Claim Form send by Supplier to my Ltd Company but they actually owe us money

[JAnother]

Hi there Legal Beagles I really, really need your help trying to get this resolved so any suggestions on how to proceed would be very much appreciated!

My Limited company signed a contract with a ISP (another ltd company) that was initially set up to supply 4 lines bonded together the contract was for 24 months initially at a rate of £100 a month (£25 per line) + VAT

After the 24 months was up we gave notice via email that we wanted to reduce the number of lines from 4 to 3 and a new order form was sent out by the ISP and signed by us and returned in the post to them towards the end of July 2016. On this order form it states: The contract will be formed if either: [ISP NAME] signs and sends back to you a copy of this order form, or [ISP NAME] sends an acknowledgement of your order, or [ISP NAME] starts setting-up the services under this Order Form.

The lines were reduced by their technical team, so we assumed everything was as it should be and the service continued until we decided to terminate the contract completely at the end of July 2019. We then picked up on a final invoice that they had actually still been billing us for the original 4 lines and so had overcharged us by £25 + vat x 36 months, so we informed them of this and asked them to credit it against any costs outstanding and refund the rest.

They then denied that they had never received the signed order form back reducing the lines to 3, but they had technically reduced the lines so must have received it??!

Since then they have been nothing but difficult and totally given us the run-around. I had equipment of theirs that needed to be returned but they wouldn't process the refund so that we could get it sorted so in the end after months of trying to resolve it with them I gave up and just wrote off the money I was owed, despite having an email from the MD saying that he authorised the refund, but the accounts department just refused to process it, and so we never got to the stage of organising for the equipment to be sent back.

Then I heard nothing until I got an email from a new finance lady a couple of weeks ago claiming that she had read through the email threads and how about we pay them £1500 to settle!!! I replied saying that if she had read the thread properly it was, in fact, them that owed us money and not to please not get in touch again unless it was to organise issue of the refund we were due.

Then this week I received a Claim Form from County Court Business Centre that states they are claiming for 'Lost equipment' which now seems to have escalated somehow to £4200 in the space of a week!! but the equipment has been here all the time all they needed to do was issue the refund and it would have all been resolved no problem!

We have had the equipment returned by courier this week as now looking into contract (attached) it appears I was in breach of this by not getting it sent back to them but we did ask in multiple emails over many months of emails that we wanted to get equipment back to them how can we resolve this etc.

My partner has got in touch with them to try and get them to drop it, and the lady he is speaking to seems helpful but they have been so underhand since we notified them of cancellation that I don't trust a word they are saying at all so in the background I need to prepare a defence.

Could you give me some advice on how to proceed please? It won't let me attach anything here for some reason but can share T&C's in a message if that helps.

[JAnother]

Terms & conditions of contract attached

[echat11]

Hi JANOTHER

You clearly need to prepare a Defence and CounterClaim as they clearly owed you monies.
Have they actually made any requests for the return of the equipment? Did they send any reminders to return the equipment? or were they relying on you to return it?

The fact they reduced the lines, there must have been instructions from you to them to do that, but they carried on charging you regardless.

It might be an idea to compile a complete summary and evidence.

You need to acknowledge the claim, you can do that online, that will give you an extra 14 days to prepare your Defence and Counter-Claim.

Fill in the following:

Received a claim? Yes/No:
Issue Date:
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?:
Total Amount Claimed : ( approximately please do NOT use EXACT figure given on the claim form, round up to next £100 or £1000)
Particulars of Claim: ( Please type out in full excluding names/account numbers/exact amounts ):

rob Celestine Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[JAnother]

Hi ECHAT11, thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

It was originally agreed that they process the refund and they would then organise a courier to collect back the equipment, they basically have done nothing but give us the run around for 12 months + until I finally lost my temper and said I wouldn't be sending it back until they processed the refund, which is now looking into it a breach of the contract. Please see attached some correspondence from both my IT Manager and myself obviously have blocked out all company names/email addresses etc. so you can see what has been said.

In regards to your list answers are:

Received a claim? Yes:
Issue Date: 25 Oct 2021
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Not yet but I will Monday 1st November
Total Amount Claimed : £4300
Particulars of Claim: xx terminated their contract with xx for the provision of xx services and have not paid the amount due under the terms of the contract. xx has also refused to send xx owned equipment back. The outstanding balance due is the amount claimed. The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the country courst act 1984 at teh rate of 8 % a year from 21/03/2020 - 22/10/2021 on £1600.00 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of £4.27.

I really appreciate your help as personally it's a really bad time for me my father passed away recently and last year I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I could really do without a CCJ in addition!

When you say compile a complete summary and evidence is this something there is a particular way I need to word or legally draft or literally just in a Word document just xx said xx on this date? Do I need to send this to the Claimant once I have drafted? or is this just preparation for defense, or for yourselves to review?

My IT manager (partner) is again trying to liase with them to get this dropped, but I don't trust them to action this due to underhanded dealings with them throughout our contract.

[echat11]

Sorry for your loss. Try not to get yourself stressed over this. The first thing you need to do is acknowledge the claim, that will give you more time.

The summary and evidence will help you with your Defence and help you decide on a Counterclaim. If you decide to file a Counterclaim you have to file it with the Defence.

Hopefully Rob and Celestine will look in and advise.

This a Defence for a CCA, so the format would be similar:-

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...-court-claims/

[echat11]

For Counterclaims, take a look at 8.20 in the link (this a very good guide) -

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/..._in_Person.pdf

[des8]

Here's another guide you might find useful: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/...+web+FINAL.pdf

If you post up your proposed defence (and counterclaim) we can have a look at it for you and if necessary suggest tweaks

[echat11]

Here's another guide you might find useful: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/...+web+FINAL.pdf

If you post up your proposed defence (and counterclaim) we can have a look at it for you and if necessary suggest tweaks

Many Thanks.

[JAnother]

Thanks so much for your help des8 echat11 just to update this thread the company decided to discontinue their claim in the end (rightly so!). Although they do actually still owe me money, and i'm still furious that they made a claim in the first place, the hassle involved in trying to recover such a relatively small amount back from them through a counterclaim/claim of my own just isn't worth the stress especially at the minute health-wise, so I'm going to leave it at that, but really do appreciate you both taking the time to look into this for me!

[echat11]

Thank you for letting us know, I also hope your health improves significantly.

[des8]

Thanks for the update.
Did they send you a copy of their form N279 Notice of discontinuance?
Might be worth checking with court if it has actually been filed.