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I'll make it as brief as possible and thank you in advance.
Contractor working for my small ltd company
We paid late after 28 days usually a few days but after a hold up in a tasty invoice we struggled to pay the last two in good time, they we're settled 2 months late in August this year.
The last we heard was a chase on the final invoice in August and it was then paid.
A few weeks ago an online court claim form arrived by hand from someone in the town who thought it important enough not to throw it away as post is often sent to her by mistake (she's just leaving the rented property, now we know why mail doesn't get to us always)! It was addressed to us.
I filled in an acknowledgement of service ticking dispute whole claim as we had no idea what the breakdown was at that time it was out of date and after calling the court and explaining we'd literally just received it (1 week after the return date) the court advised to fill in the Acknowledgement of Service form to buy us time to investigate.
This claim is the only contact since paying the overdue invoice, no warning, no invoice for the late fees, no explanation why some going back a few years are now being used to ask for a lump sum, nothing.
After speaking with a local Solicitors secretary she advised he didn't want to help as the amount of the claim wasn't worth it to the company but that I should make an offer to settle out of court.
I have since looked up the statutory fees on the gov website and found the claim to breakdown to £40 per invoice for several invoices in line with these fees spanning a few years out of the 150+ invoices from this contractor in these years.
My two questions are:
Now I've filed an acknowledgement of service and ticked I intend to defend all of the claim as at the time I didn't have a clue what it was for.
Do I have to reply to the court on the Acknowledgement of service, it says I have to make a defence. Can I make the defence that this is without prior indication of court action from the claimant?
If I make an offer to the claimant and it's accepted do I still have to reply to the court?
It seems a bit extreme to just wake up one day and send someone to court for mostly historic late payment fees without a word. I would really appreciate some sage advice.
I am aware the fees are a result of my own actions and obviously I've learnt a soon to be expensive lesson in paying on time but I would have appreciated some form of communication before this action was taken.
Contractor working for my small ltd company
We paid late after 28 days usually a few days but after a hold up in a tasty invoice we struggled to pay the last two in good time, they we're settled 2 months late in August this year.
The last we heard was a chase on the final invoice in August and it was then paid.
A few weeks ago an online court claim form arrived by hand from someone in the town who thought it important enough not to throw it away as post is often sent to her by mistake (she's just leaving the rented property, now we know why mail doesn't get to us always)! It was addressed to us.
I filled in an acknowledgement of service ticking dispute whole claim as we had no idea what the breakdown was at that time it was out of date and after calling the court and explaining we'd literally just received it (1 week after the return date) the court advised to fill in the Acknowledgement of Service form to buy us time to investigate.
This claim is the only contact since paying the overdue invoice, no warning, no invoice for the late fees, no explanation why some going back a few years are now being used to ask for a lump sum, nothing.
After speaking with a local Solicitors secretary she advised he didn't want to help as the amount of the claim wasn't worth it to the company but that I should make an offer to settle out of court.
I have since looked up the statutory fees on the gov website and found the claim to breakdown to £40 per invoice for several invoices in line with these fees spanning a few years out of the 150+ invoices from this contractor in these years.
My two questions are:
Now I've filed an acknowledgement of service and ticked I intend to defend all of the claim as at the time I didn't have a clue what it was for.
Do I have to reply to the court on the Acknowledgement of service, it says I have to make a defence. Can I make the defence that this is without prior indication of court action from the claimant?
If I make an offer to the claimant and it's accepted do I still have to reply to the court?
It seems a bit extreme to just wake up one day and send someone to court for mostly historic late payment fees without a word. I would really appreciate some sage advice.
I am aware the fees are a result of my own actions and obviously I've learnt a soon to be expensive lesson in paying on time but I would have appreciated some form of communication before this action was taken.
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