Defence Assistance - Claim For Car Hire Agreement - Company LTD - URGENT

[TomB999]

I could not keep up with car payments ; the company terminated the agreement ; the letter turned up a day before the person sent to pickup the car early morning. the person who came was very polite.
had about an hour long conversation and they agreed to give me another week, i did not have a chance to open the letter so wasnt aware.

Handed over the car to them took pictures. sent pictures to the company did not hear anything back.

They claim they sent a default notice which i don't recollect receiving.

Agreement was for 4 years.

The agreement was terminated by the company after 2 yrs 3 months and few more days

Attached a copy of guarantee and indemnity with the claim

I received a letter before action to which I replied with prove the debt ; did not get a response and they filed to money claim without response.

The letter I received for payments I replied via email for months and chased them multiple times as the cost were high for no reason in addition to the missed payments.

They confirmed the price they sold car for; so they lost 500£ from the sale price in 2 years 3 month

=====================================
In the claim
======================
this is claim for monies due pursuant to a terminated unregulated hire agreement between claimant and the first defendant. ( the first defendant listed is my ltd company) the claim is against the second defendant in pursuant to the terms of guarantee and indemnity

they put down the monthly totals missed.

They put 1k£ loss of sale ( no details provided but i do remember emailing them a number of times to get details of how they come up with this figure as the care was well under the mileage i took and was in great condition )

just under 500£ agent fee

late payment fee 35£

they put down 6k early termination fee.

i did not terminate the contract they did without any notice or warning ; i had been in communication with them on email.

its been the company style not to respond to email and then escalate quickly.

i sent the last email reminder to get back to be after 3 months of chasing on a response.

they got the mileage wrong went back and forth on getting the mileage

i have confirmation from the company of requesting the invoice breakdown but never heard back.

echat11
R0b

atticus

[atticus]

So how can we help you?

[R0b]

Hi

I cannot see a question in your post so I am not sure what you want me to say. Do you need help with anything?

[TomB999]

So how can we help you?

thank you for your reply ; i need your help for preparing defence pls

is the early termination fee usually this high ?

can a car hire company do this after i have responded to the pre action letter asking for proof.

i chased them a number of times but they failed to get back to me ; how does that help my case ?

they have written in the claim did not get a satisfactory response ?


with this being a company hire as oppose to personal hire how is this different ?

what information should i ask for apart from the breakdown of the invoice.

do cca , cpr31.14 , sar apply

what the best way to defend and not get a ccj ?

i would have been prepared to setup a payment plan with them earlier but they never got back to me. how can i explain this to say it unfair or void ?

[TomB999]

Hi

I cannot see a question in your post so I am not sure what you want me to say. Do you need help with anything?

Yes please ;need your help for preparing defence pls

is the early termination fee usually this high ? 6k£

can a car hire company goto money claim after i have responded to the pre action letter asking for proof. i also chased them a number of times on email but they failed to get back to me; the last email i have from them is that they will get back to me with invoice breakdown but never replied ; how does that help my case ?

they have written in the claim did not get a satisfactory response ?

with this being a company hire as oppose to personal hire how is this different ?

what information should i ask for apart from the breakdown of the invoice.

do cca , cpr31.14 , sar apply

what the best way to defend and not get a ccj ?

i would have been prepared to setup a payment plan with them earlier but they never got back to me. how can i explain this to say it unfair or void ?

[TomB999]

Can you kindly help URGENTLY I have so submit in a few days?

echat11

R0b

atticus


need your help for preparing defence for the above pls?

is the early termination fee usually this high ? 6k£

can a car hire company goto money claim after i have responded to the pre action letter asking for proof. i also chased them a number of times on email but they failed to get back to me; the last email i have from them is that they will get back to me with invoice breakdown but they never replied ; how does that help my case ?

they have written in the claim did not get a satisfactory response ?

with this being a company car hire as oppose to personal hire how is this different ?

what information should i ask for apart from the breakdown of the invoice.

do cca , cpr31.14 , sar apply in my case ?

what the best way to defend and not get a ccj ?

i would have been prepared to setup a payment plan with them earlier but they never got back to me. how can i explain this to say it unfair or void ?

[R0b]

Hi

I'm afraid I don't think there is much I can help with Since you are at such a late stage for filing a defence. It would appear the agreement is an unregulated agreement so a CCA request would not be applicable and whilst you can do a subject access request, that would only be for information the creditor holds about you, not the company. You could try to make a CPR 31.14 request but if the sum is less than £10k the claimant's solicitors are likely to reject that (rightly or wrongly).

It would also appear that you haven't supplied a full copy of the particulars of claim, rather you have just presented what you think we need to see which is not helpful to us as we much prefer the full (redacted) version. It also looks like the claimant is suing both the company and you personally so in effect there would need to be two defences filed, one for the company and one for you. Otherwise, if you fail to file a defence for the company, the claimant could request default judgment.

As for a defence, I have no clue since you haven't offered any information except te fact that the claimant failed to reply back to you in pre-action correspondence and that you sent a prove it letter (which is really not helpful either).

The fees being claimed will depend on the contract terms, value of the vehicle, when it was sold and how it was sold. If you defaulted on your agreement and the creditor terminated the agreement for your breach, then they will be usually entitled to an early termination fee, which is usually made up of the the total remaining fees outstanding, less the value it sold fold, any interest deducted for the remainder of the term and after those deductions you are left with the final value.

So far as I can see, you have no defence other than arguing that the sums being claimed do not appear to be correct and you require them to prove their losses. That's likely to lead to a CCJ if you don't come to an agreement pretty quickly.

An alternative would be to make an application to the court to stay proceedings on the basis that the claimant failed to properly engage in the pre-action protocols i.e. you requested further information about the fees and they ignored you in favour of issuing a claim. You could ask for a stay of 3 months for both sides to engage in active settlement discussions but there is usually a cost attached for that which is £275 (per defendant), unless you personally qualify for a reduction in fees which you need to complete online.

Not that I want to s*** on you more but defences relating to personal guarantees are complex and usually require proper legal advice as there are various ways the guarantee may or may not be enforceable and it starts by looking at the terms of the guarantee.

I'm sorry it's not what you want to hear but this is not a straightforward claim and you would do well to seek some independent legal advice but failing that, you could ask the other side for an extension of time to file a defence given that you are a litigant in person under CPR 15.5, admit the claim which could result in a CCJ or make an application to the court and at least buy you some breathing space to negotiate whilst that application makes its way through the system.