Private car sale to trader - received court claim

[DTrebor]

Just to update the thread - this has progressed to the mediation phase. I have been emailed today to invite me to accept a mediation appointment in early December.

Just prior to this, even though I had been progressing the claim using the online MCOL service, I received an email directing me to complete an N180 Directions Questionnaire. I was directed to email this back to MCOL and the Claimant, which I did on the 01/11 via email and tracked post. The deadline to do this under penalty of possibly defaulting the case was 04/11.

I have not had any correspondance of any kind from the Claimant since the last text message I received.

The email I received today said:

"The above parties have all filed a Directions Questionnaire (N180) and have all requested mediation."

I spoke to the Money Claim service on the phone and the lady said that they are working through a backlog of DQs, and could not confirm whether they had even received a DQ from the Claimant. I certainly haven't.

The mediation invite email also says the following:

Please read the following 3 statements:

1. For mediation to be successful you would need to be willing to negotiate on the amount of the claim and have a degree of flexibility. Can you agree to this?
2. Can you confirm that you have enough information about the claim to allow you to enter into negotiations and that you do not require any further evidence from the other party before you can mediate
3. Can you confirm you are available for the entire timeslot on the date stated in the offer?

Mediation is only available to you if you can answer YES to all 3 statements above. If you cannot answer YES to all statements, mediation is NOT suitable for your case.

Regards point 2 - I have still not received any evidence of the fault, or the quote, or repair. As things stand the Claimant is just asking me for money. So I don't know how I could honestly answer YES to point 2. How can I negotiate with someone who is basically just saying "give me some money" ?

I also don't know if getting into the evidence of the fault or repair is actually relevant to my case or not, or whether it would be damaging to focus on it. The car was sold privately to a trader who inspected and test drove the car. It was not misrepresented. To my mind therefore it does not matter legally whether a fault occurs 5 mins or 5 months down the line. It is unfortunate, but I don't believe I have any liability.

Am I muddying the waters by getting into the whole "where's the quote for the work / repair bill" aspect of the claim?

[GBExile]

The answers are:

1 - No but might be should I receive relevant information
2 - No. Other than the claim form I have received no information.
3. Yes .

You have just got to run with it & make sure you conform to the courts instructions. It is also normal for the court to have a backlog of processing. They normally catch up after about 7-10 days.

You are not muddying the water by stating to the court you have had no proof. It is a fact you have had no proof & even if you did he is a trader.

You are just going to have to wait for the witness statement exchange which is the next important step.

[DTrebor]

Am I not going to be penalised or at least looked upon dimly by a judge for refusing mediation?

[GBExile]

Am I not going to be penalised or at least looked upon dimly by a judge for refusing mediation?

You are not refusing mediation.

You are accepting mediation on the basis that you receive further information.

[Amethyst]

Have you heard anything further since returning the DQ ?

[DTrebor]

I sent (several) PMs with updates and recently a request for help but have not received a response to any of them.

[des8]

PMs are not encouraged on this site, for the very reason that they can be missed, individual posters could be ill, absent or just stopped posting.
If you want to be surer of a response keep in the public domain

[DTrebor]

PMs are not encouraged on this site, for the very reason that they can be missed, individual posters could be ill, absent or just stopped posting.
If you want to be surer of a response keep in the public domain

Sure thing. To be honest I wasn't getting replies on here either, since the start of September only GBExile has been replying to me and offering assistance (for which I am grateful). I had assumed I had maybe offended Amethyst somehow (I can't think how) since she had been replying to other threads in the interim, but not this one.

I appreciate the help is free so I can't expect any more than what I'm given, but I hope you can understand that it feels a bit demoralising to post updates only to have one person actively engaging with me.

Anyway, the short version of the current state of play is as follows:

- I sent off my DQ to the court and Claimant as instructed (via email and to be safe a hard copy via Special Delivery) before the deadline on the email. I have received nothing from him. Apparently it doesn't even really matter if he doesn't send it to me, so long as he sends it to the court which it seems he has.

- I subsequently received an email from the MCOL service formally inviting me to mediation on a specified date and time window.

- I formally agreed to the mediation appointment via telephone call (as instructed in the email) before the deadline.

- A couple of weeks ago I received a N271 Notice of Transfer of Proceedings letter in the post, informing me that the case had been transferred to the Claimant's home court.

- I telephoned the court on 20/11 and disputed the transfer, quoting CPR 26.2A(3). I was told by the lady on the phone that she would put it before the Judge.

- She also told me that since I had received that letter it meant that mediation was no longer happening. I don't know what significance this has really, either the Claimant did not respond, or could not make the date offered.

- I telephoned the court again yesterday to ask for an update and was told that the Judge had ordered that it be transferred to my home court. I have not yet received formal notification of this in the post.

So it seems it's going to court. I believe I have a strong case but have been informed that nothing is certain in Small Claims Court.

[GBExile]

Well done for getting it transferred to your home court. Obviously whoever listed it to the claimants home court in the first place didn't read your defence & presumed you were a trader.

[GBExile]

Any news? Have you got your official transfer to your local court document?

[pt2537]

you should get the N271 notice that confirms the case is being transfered to your local court, once there, the case will then be given case management directions, most likely if you havent already you will be ordered to file directions questionaires, and you will have to also file directions tooo. Once this has been done the Court will tell you how the case will progress.

[DTrebor]

Just to draw this to a probable close, I received notice today that the claim has been struck out for failure to comply with the Unless order to pay the trial fee, and a subsequent Unless order to serve on the court and myself a reply to my defence (previously just a regular order with a deadline in January, but elevated to an Unless order after the Claimant failed to comply)

Obviously there is a chance the Claimant could try and get the strike set aside but given his almost religious inability to comply with orders, including two Unless orders, I would like to think it would be denied.

Thanks to everyone who provided help, particularly early on in the thread, and in particular*GBExile*who messaged me regularly after the thread went cold to offer encouraging advice.
*

[GBExile]

Just to draw this to a probable close, I received notice today that the claim has been struck out for failure to comply with the Unless order to pay the trial fee, and a subsequent Unless order to serve on the court and myself a reply to my defence (previously just a regular order with a deadline in January, but elevated to an Unless order after the Claimant failed to comply)

Obviously there is a chance the Claimant could try and get the strike set aside but given his almost religious inability to comply with orders, including two Unless orders, I would like to think it would be denied.

Thanks to everyone who provided help, particularly early on in the thread, and in particularGBExilewho messaged me regularly after the thread went cold to offer encouraging advice.

It was always going to happen from the start. It is a bit shocking when someone takes you to court for £4k. He was taking the mick from the start. It is over now.

Anyway you owe me a pint. But instead of that can you donate £10 to https://www.macmillan.org.uk*thanks

[DTrebor]

Once I know for sure it's dead and buried I will be happy to donate.

[DTrebor]

Just thought I'd post to say that this can be moved to the Concluded Cases subforum. It's been over a year since it was struck out for non-payment of trial fee, and nothing has happened since.

I made a donation as suggested above at the time.