Claim from ex-friend for car storage

[SS069]

Hi team, this is my 1st post.

I have received a court letter 'Claim Form' from moneyclaim.gov.uk claiming that he stored 22 vehicles for me. The guy weighed in (scrapped) 17 of the vehicles & sold the other 5. He says that he stored 'said' vehicles for a period of 197 weeks @ £5/week, so the owed amount is £21,670 less the proceeds from the sales of vehicles to the sum of £10,140 leaving an outstanding balance of £11,530. He has reduced the outstanding to £10,000

Story-line: We used to be friends, we had units opposite each other on the industrial estate (my cars were parked outside & around my unit, 2 cars were parked inside his unit & 2 outside), he used to do repairs on some of my cars which he was paid for. I also got him a job as a sub-contractor for the company that I work for, however he managed to get dismissed from his job October 2018. He then made false claims against me related to work mattes & I was suspended pending investigation. After 5 months (& various messages from him vie social media/text - now blocked). Upon suspension from work /I was not allowed to make contact with him nor any or my work colleagues, I adhered to this instruction until I returned to work in April 2019.

Not only did I get this guy a good job, U also helped him out, financially, with cars & allowing him extra time off from work to look after his 'supposedly' ill wife, also allowed him 'paid leave' when he had a mini-breakdown I told him to take time off work, all of which he threw back in my face within my disciplinary evidence. He is not of good character & has spent time in prison for running over his wife with the family car.

The guy disposed of 17 vehicles (possibly) more early October 2018, I chased this both with the police & recycling company, but the police were reluctant to get involved, requested information which I Emailed to them after confirming that Email was acceptable only to have to chase the police again to which they stated they were Emailed copies & no good. I live in Nelson & the police are based in Chorley a 30 mile drive away & every time I went I think I only managed to talk 'face to face' with an officer on one occasion.

During my suspension & chasing the police to rectify a wrong that had been done against me I started to suffer stress, visited the doctors where he advised me to forget about the car issue & concentrate on my health, which I did. However over the 5 month period the guy sent me several messages (i did not respond to any). He also made contact with my ex-wife & tried to involve her within a court case to claim money from me.

In September/October this year I received a solicitors letter that he was going to take me to court for unfair dismissal but I ignored this as it was nothing to do with me, I did make my employer aware & they told me to wait for any further correspondence. I did that, then in December this year I received the claim off him, via the same solicitor that he was claiming unpaid car storage fees. We never agreed anything in relation to car storage as he doesn't have the space to store cars for me nor anyone else.

What are the next steps in the process?

Will I have to attend court?

Can I counter claim for the cars that he has sole/sold? - he has nothing to take

Thanks in advance & apologies about the War & Peace post

[Amethyst]

Okay.

You didn't have any agreement with the claimant to store your cars or any agreement over any charge for him storing your cars.

He didn't store your cars. He had a couple parked in his unit and outside his unit. The rest were in or around your unit ? Do you still have your unit or did you lose the unit and he took on the cars? Is the unit related to your employment ?

You didn't give him permission to dispose of 17 cars and sell 5 cars ?

He is going to a have to evidence that you agreed for him to store 22 cars and to the £5 per week per car charge.

You will need to show (as seems likely he's going to say that it was a verbal agreement) that you didn't and give reasonable explanation of how the car came to be in his possession to enable him to scrap / sell them.

Can you give us the date of issue of the claim form and type out the particulars of claim please

[SS069]

Date of Issue: 4th December 2019, but extended for a further 14 days as of Monday 23rd Dec......I only just found the letter behind shoe rack in hallway.

We were friends & I left the keys in his unit as his unit is safer than mine. We were friends & I merely trusted him with the car keys. We also had open access to each others units.

I still have my unit, the other guy has been kicked out for failing to pay rent. I still have mine & they are not work related.

Particulars of Claim:
Claimant stored the Defendant's vehicles at his commercial unit at a rate of £5.00 per week per vehicle. The Defendant stored 22 vehicles for a period of 197 weeks which totalled £21,670.00. Ultimately, the vehicles were sold for £10,140.00, leaving a balance owing in the sum of £11,530.00. The Claimant has reduced this figure to £10,000.

Note: Totalled is how it is spelt on the claim.

[Amethyst]

Glad you managed to acknowledge the claim - you only have to the 6th jan then to get your defence filed

[Amethyst]

1: The claim is denied
2: the claimant was a personal friend of the defendant and there was no business relationship between the claimant and defendant at any time.
2: It is denied that the defendant contracted with the claimant to store his vehicles at a rate of £5 per vehicle per week or any other sum and the claimant is put to strict proof.
3: The vehicles were not stored on the Claimants property etc etc
3: The claimant did not have permission to dispose of the defendants vehicles and was not at any time the registered keeper of such vehicles.
4: The defendant has a crime reference #xxxxx as the theft of the vehicles has been reported to xxxxxxxx.
5: The claimant appears to have reduced the amount he claims to £10000 solely to abuse the court process and have the case allocated to the small claims track.


That's a basic start point to work from anyway

[SS069]

Amethyst,

Thank you for the response.

Do I need to elaborate on the points you made?
Regarding the reduction to £10k, if the claim had been more than £10k, would he have to have followed a different process?
Will I need to submit any evidence with my next response on the money claim website?
Do cases such as these end up at court? - Will I need legal representation? - I'm a very nervous speaker, in such will not be able to state my case thoroughly & may even breakdown under pressure. This has had a detrimental effect upon my health over the passed 14/15 months.

Thanks again for the support & info.

[Amethyst]

Yes, elaborate, not too much it just needs the basic detail, details, and any evidence, will come later. It does sound like he is just trying it on, possibly trying to take advantage of your vulnerability. If you did not ask him to store vehicles for you or agree any payment for such then you should defend the claim on that basis. If the claim was over 10,000 it would be automatically placed on fast track rather than small claims - Full costs apply in fast track whereas only limited costs are available in small claims see https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...s/part27#27.14.*So if you engaged a solicitor with the case in small claims you'd likely not get the money back.He's probably only done it to save money on the court fee he has had to pay to issue the claim though.

There is a long way to go before you get to the hearing and you will exchange witness statements before then.
You could ask the case to be heard on papers although I would recommend it as it is better to be there to argue your case in person. You could also ask someone to come with you to the court, either someone could speak on your behalf as a lay representative so long as you ask court for permission first or you could take someone just as support to sit with you (McKenzie friend).

We can respond to the claimant asking him for copies of the contract on which he intends to rely.

At witness statement stage he will likely have to provide a list of all the cars where they were stored etc

Who were the vehicles v5 registered to? (How did he manage to sell them without any evidence of his owning them )

[SS069]

We were friends & we have industrial units opposite each other, we both had oped access to each others' unit & left the keys (for safe keeping) inside his unit.

He scrapped most of my cars within 2 days whilst I was at work. 3 cars (as afar as I'm aware) he sold on eBay all greatly under priced & as you know people are willing to risk if things are sold very cheaply. 2 other 'higher value' classic cars were sold via word of mouth, one of which was released to the unit landlord to cover some of the owed rent on his unit. The cars that he sold not have a key for, he merely smashed the window to access to get the car mobile to get them onto the transporter.

I have all documentation & receipts in my name for a majority of the cars in my possession.

He also disposed of my son's car (that I was in the process of getting back on the road after him returning from Afghanistan overseas duty with the armed forces) that had a private registration, I suppose I need to contact the DVLA to have the registration number retained & issued to my son.

He thinks that he is above the law & the police did not really want to get involved. However I did manage to retrieve one of my cars after reporting it stolen, what a arduous process that was. I was willing to let everything drop, but if we're going to court I may as well counter claim against him. The approximate personal value of all the cars & other personal possessions that he disposed of is in the region of £30k.

[Amethyst]

Good gracious.

You may well have lost the private registration - do you know where the car was sold to ? was it sold for scrap ? Was this in Oct 2018 as well?

A counterclaim of £30k will cost you in the region of £1500 as a court fee to begin with.

[SS069]

My son's car was sold for scrap, the value of that particular car was £1500 or thereabouts. Like I say, he sold all my possessions for very little money, he is not good with money & if I did counterclaim against him I don't think that I would get anything back due to his personal money issues.

I would like to get back 2 or 3 cars that he sold, as legally they are mine surely. I would like back the following cars all of which are still 'live' cars:
* - 1965 Ford Thuderbird - value £5500
* - 1969 Vauxhall Firenza (low mileage 2 owner car) - value £4000
* - 1979 VW T4 Transporter camper - value £3500
If I can get the above back from the purchasers, they can then attempt to recover their money back from the guy who sold them.

The counterclaim will be fruitless to me as he does not have the means to pay.

[GBExile]

You should contact the DVLA (or your son should with proof of ID) & ask them for all details of his car & state to them it was stolen.*

[SS069]

Hi,

Claim ford defence submitted.

I have sent you a personal message.

Regards,
Sean

[SS069]

After submitting the paperwork, the service sent me a form to complete to go through mediation, because I qualified for it. I have now received an Email stating that I had to make contact with the service to book a time slot, however in the Email it stated that I had to answer yes to the following 3 questions. I called up the service & stated my case & that I did not want to offer the claimant anything, so the case doesn't qualify for mediation, and was advised that I shall get a court date in due course.

I explained my frustration & asked why they allowed me to enter into mediation after me stating that I am fully defending the claim as it is false & the claimant has abused the small claims process.

Hey ho, it's off to court we go.....