Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

[chipmuffin]

I am hoping that someone can please provide some help on here as I have got myself into a bit of a hole with a recent claim that I have made against a LLP

Last year I had a BTL property for which I had to repay a 50% loan of £27,500 to developers. I had the money to repay this however the developers had abandoned their offices and removed all online presence and could not be contacted so the loan was never repaid. Eight months later I was contacted by LPA Receivers and immediately offered to repay the debt.

The LLP in question was appointed by the Receivers and they added £16,000 in costs to my loan amount. I appointed a solicitor to dispute these costs. My solicitor twice attempted to make contact over 3 months but never received a response. I then found out a sale had gone through for £58,000 and the LLP stated to my solicitor that they had not been involved since the appointment by the developer. Upon receiving the final redemption statement 6 months later all remaining funds from the sale were allocated to the LPA Receiver and the LLP (who took £10,650 from the sale).

I recently made an application to take this LLP to the small claims court to recover some of those costs, possibly against my better judgement and they applied for a Part 24 Summary Judgement to have the Claim dismissed on the grounds that it wouldn’t succeed. They produced 60 pages of documentation in response to my 10 line claim; the majority of which was unrelated to the claim.

My case was thrown out in the County Court for the reason that I took the wrong party to court. It was stated that the LPA Receivers were the party that employed the LLP and I was ordered to pay them £6,800 in expenses which I have to pay on 14 September.

I still haven’t received any contact from them regarding this payment but want to know what, if anything I can do in response to this? The solicitor in court only gave a copy of his expenses to the judge, thus I was unable to respond or argue the case for any of the expenses they were requesting at the time. I now have a copy of these but I didn’t at the time.

I’m pretty much up against time and £6,800 I not something I can afford right now which is why I haven’t sought out advice before and got myself into this hole so any advice would be very much appreciated.

[dan_1207]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

If you took the wrong person to court, then it's unlikely you'll run a successful appeal. On the face of it, I would suggest the costs order is paid.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

I am hoping that someone can please provide some help on here as I have got myself into a bit of a hole with a recent claim that I have made against a LLP

Last year I had a BTL property for which I had to repay a 50% loan of £27,500 to developers. I had the money to repay this however the developers had abandoned their offices and removed all online presence and could not be contacted so the loan was never repaid. Eight months later I was contacted by LPA Receivers and immediately offered to repay the debt.

The LLP in question was appointed by the Receivers and they added £16,000 in costs to my loan amount. I appointed a solicitor to dispute these costs. My solicitor twice attempted to make contact over 3 months but never received a response. I then found out a sale had gone through for £58,000 and the LLP stated to my solicitor that they had not been involved since the appointment by the developer. Upon receiving the final redemption statement 6 months later all remaining funds from the sale were allocated to the LPA Receiver and the LLP (who took £10,650 from the sale).

I recently made an application to take this LLP to the small claims court to recover some of those costs,

Presumably the LLP in question was a law firm representing the LPA receivers. I also notice the figures above and it doesn't sound like small claims as the threshold is £10k. Costs are not normally awarded against the losing party in small claims but they are in fast track which was probably where this belonged.

possibly against my better judgement and they applied for a Part 24 Summary Judgement to have the Claim dismissed on the grounds that it wouldn’t succeed. They produced 60 pages of documentation in response to my 10 line claim; the majority of which was unrelated to the claim.

My case was thrown out in the County Court for the reason that I took the wrong party to court. It was stated that the LPA Receivers were the party that employed the LLP and I was ordered to pay them £6,800 in expenses which I have to pay on 14 September.

and they added £16,000 in costs to my loan amount. I appointed a solicitor to dispute these costs. My solicitor twice attempted to make contact over 3 months but never received a response. I then found out a sale had gone through for £58,000 and the LLP stated to my solicitor that they had not been involved since the appointment by the developer. Upon receiving the final redemption statement 6 months later all remaining funds from the sale were allocated to the LPA Receiver and the LLP (who took £10,650 from the sale).
I still haven’t received any contact from them regarding this payment but want to know what, if anything I can do in response to this? The solicitor in court only gave a copy of his expenses to the judge, thus I was unable to respond or argue the case for any of the expenses they were requesting at the time. I now have a copy of these but I didn’t at the time.

Issuing proceedings against the wrong party doesn't do any favours, however, I can see above that you appointed a solicitor. As a LIP (litigant in person) you may well have made that mistake but I should think a solicitor would have been able to advice you on something as basic as that, i.e. whether you were suing the right party. :confused2: If he didn't advice you properly, you may have a case against them.

If you took the wrong person to court, then it's unlikely you'll run a successful appeal.

Indeed, it's not likely to go anywhere, however, the OP appears to have been represented by a solicitor who should have known better. :mmph:

On the face of it, I would suggest the costs order is paid.

I’m pretty much up against time and £6,800 I not something I can afford right now which is why I haven’t sought out advice before and got myself into this hole so any advice would be very much appreciated.

The costs order could be settled with a Tomlin order where you agree to repay the costs in a number of monthly instalments backed by an income and expenditure statement.

A costs order is similar to a CCJ in terms of enforcement, i.e. the other side can record a charging order, apply for a warrant to send bailiffs or an attachment of earnings, etc. however, it doesn't show up on credit files or the CCJ registry as it does not relate to unpaid credit, but can still be enforced as such. :ohwell:

[dan_1207]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

To me, the wording reads as though the OP made the application for SJ themselves; the solicitor being involved prior to the application. Can this be confirmed, chipmuffin?

[chipmuffin]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

To me, the wording reads as though the OP made the application for SJ themselves; the solicitor being involved prior to the application. Can this be confirmed, chipmuffin?

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<br>I had no solicitor and represented myself as it was a small claim. The defendant made the application for a summary judgement and in the process said they ran up over £8500 of costs. They were awarded £6800.&nbsp;<br>

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To me, the wording reads as though the OP made the application for SJ themselves; the solicitor being involved prior to the application. Can this be confirmed, chipmuffin?

I had no solicitor and represented myself as it was a small claim. The defendant made the application for a summary judgement and in the process said they ran up over £8500 of costs. They were awarded £6800.

[wales01man]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

If the wrong person was sued there costs if awarded against you must be paid or am I wrong?

[chipmuffin]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

The costs order could be settled with a Tomlin order where you agree to repay the costs in a number of monthly instalments backed by an income and expenditure statement.

A costs order is similar to a CCJ in terms of enforcement, i.e. the other side can record a charging order, apply for a warrant to send bailiffs or an attachment of earnings, etc. however, it doesn't show up on credit files or the CCJ registry as it does not relate to unpaid credit, but can still be enforced as such. :ohwell:

Is any interest charged with a Tomlin order? Is this the same as the n245 form, I had heard that this had interest of 8%?

Is there no possibility of appealing these costs, I never had any opportunity to appeal them in court as TLT gave one to the judge and kept one for themselves and I did not have a copy. The judge asked me if I agreed with the costs and I stated that I could not see what they are so he dealt with them himself.

My initial small claim was only a short 10 line statement that took 15 minutes to write, TLT raised a summary judgement but did not only stick to the topic of the claim and they stated they put in 20+ hours work with 4 different individuals, claimed other costs for meetings with their solicitors, claimed £1500 for turning up at court and motorbike courier costs amongst others.

They refused mediation and my attempts to settle out of court so I kind of had the feeling they were ramping up the costs as much as possible to take something out of the case.

[dan_1207]

Re: Lost Summary Judgement against LLP - HELP !!!!

The judge will likely have assumed you did not agree with them, but it is up to the judge to summarily assess them anyway, hence the reduction.

Tomlin orders are filed as a stand alone document, with a fee of £50.00.

The issue with strike out and summary judgment applications is things like mediation aren't going to work - you sued the wrong person, so mediation is simply impossible.

Suing the wrong person is easily done and I now have a template witness statement to deal with them; LiPs get the identity of the other side wrong a lot of times, and it's easily done.

You're best off focusing your efforts on suing the correct person this time, with proper particulars of claim.