Southern Water Court date

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Hi all, so I posted back in March I believe initially about Southern water trying to chase me from debts from 2012 roughly to 2016 Although I proved I left the property in 2014 and anything before March 2013 was statutes barred. Any how, I stopped receiving solicitors letters after I agreed to reach mediation with them and offered to decide a settlement out of court and today I received this. It makes no sense to me. What do I need to do in regards to the fees it's talking about? Also, why do I have to go to court when we both agreed mediation on a previous paper.

And finally, will I be left with a Ccj at the end of this court date? :-(

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Amethyst amethyst003 Sorry can't remember which one is an Admin,

[Amethyst]

That'll be me then xx Just having a look.

[Amethyst]

Okay. The case has been sent over to your local court and a hearing set. Presumably no attempt has been made by the other side at mediation and this does encourage the parties to contact either other directly to negotiate settlement.

Your next step is to write your Witness Statement and get together any evidences you have to support your defence. That needs to be filed and served before the 12th December at 4pm.

The fee is for the other side to pay, not you. It is a hearing fee and if they fail to pay it before 11th December at 4pm their claim is struck out.

The dates are very annoying as you will have to have sent your Witness Statement before the deadline for the claimant paying the hearing fee, but it is what it is.

So we need to start looking at your Witness Statement xx

I am going to get a link to your other thread so its easy to refer to.

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...te-barred-debt

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...te-barred-date



So do you still believe you do owe £770 ?

Did you send your evidence to the other side about when you left the property and did they then adjust / amend ?

What did you file for your defence?

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Thank you so much for getting back to me. I'm so sorry but this all seems so long ago and such a blur I can't really remember what I filed for my defence. I think I mentioned previously that I had a really bad pregnancy and was signed off work with Hyperemesis Gravidarium for 34 weeks so I did all of this whilst being extremely ill.

However I do think I toom your advice and defended in fu and noted that I was unable to to defend partially as I was unaware of the exact amount. This being due to the fact that despite requesting the bills be recalated, they failed to do this correctly. They re issued the same bills dated AFTER I'd left the property even though I'd supplied the proof of my tenancy ending. Also as you'd pointed out they'd begun the period from November 2012 but the claim wasn't filed until March 2013.

It was after I'd submit my defence that I asked if we could settle our of court/mediation. That's when I received a letter from their solicitor (Shulmans) saying they were no longer handling the case and it went back to Southern Water, I assumed then that we were going to enter negotiations but I didn't hear another word until this letter came. X

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

I've just managed to log in and see my defence!

"I am defending this claim on the grounds that I am unable to
accept or deny this debt being as though it is for an unknown
amount. I asked for a breakdown of bills on March 13th and
received such, how ever there were some discrepancies and as
such further amendments needed to be made by the claimant.
After providing the claimant with the further evidence
they'd requesteed from me on April 5th and again requesting a
further recalculated breakdown of costs/bills, this has not been
done. I was advised on April 5th I would be granted 14 extra
days in order for me to receive such paperwork and make my case,
but this time has been and passed and no further communication has
been received. Therefore I intend to defend this claim"

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Request for documents mentioned in a statement of case under CPR 31.14

On 8th March 2019 I received a County Court claim from yourselves of which I have acknowledged receipt indicating my intention to defend in full.

To enable me to file my defence and/or counterclaim, I require inspection of documents you mention in your statement of case ahead of filing my defence on 6th April 2019

You mention a sum of £1667.17 being unpaid between the period of 15th June 2009 and 30th June 2016. I believe that any such sum from bills dated before March 2013 is now statute barred under the limitation act 1980, 5. I request that you provide me with all relevant documents and bills for the period march 2013-March 2015 when I left the property and returned it to the housing association. I am currently unable. To defend nor admit to an amount that I'm currently unaware of in its exact total.


In accordance with CPR 31.15(c) I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request.

You should note that this claim has not yet been allocated to a specific track and the provisions of CPR 27(2) are of no effect. Had your claim not been issued through CCBC the Claimant would have been obliged to attach copies of the documentation upon which it relies to the Particulars of Claim.

I, as Defendant, am entitled to see the documents on which the Claimant relies and which you must produce at trial. Disclosure at this stage will enable me to fully plead my case and further the Overriding Objective.

You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the document(s) I have requested are copied to and received by me within 7 days of receiving this letter.

If you require more time in which to comply with this request you must tell me in writing and confirm your agreement to an extension of the time allowed for me to file my defence as allowed under CPR 15.5 so I may notify the court.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

I sent that on March 14th and the. This follow up in April..

"
To whom it may concern.


I'm regards to this ongoing claim I have submitted a defence as I was unable to accept or deny liability for the amounts out to me as I had not received the documentation I earlier requested.

Last week after submitting my defence however I did receive another bill dated May-June 2016 despite me already providing the evidence that I was no longer a tenant at the property as of April 2015.

As such I could not submit a part admission.

Id like to request for a third and final time that I be billed a correct statemtn from the dates as follows.

From March 4th 2013 (as anything before this is statute barred due to limitations act, and the claim was issued March 4th 2019) Up until April 5th 2015.

I have provided relevant evidence that I was not a tenant after this time.

Again I hope to receive the correct bills and amounts this time round and would appreciate being able to agree an out of court settlement. I look forward to your response.

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Amethy5t

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Amethyst

[Amethyst]

That looks absolutely fine.

The best preparation you can do to start the Witness Statement is to get all events, letters, emails, calls that you record of together in date order, and make a list ….

1: On xxxxxxxxx date xxxxxxxxxx I moved property from xxxxxxxxaddresssxxxxxxxxxxx to xxxxaddressxxxxxxxxxxx due to my tenancy ending ( EXHIBIT A )
2: On xxxxxx date xxxxxx I wrote to xxxxxxxxxxxxx and said xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ( EXHIBIT B)
3: On xxxxx date xxxxx Southern Water wrote to me and said xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ( EXHIBIT C)
4: On xxxxx date xxxxxx I telephoned Southern Water on 01515151515 and spoke with XXXX who said xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ( EXHIBIT D ( PHONE BILL?)
5: On xxxxx date xxxxx I received a copy of an invoice dated xxxxdatedxxxx which stated xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ( EXHIBIT E )

like that, more or less, then the rest of the arguments and what happened can be put in around it.


Have you done a Subject Access Request to Southern Water btw? Might be worth doing that to get all the documents etc that they hold on file. You have a month before the WS is due in so if you get a request in ( can do it by email or telephone ) they should respond in time.
Subject Access Request Letter

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Thanks for your reply Amethyst so I did submit another SAR as I didn't receive all information nor correct and up to date bills as I mentioned, and I received this response today.

[Amethyst]

You can reply to them stating that your position remains that charges before March 2013 are statute barred and that they have not confirmed the total amount that is actually owed between March 2013 to March 2015 ( which I think you calculated as £770 ? ) and require copies of the bills to confirm that is the correct amount before you are able to amend your defence/admission or come to any arrangement with them to settle the account.

[GetMeDebtFreePlease]

Thank you.

When they said could I confirm my intnentions so that neither party need attend... I thought we both HAD to attend?

OR is this them suggesting we may reach an out of court settlement?.
My ideal is arranging a payment plan out of court to avoid a CCJ. That's my only aim.

If doing all of this is going to result in a CCJ anyway then as long as the amount is correct and I'm not over paying, I'm not bothered lol.

Amethyst Thanks so much for your help! You're amazing.