CCJ - Real Estate Agent not Landlord as Claimant

[Guest]

I would love some advice, having just received my first CC Claim. The Real Estate agent has issued a County Court Claim for rent arrears, with themselves as the claimant. My AST in between the named landlord and myself as tenant. Can the agent be the claimant? If so, what do I write on my defence letter? Thanks everyone in advance for your help.

[R0b]

It should be a straightforward defence, that the estate agent is not a party to the contract which is between you and the landlord. Therefore they have no legal right to recover the rent arrears in their name as they lack any legal standing (the legal term is locus standi).

[Jon6b]

Incidentally they also have no right to represent the landlord in court unless they are either a solicitor or barrister, or working under the supervision of a solicitor or barrister, a legal exec, chartered accountant, patent lawyer and a few others, but not letting agents!

[Ovidiumark]

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[jaguarsuk]

Incidentally they also have no right to represent the landlord in court unless they are either a solicitor or barrister, or working under the supervision of a solicitor or barrister, a legal exec, chartered accountant, patent lawyer and a few others, but not letting agents!

This is not correct, the landlord can write to the court and ask for them to represent him pursuant to the The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999 in small claims track.

If it were me I wouldn't defend solely based on wrong Claimant, because if they amend the Claimants name you are basically defenceless. Obviously you could then apply to amend the defence, but there's no guarantee you'll get the costs of that application awarded to you. I would make wrong claimant the first part of the defence and then the defence you would file if the Landlord were named as the second part of it.

Obviously don't tell them that the landlord has to write to the court for them to be able to conduct the hearing as hopefully when they amend the Claimants name or issue a new claim in the landlords name they don't know that is needed.

If the landlord does not write to the court and only they turn up on the day of the hearing, you let the judge know they have no rights of audience and they'll be asked to leave, which is going to make winning the claim pretty difficult. Whether the judge adjourns or continues will probably depend on the mood they're in that day.

Ask the judge to enter judgement in favour of the Defendant based on the reasons you say you don't owe it. There will be nobody there to counter your defence and if the judge states he is going to read the witness statement remind them that the claimant was ordered to write to the court in the case management order if they wanted their claim heard on paper, but they did not and should be in attendance.

The claim shouldn't be in their name though as others have stated, it should be in Landlords and them just administering it.

Edited to add: If you win an appeal based on them being removed isn't likely to fair well either, not turning up to the hearing and sending along someone with no rights of audience isn't a court mistake or unfair treatment, so I doubt it would wash.