Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

[Cornerfield]

Hi

I could really do with a bit of advice with regards to what i do next please if you lovely people would be able to assist i would be very grateful!

Bit of background

My partner was doing works for a letting agent and had been for years. Contract was that they took x% per invoice. However they wanted to change this further down the line to a lump sum fee in which my partner declined. Therefore he declined any further works and simply asked that he was paid up to date on any outstanding completed jobs.

Payment was not very forth coming an months passed on with dribs and drabs payments. He made several calls, emails, visits to not much success. He did eventually get some but not all payments but these were then deducted by the new commission fees and not the original. Meaning more chasing/calls.

My partner gradually gave up until i decided to take over the chasing. At first they said too much time had gone past and that they had ceased management on them so nothing could be done. I disagreed and was having much dealings with the manager who seemed very helpful and asked me to supply copies of all works orders and invoices which i done and was led in a circle to eventually be ignored all together. I sent a few chase ups to no avail.

Again a bit of time had passed and i had done some research and realized i could bring a court claim along with charge "Commercial Late Payment Fees and interest". Therefore i began to re-chase and sent recorded delivery a letter before action with copies of every email/works order/invoice and gave a deadline for payment or issue proceedings. They emailed me to acknowledge receipt of the letter.

I heard nothing until a few hours before close of business the day before the deadline (Saturday) and was asked to confirm bank details for payment. I replied later after business hours with details and took this as acceptance to pay. Due to it falling on a weekend i held off until Monday to await payment. Nothing received. I sent a chase email telling them i would be issuing if not received but nothing. Tuesday came and i received an email saying they was away the previous day and that they had sent the payment across to their accounts to be issued for payment. I asked for confirmation of which they said they couldn't provide. Long story short i extended deadline several times and asked for payment by x time x day but they wasnt interested in any deadline just promised payments that never arrived.

I issued proceedings.

Now for the complex part

The agents have since made payment for the original amount but not including the late payment fees/interest etc.

The lettings agents i dealt with were (changed for legal reasons) ABC County Lettings which is the name i put however it has since been pointed out by their solicitors that there name is actually XYZ County Lettings LTD T/A ABC County Lettings. I have since looked them up on companies house and the exact trading name i put in doesn't come up as another company but it DOES come up as an officer of the said agents.

I have received a letter from the solicitors telling me that they will apply to strike out my application as the name is incorrect and they don't believe i have pleaded my claim properly with regards to CPR rules/regulations.

They have given me an ultimatum that i either discontinue my claim as they say they have a very high chance of being successful or they will apply to strike out on the grounds of the name. They have also said that if i discontinue my claim they will pay me the £70 court fee as a gesture of goodwill on the proviso that i sign a disclaimer to say i will not seek any further claims etc against them.

There defence states i have failed to comply with cpr with regards to name etc but goes on to say they have already made payment and that i was wrong in doing so as i was told payment would be made. They also state payment was made on the 18th but it was actually made 23rd. They said i have failed to attach copies of any invoices etc (but i had sent them to the letting agents office i dealt with recorded delivery with my letter before action). They also claim they are not indebted to me yet they have made payment so surely that is admitting they are?

I was happy to represent ourselves but the fact that they now have legal; jargon involved i am beginning to doubt myself.

My questions:-

Does the fact that the trading name shows up as an officer of the company make any difference? Or that there isn't another company listed with the same trading name i put?

I served the court papers at the local branch that i dealt with should i have served it at their head offices? I am unsure who i am suppose to deal with? The local office/the solicitors writing to me?

The agents filed there defence on 15th January. I am yet to received anything from the courts. However i have looked online and it says

A bar was put in place for ABC 15/01/2016
ABC filed a defence on 15/01/2016
DQ sent to ABC on 15/01/2016







Where do i go from here? (Sorry if i have crossed over from 1st/2nd person. It is my partner taking them to court but me that has done all dealings with it/them.)

I look forward to your advise please.

Kind regards

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Is their defence a partial defence ( where they tell the court they have paid X amount but X amount is disputed ) or have they defended the entire claim ? Did they make the payment before they put the defence in.

It sounds like they went to a solicitors late, after they had filed a defence?

How much approx are you outstanding now - and is that solely the interest on late payments? ( calculated from the date the invoices were originally due?)

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

They have defended the whole claim. They acknowledged it very quickly with solicitor doing all paperwork. Then made a payment. Then sent solicitors letters to me which I ignored and have filed a defence within last few days.

Outstanding about £700 ish in commercial late payment fees and interest.

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Okay and the claim cost you £70 so overall was under £1500?

Can you just do a approx breakdown and how long ago were the invoices due to be paid ?

Just checking whether it is worth amending the claim and continuing for just the interest ( and that the claim for the interest is correct - 8.5% per annum ? plus compensation for late payment - £40 ? )

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

I had to do several calculations as some of the invoices were only partially paid (where they took incorrect % fee)

Looking back at all my workings out im confused as forgotten how i did it all but sure i used a calcualtor on some website that added it up for me.

On the invoices that were partially paid i worked it out as follows:

INV 1 Amount due was 78.00 they should have taken 10% + Vat (£9.36) but they took £30 so i worked out £30.00 - £9.36= £20.64. I worked out the interest on this amount (£20.64) from the day that they paid me the partial payment 05/07/2013 to the date i issued the claim. I worked it out to be 892 days and a total of £4.24.

I wasn't sure if i had to calculate interest on the entire amount or just the outstanding amount so i done the lesser amount. The original invoice was actually sent to them for payment on the 23/02/2012 so was already 17 months late when the partial payment was made.

I calculated the rest of the partial payments the same.

The payments not made at all i added up and took away the commision they was due to take and worked out the interest on these amounts. I deemed them owed 30 days from when i completed the job so calculated interest from that date to the claim issue date.

I added up all of these figures and added a further charge of £40 per outstanding invoice.

7x invoices were partially paid in 2013 (originally due early 2012)
4x invoices completely unpaid (1x due 12/2011, 3x due 2012)

Claim calculated as:

795.12 outstanding invoices
+ 221.74 interest
440 late payment fees (11x invoices)
70 court fee

£1526.86

They have since paid me the £795.12

Hope this makes sense.

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

That makes sense completely on the interest front - I hope you didn't mind me checking but I have seen a fair few errors made in the calculations ( eg. just adding a flat 8% on to the debt, or even adding 8% a day ! lol) It's the £40 per invoice that was throwing me, I didn't realise there were so many invoices, which soon adds up - without those I was guesstimating the invoices were about £700 in which case with only 1 or 2 £40 fees the interest would have been overstated.

So yip all good.

So, the trading name / company name - can you pm the names to me and I'll have a look - it's tricky to say as some of these companies make things incredibly complicated. It would require an application which will cost you £50 to amend the name.

It sounds as though they simply want to get away with paying the original invoice amounts over 3 years late without any penalty.... they've paid the amount to leave you arguing the interest and charges.... but when you do your witness statement, or even in acknowledgment of their payment - you can accept that partial payment as something along the lines of ...............

Invoice A ( earliest one) paid in full - 8% pa interest and £40 late payment fee - paid in full
Invoice B ( next one) paid in full - 8% interest _ £40 - paid in full
Invoice C ( next one - partially paid - outstanding £xxxxx
Invoice D (next one - outstanding £xxxxxxxx


like that ( hope that makes sense) so a little bit more maths needed.

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

yes the last bit completely makes sense.

The first part are you saying my calculations are wrong? (not offended if you think they are lol)

Will pm you the name.

What happens now though. I submitted claim, they have filed their defence. Do i have to now do something or do i wait for the court to send me paperwork?

Also im not sure what the bar bit is the court references on the mcol section?

Thank you for taking the time to get back to me. It is very much appreciated.

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

I was agreeing with your calculations - just explaining why I was questioning them initially

You should receive a directions questionnaire in a couple of days. You can reply to their defence - if the name needs changing you'll need to make an application to do that, but your reply can state that documents were sent pre-action and enclose further copies. You can also go through the palava you had with promises of payment which never materialised - so long as you were reasonable (and it does sound like you were more than reasonable ) you will have no issue with CPR breaches - the dates of letters/emails/ contacts can be listed in a witness statement.

ON MCOL the ' a bar is in place' is because an acknowledgement of service or an application, or even a defence, has been filed but not yet put on the system - it protects the other side from a wayward default judgment, so nothing to worry about there.

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

but your reply can state that documents were sent pre-action and enclose further copies


I don't quite understand this part. But the rest of it i do entirely. On my reply to their defence do i have to go through and answer each of their points one at a time? Or do i just write my own defence saying these are jobs that were done here are my invoices and these are the dates/times/emails i sent to ask for payment?

Will the time concept look bad on my part? That i started chasing then stopped then started again? Should i explain why i stopped and started?

Thank you

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

OK.

I have now received my questionnaire in the post to complete by the 2nd February so gives me plenty of time to get all my defence together. Today i have also received 2 letters from the letting agents solicitors one is a repeat letter of an ultimatum they sent me about discontinuing the case or they will get it thrown out and they want to know why i haven't bothered replying to them. The second letter is them "reminded me" of my legal obligations about trying to settle a dispute out of court first. Pretty ironinc seens as i have approx 20 unreturned emails from them and about 10 deadlines they point blank refused to acknowledge yet when it suits them i should reply in a heart beat. Bloody cheek!

Anyhow sorry for going off on a rant a few questions. They are wanting the case heard in their local court which is the other end of the country to me. The letting agent i was always dealing with is based in my local town. Yet as there solicitors/headoffice are based elsewhere they want it heard there? Can i apply to have it heard local to us? We also have a young baby and 2 children at school and travelling there will take my partner and i best part of the day let alone cost my partner more money in taking time off work.

They say they will be calling 3 witnesses? Not sure who they will be as all dealings have been pretty much over email?

They have ticked the mediation box but i feel this will be pointless as i have no grounds for negotiation as there is a fixed sum remaining owing and i don't feel i should budge on it?

Amethyst please could you advise me on my arguement about the confusion of trading names (as mentioned in your inboxed message) please.

Thank you

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Morning Just having a read of your couple posts that I seem to have missed ( apologies!)

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Thank you

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

You are the individual so you should ask in your Directions Questionnaire for the case to be heard in your local court.

Something along the lines of

''I am a sole trader, a litigant in person, and the original contract was with xxxxxxxx at their offices in XXXXXXXXXXX. The defendant is a large, national corporation. I would be unable to travel to XXX county court and allocating the claim to that court would be detrimental to my claim."


Reply to their letter stating that you accept the payment of XXX against invoices X, X and X and their subequent £40 and stat interest - you will inform the court that the claim is partially settled and remind them that your claim remains for the remaining invoices X, X and X plus their £40's and stat interest. Also remind them you have written to them on X, X,X, X etc etc and you will make the court aware of the amount of preaction conduct they have failed to comply with when it comes to assessing costs in the case.

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Can you post a copy of their defence pls so we can figure out a reply to it.

[Cornerfield]

Re: Claim against letting agents failing to pay sub contractor - name error!!! Help

Thank you Amethyst.

Do i have to send my defence along with my completed directions questionnaire?

Also do i have to agree to mediation if there are no grounds for negotiation?

Asking for the case to be heard in my local court do i write that in box D1 "about the hearing venue" or do i write it in with my defence?

Do i write my defence point by point answering each of their defence?

When i supply evidence of all the times i have communicated with them do i list EVERYTHING or just some? As i probably have 20/30 maybe more email correspondences with them?

Also is there any particular wording phrases i need to mention when explaining about their company/trading name mix up as that is their main point of defence?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thank you again

- - - Updated - - -

of course. I just need to try figure out how to do it lol. Very grateful for your help. Shall i cross out their names?