Fast Track - Bizarre defence and counterclaim

[Guest]

Evening all,

I've had trouble getting a client to pay an invoice. It's a B2B contract, formed verbally with an email follow up. The problem appears to be that they don't like the bills. I've repeatedly asked them for specific issues to look into, however they won't give any. I've had Without Prejudice email exchanges offering to meet them in the middle but they aren't willing to budge.

So eventually I've filed a claim that has been allocated to the Fast Track. Once they received their notice they sent me without prejudice letter saying they were only willing to pay half as that was all they thought the work was worth and enclosed a cheque for that amount. I returned the cheque quite promptly saying that we didn't accept the offer.

They have complained about this job to our governing body, who have promptly investigated and shut the complaint down.*I now understand that they have started raising complaints with the governing body about previous jobs in what appears to be a fishing expedition,*despite our governing body stating that complaints have to be raised with the service provider first. They have also been in touch with an aggrieved ex employee dismissed for gross misconduct, who they are suggesting has told them that we didn't do the previous jobs right.

I've subsequently received the defendant's defence and I'm unsure what to do about it. The key issues I see are that:

1) They are stating that they admit half the value and that they have made payment prior to the N1 form being filed. They haven't and they didn't. They've basically lied.
2) They are referencing things from the Without Prejudice emails in their defence. I thought this was off limits as it was genuinely us trying to come to an agreement.
3) They are stating that there are problems with the job, despite never telling us of any AND the governing body shutting their complaint down.
4)*They are suggesting that previous jobs have not been carried out properly. They've never told us anything about this and I'm unsure of the relevance to their defence anyway.
5) The defence is just long and rambling.

They've also put a counterclaim in for a notional value based on what they expect it to cost to correct the previous jobs that they believe may not have been carried out correctly. I don't think this would stand up as a claim in its own right, so is it really admissible as a counterclaim?

If anyone has any advice as to how I tell the court that they haven't paid us anything, get the without prejudice discussions removed from their defence, deal with general vagueness/rambling and also what I should do about the counterclaim I'd really appreciate it!

I have a few days yet until my reply has to be filed and any pointers would be appreciated!

Alan

[Amethyst]

Have they actually entered a part admission for the half or just stated it within their defence ?

What kind of work was this ? and have they stayed at all what the ( perceived) issues with the work were ?

The without prejudice discussions they have referred to - do they relate to settlement/negotiations or to any kind of admissions on the quality of work / service etc ?

Is the counterclaim actually filed/paid for as a counterclaim or just racked on to the defence ? ( you need to defend it and can do reply to defence at same time )

[Alan Reading]

Thanks for the reply. It's construction work as a subcontractor. In a phone call trying to resolve this they admitted that they had only budgeted half of our invoice value, however they used us as their regular subcontractor dropped out last minute.

They have submitted a part-admission at Q1 stating that they admitted part and had paid it (they haven't, this was the conditional offer that they sent). Then at Q2 they have ticked 'Yes' to indicate they had already paid the bill.

The without prejudice discussions relate to the letter they sent us after the N1 had been received, which they then dated prior to the N1 and (bizarrely) emailed through meaning that it's obvious it is after the N1. In the letter they complain about the price, ask us to prove we were on site for the hours *we said we were and offer to settle for half the amount. This is the first time they have questioned our site attendance.

Their defence is that they do not believe*we were on site when we said we were and that the rates we have charged are deemed excessive. They reference their WP letter using the earlier incorrect date stating that we hadn't replied to their requests for information. Costs were made clear up front.

The letter accompanying the defence and counterclaim states they have 10 days to pay the requested fee for the counterclaim, hence it looks to be genuine. Again, it states that it is an estimate and is very vague.

Apologies if this is a tad confusing.

Alan