documentation relating to the specification and quotation for the work. This will enable us to complete an Expert Witness Report on our findings. We may subsequently recommend opening up of the construction but will not know whether this will be required until our visit. We have not allowed for any opening up/ exploratory works at this stage. The report would address the following :-

- Whether there are any defects within the bathroom
- Ascertain if possible where the responsibility for those defects lies
- Estimate the cost of rectifying these defects if any.
....
"

You are going to need to contact the court with a copy of the letter to request an extension of 28 days to the August 21st Deadline on the basis of the timescales provided by the expert.

He doesn't need to provide an estimate of costs because you have quotes to rectify the works.

If the other side have sent instruction and not served you it's just further evidence of their unreasonable conduct.

[Ssssssssss]

Thanks Jaguarsuk. We did just that and haven't contacted them. We have received the following from the expert this morning. It's almost identical to the email he sent us before we instructed him and that we sent to the other side prior to them selecting him. He has upped the fee but not really outlined anything regarding exploratory works further than what he said before. He hasn't outlined whether he will be looking at the schedules either.

I'm not really sure what to do now. We know exploratory works will be needed in order to see what's behind some of the tiles (he can't answer the biggest question on our list without doing this !) but we know that if he doesn't look into it on his first visit its highly unlikely the other side will pay for him to come back and look at it after the "first report" he produces ! We wouldn't want him to come back a second time either.

We never got a copy of what the other side told him either so we have asked him to forward it to us.

But anyway - not really sure what to do now about this or the deadline likely to be missed.

We didn't get any reply to our without prejudice letter so far either and its now been 21 days.

Could we suggest a local builder being present to work under his instruction on inspection day ? Or something else like that ?

The biggest issue of how the tiles are attached - not covered in adhesive properly when attached to the wall causing voids and also that grout has been used behind the mosaic where adhesive should be - these can't surely be answered any other way but that to remove some of the tiles !

FYI, he has also changed the basis of instruction from his first email slightly. His first email before instruction said :-

"....X would review the documentation relating to the specification and quotation for the work. This will enable us to complete an Expert Witness Report on our findings. We may subsequently recommend opening up of the construction but will not know whether this will be required until our visit. We have not allowed for any opening up/ exploratory works at this stage. The report would address the following :-

- Whether there are any defects within the bathroom
- Ascertain if possible where the responsibility for those defects lies
- Estimate the cost of rectifying these defects if any.
....
"

[Ssssssssss]

No, don’t write to them it achieves nothing other than allowing the solicitor to write to you and add to his bill.

As I have said, letter tennis is pointless, let’s see what the experts report says, the tone of their correspondence might well change after their report.

Thanks Jaguarsuk. We did just that and haven't contacted them. We have received the following from the expert this morning. It's almost identical to the email he sent us before we instructed him and that we sent to the other side prior to them selecting him. He has upped the fee but not really outlined anything regarding exploratory works further than what he said before. He hasn't outlined whether he will be looking at the schedules either.

I'm not really sure what to do now. We know exploratory works will be needed in order to see what's behind some of the tiles (he can't answer the biggest question on our list without doing this !) but we know that if he doesn't look into it on his first visit its highly unlikely the other side will pay for him to come back and look at it after the "first report" he produces ! We wouldn't want him to come back a second time either.

We never got a copy of what the other side told him either so we have asked him to forward it to us.

But anyway - not really sure what to do now about this or the deadline likely to be missed.

We didn't get any reply to our without prejudice letter so far either and its now been 21 days.

Could we suggest a local builder being present to work under his instruction on inspection day ? Or something else like that ?

The biggest issue of how the tiles are attached - not covered in adhesive properly when attached to the wall causing voids and also that grout has been used behind the mosaic where adhesive should be - these can't surely be answered any other way but that to remove some of the tiles !

[jaguarsuk]

No, don’t write to them it achieves nothing other than allowing the solicitor to write to you and add to his bill.

As I have said, letter tennis is pointless, let’s see what the experts report says, the tone of their correspondence might well change after their report.

[Ssssssssss]

So we didn't hear anything from the other side and the other side didn't forward us the correspondence they sent to the expert. I'm loathed to write to them again but should I shove cpr35.8(2) in their face swiftly? Or leave it till we hear again from the expert.

[Ssssssssss]

Yes, that's correct. Puts everything on court record then that instructions have been sent and parties have been served.

No doubt he'll respond banging on about disclosure to the letter, I'd simply ignore him from now on. Don't forget every letter he sends he adds to his fee and so he's loving all the back and forth.

He's been told where you stand and that's that.

Thanks Jaguarsuk. Apparently the Elitist solicitor emailed the expert on Friday morning but didn't copy us in. Luckily the expert wrote him back, copied us in, and told him that he needs to copy us into everything.

We then replied back this morning and asked the Elitist solicitor to send us a copy of all correspondence he has sent to the expert without copying us in.

[jaguarsuk]

I'll just do that two certificates of service now. Is this right form? https://assets.publishing.service.go...5/n215-eng.pdf

I should just say

1. letter and letter of instruction for claimant served (on one form)
2. email & letter of instruction served to expert and copied to claimant (on the other form )

Is that right ?

Yes, that's correct. Puts everything on court record then that instructions have been sent and parties have been served.

No doubt he'll respond banging on about disclosure to the letter, I'd simply ignore him from now on. Don't forget every letter he sends he adds to his fee and so he's loving all the back and forth.

He's been told where you stand and that's that.