liable for costs in small claims?

[scotgal68]

can my daughter, a student, be liable for the other party's legal costs in a small claims hearing?
she has no legal representation, because the claim was only for £700 for a refund of rent. she went to court on the advice of a community legal service, who had written to the letting agency over a period of a year. the letting agency want us to sue the landlord for the refund(building works made the property uninhabitable), but in a year of communications, the letting agency never suggested contacting the land lord or gave us his contact details, her housemate sued the agents, successfully and the judge told the agents that they should be seen as one and the same as the landlord. now the agents have employed a lawyer who has petitioned to have the case struck out, the hearing is on thursday and today she received a summary assessment statement of costs for £2,500 and is afraid to go to the hearing, the agents solicitor has been threatening her with suing for costs. please help

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

It is very important that she attend the hearing and explain her position to the judge.

In England and Wales it is not usual for costs to be awarded in the small claims court. It sounds as if they are trying to intimidate them into backing down, as the landlord's case is weak (not unusual in civil litigation).

The letting agents are the agents of the landlord (as their title woudl suggest) and can be sued as his representative (and vice versa); they can in turn seek contribution or indemnity from him under part 20 CPR - a submission your daughter and/or her flatmate could make.

It is odd that if the agents did not think it was their own fault, they did not suggest to thee tenants or the community legal service that they contact the landlord instead or provide contact details for him. As they did not do this, this could eb argued to increase their own liability.

[scotgal68]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

thanks, we live in Scotland but the property and court case is on thursday in Leeds, the lawyer has sent us copies of the lease, land registry documents and other stuff. the housemate who went to court in february won and the agent didnt have legal representation, to put you in the picture, the letting agency promised us over and over again the work had been done and even lied that it had been completed because they thought we were in Scotland, we were actually standing in a room full of mud and plaster. the community legal advice team sent numerous letters to the agent, they either didnt respond or were vague, eventually they sent an offer of £70 it was an equation like 4 rooms - 2 rooms out of use x by 2 tenants etc,
the letting agency manage 500 properties and have their own army of tradesmen, they never once told us to contact the landlord, the property was in a mess and not even clean when we first went to mover her in, they offered us £20 to clean it and had the cheek to withold £40 from their deposit because under one of the beds hadnt been hoovered.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

If the property is in Leeds, it would be English law.

The court has made a decision in your side's favour; the other side have applied to have it set aside. They may not win.

You should attend court and say the court's existing decision is right and the order should remain in place.

[scotgal68]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

sorry Springer i think ive confused you, we havent been to court yet, the housemate did it on her own and won, we are doing it ourselves to get our half of the rent back, the hearing on thursday is not the actual small claims hearing, its a hearing that the agents lawyers have asked for, they want our claim to be struck out, if it isnt then we still have to go to court at a later date to have our case heard. but you are right about one thing, the agents did petition for the housemates decision to be overturned but the judge in her case said that in his interpretation of the law, the agent and landlord could be treated as one and the same because the agent hadn't told us to sue the landlord at the outset.
its the bloody court costs thats making us alarmed

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

OK, this is called an Interim Application.

You should still point out that the flatmate's case - which presumably is the same as yours except involving a different claimant - has been succesful.

Therefore the case should not be struck out and no order for costs should be made at this interim stage.

It would be helpful to serve a copy of the court's decision on the flatmate's case on the other side and on the court by fax in advance of Thursday's proceedings, stating that you will be relying on it.

I reiterate i) that the small claims court does not normally award costs; and ii) they are trying to bully you.
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I would also suggest you contact Trading Standards about the ledtting agency

[CleverClogs]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

can my daughter, a student, be liable for the other party's legal costs in a small claims hearing?
she has no legal representation, because the claim was only for £700 for a refund of rent. she went to court on the advice of a community legal service, who had written to the letting agency over a period of a year. the letting agency want us to sue the landlord for the refund(building works made the property uninhabitable), but in a year of communications, the letting agency never suggested contacting the land lord or gave us his contact details, her housemate sued the agents, successfully and the judge told the agents that they should be seen as one and the same as the landlord. now the agents have employed a lawyer who has petitioned to have the case struck out, the hearing is on thursday and today she received a summary assessment statement of costs for £2,500 and is afraid to go to the hearing, the agents solicitor has been threatening her with suing for costs. please help

I would not have expected her to be liable for costs and certainly not for that amount.

She should refer to that letter in court, or otherwise make the judge aware of the antics of the defendants' solicitor.

[scotgal68]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

[QUOTE=CleverClogs;224027] thanks I will tell her to mention all that to the judge

[shamen]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

I echo the above. It sounds like they are trying to scare her about costs.

IIRC, costs can be claimed on the multi track and fast track. If the claim is on the small claims track then awards for costs are highly unusual and tend to be reserved for cases where the claimant is acting inappropriately

It would be unusual for a claim of £700 to be on anything other than the small claims track, however some litigants in person can be ambushed by the respondents legal council requesting assignment to the multi or fast track. My argument in such cases is that the respondant is trying to change the track to an inappropriate track with the view of making litigation prohibitively expensive to the claimant.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: liable for costs in small claims?

In addition to the above comments about the likelihood of costs being awarded, the amount of costs sought can be challenged in court.

Your daughter should press for the case to remain on the Small Claims Track rather than be transfered to the Fast Track, as the Defendants' legal representative will probably want, as this makes her much less likely to be eligible for costs.