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In 2016 I was involved in a dispute with a neighbor about a water leak to his premises, which was a tenanted barber shop. At the time I was aware that there was a water leak from my property to the property below me. But my neighbour was able to convince me to pay half the cost of fixing his water leak (which was subsequently found to be coming from my next-door neighbour’s patio.
The absentee neighbour (let’s call him Mr R, to protect the guilty) had asserted continuously that the leak had come from my property, had leached through the party wall into my neighbour’s property, then dropped down into the barbers shop.
However, two water engineer’s reports and a chartered surveyor’s survey all agreed that the leak to the barber shop was from my neighbour’s property and not mine. Two verbal statements from expert witnesses (the water engineer and the chartered surveyor) also expressed the opinion that the leak did not come from my property.
In order for the water to go from my property to the barbers shop it would have to flow uphill!
I then got the specialist water engineering company to repair the party wall which Mr Radia said was the agent of the leak. However, after this was repaired the water leak was as bad as before: the repair to the party wall had made no difference at all, which was entirely consisted with my case.
Therefore I asked Mr Radia for my money back. He refused.
But this was not a problem for me. After all, I had three expert surveys supporting my case. And the real clincher was that the repair to the wall which Mr Radia had said was to blame did not affect the leak at all. The court case, designated C7QZ5W2R, was to take place at Watford County Court on 11 May 2016.
I prepared a carefully annotated Witness Statement. Everything was on my side: the evidence, the technical reports, the expert witnesses, the fact that the repair of the putative party wall had made no difference. This should have been a certainty and I was sure to get my £793 back from Mr Radia when the judge ruled in favour of my case.
But then the real trouble started.
The case was due to be heard at 10:00 in the morning and it was only heard at 12:00. The judge appeared to have arrived late and did not look prepared. She looked a bit hurried and unkempt.
It was apparent that she had not read my Statement, because the first thing she said was that we should have a survey done. (Had she read the Statement she would have read that we had had three surveys done.)
The judge did not allow me to play a video if the leak, and she did not appear to be interested in my evidence or my exhibits.
The judge dismissed my case.
I appealed, but the appeal was useless because I learned that I could only appeal if the judge’s behavior was outrageous or in some way unseemly.
Three years later, I still want justice. £793 plus three years at 8% statutory interest plus £500 for the considerable distress and anxiety (a total of £1,500). The problem is, nobody will touch this as it has already been misruled.
A few weeks ago I was again reminded of this injustice. I learned that the water leak had at last been repaired. In order to repair the leak no work was necessary to my property whatsoever. If my case had not been proven before, it was proven beyond all physical doubt now.
The problem is, of course, that the judge ruled against me, even though I was in the right. I could, and can, demonstrate that I was in the right in a dozen different ways. It was a mistrial.
Can I get this mistrial recognized? Can I have a retrial? Everyone deserves their Day in Court. But I have been denied mine because a judge was too indolent or too rushed to bother to read what the case was about.
I appealed against the original ruling, but my appeal was thrown out because (or so I was told) I could not demonstrate that the judge’s behavior was unacceptable. In other words, appeals against an actual decision are impossible, no matter how much that decision can be proved to be wrong IN MATERIAL FACT.
So what can I do to achieve justice?
The absentee neighbour (let’s call him Mr R, to protect the guilty) had asserted continuously that the leak had come from my property, had leached through the party wall into my neighbour’s property, then dropped down into the barbers shop.
However, two water engineer’s reports and a chartered surveyor’s survey all agreed that the leak to the barber shop was from my neighbour’s property and not mine. Two verbal statements from expert witnesses (the water engineer and the chartered surveyor) also expressed the opinion that the leak did not come from my property.
In order for the water to go from my property to the barbers shop it would have to flow uphill!
I then got the specialist water engineering company to repair the party wall which Mr Radia said was the agent of the leak. However, after this was repaired the water leak was as bad as before: the repair to the party wall had made no difference at all, which was entirely consisted with my case.
Therefore I asked Mr Radia for my money back. He refused.
But this was not a problem for me. After all, I had three expert surveys supporting my case. And the real clincher was that the repair to the wall which Mr Radia had said was to blame did not affect the leak at all. The court case, designated C7QZ5W2R, was to take place at Watford County Court on 11 May 2016.
I prepared a carefully annotated Witness Statement. Everything was on my side: the evidence, the technical reports, the expert witnesses, the fact that the repair of the putative party wall had made no difference. This should have been a certainty and I was sure to get my £793 back from Mr Radia when the judge ruled in favour of my case.
But then the real trouble started.
The case was due to be heard at 10:00 in the morning and it was only heard at 12:00. The judge appeared to have arrived late and did not look prepared. She looked a bit hurried and unkempt.
It was apparent that she had not read my Statement, because the first thing she said was that we should have a survey done. (Had she read the Statement she would have read that we had had three surveys done.)
The judge did not allow me to play a video if the leak, and she did not appear to be interested in my evidence or my exhibits.
The judge dismissed my case.
I appealed, but the appeal was useless because I learned that I could only appeal if the judge’s behavior was outrageous or in some way unseemly.
Three years later, I still want justice. £793 plus three years at 8% statutory interest plus £500 for the considerable distress and anxiety (a total of £1,500). The problem is, nobody will touch this as it has already been misruled.
A few weeks ago I was again reminded of this injustice. I learned that the water leak had at last been repaired. In order to repair the leak no work was necessary to my property whatsoever. If my case had not been proven before, it was proven beyond all physical doubt now.
The problem is, of course, that the judge ruled against me, even though I was in the right. I could, and can, demonstrate that I was in the right in a dozen different ways. It was a mistrial.
Can I get this mistrial recognized? Can I have a retrial? Everyone deserves their Day in Court. But I have been denied mine because a judge was too indolent or too rushed to bother to read what the case was about.
I appealed against the original ruling, but my appeal was thrown out because (or so I was told) I could not demonstrate that the judge’s behavior was unacceptable. In other words, appeals against an actual decision are impossible, no matter how much that decision can be proved to be wrong IN MATERIAL FACT.
So what can I do to achieve justice?
