Am I at risk of being taken to court

[Guest]

Hi, im really confused by my situation and hope someone can give me some information.

I briefly volunteered for a dog rescue, I completed home checks on behalf of said rescue. It was all done via video link as covid made home visits very risky. I would take an application and contact the prospective adopters and would ask them to submit videos of their property and would conduct an interview with questions to determine their suitability and to find a suitable match. I would record everything and submit it to the rescue and they would approve or decline and make recommendations. I had no involvement after that.

I conducted a home check for a certain gentleman and he got the dog he applied for. He submitted the contract, which includes agreeing to a non refundable fee for the dog. After a couple of weeks he wanted the dog removed. He messaged me first and I passed that onto the rescue, then had no further involvement.

He wanted his money back, the rescue declined his request. He became rude and abusive. Though I have not seen the messages. When he was told no, he blocked them and sent me a fb message request telling me he was taking me to court for his money back. He wanted my details. I ignored. I have since found out he has messaged people from my past trying to get more information. I contacted the police due to feeling harassed at that point but other than making a report I took no further action at that time.

My mum happened to bump into my ex partners mum and has been informed he has emailed my ex and sent, what appears to be a court summons to my old address (they googled the return address). My ex posted it back with 'no longer at this address' written on it. My ex doesnt know where I live, for good reason. He told my ex he has a ccj in my name.

Surely I'm not responsible for money he paid to a rescue? How could he possibly take me to court? Where do i stand legally? I really do just want him to leave me alone. I had no involvement with any money or the decision to decline his request for a refund.

[ostell]

He does not have a contract with you, he has a contract with the dog rescue. On what basis can he claim from you?

How long ago was this?

[Pku1519]

Hi, thank you for your reply. He returned the dog end of October, my first message from him was 3rd November and the letter was with my ex the beginning of this week.

[ostell]

Was the letter from Northampton County Court? See if you can find out.

Worst case is that he has raised a claim against what he thinks is your address and got judgement by default. Check the credit agency sites to see if anything is logged against you. If it is then you can apply for it to be overturned. It will cost you £255 for the pleasure but you claim it against him.

[Pku1519]

Yes, I think they said it was Northampton county Court.

[ostell]

So he could have obtained a default judgement against you. You could try phoning Norghampfon but they would normally require a case number rather than a name

[Pku1519]

How does it work? How has he got any kind of judgement without contacting me? Also without my address? I can't actually believe it is at all possible that I'm held accountable for something which is nothing to do with me. Freaking out now. I feel like I have no way of putting my side of things to anyone.

[ostell]

If he used an address where you did not live then you would not be able to respond to the court forms. The court would assume that you are ignoring the forms and would give judgement agaist6you by default. Yes a hole in the system.

However there is also a mechanism to have this judgement set aside, the fact that the claim was sent to the wrong address should be an automatic setaside. The position then is as though the case has never taken place and you can then put your side of it to the court and you win.

As I said the downside of this is that it will initially cost you £255, or £100 if you contact him and he agrees to the setaside. You will, of course, claim this back from him as he didn't reasonably check your address.

If you can get those messages from the rescue it would be helpful

Create accounts with the credit reference agencies to see if the CCJ has appeared there. It would appear after 30 days

[Pku1519]

Thank you. That is so helpful. I'm having a difficult time with it all to be honest and rather amusingly, I started volunteering with the rescue to help with my poor mental health, as I'm dog mad. That worked well for me.

I have checked my credit and it doesn't show on there yet. As far as I'm aware, that is the first letter my ex received, although I can't really trust what he says unfortunately. Will it be helpful or problematic that the letter was returned to sender? Am.i best to try and contact the court? Me and ex aren't on good terms, so he wouldn't attempt to contact me to give it to me.

I have a message from the guy that states he wasn't getting anywhere with the rescue so he's decided to take legal action against me instead and they will happily provide all the evidence I might need thankfully. The police also assured me I wasn't liable for his money back when I reported him for harassment.

I have no idea how he got that address I haven't lived there for 5 years. Also no idea how he got my ex's email address. He isn't on any social media. He also messaged me with my partial correct address a while back and it is totally different to the one he actually used. Not sure how he got from one to the other.

Frankly I just want to be left alone. fingers crossed we can get this over with fairly painlessly.

[ostell]

It's relatively easy to find people. If he used your correct address at one time that is to your advantage.

Could your mum and ex mum in law help with communication if you don't want direct contact? See if you can get some of the Northampton forms if they appear again

[Pku1519]

I can certainly try. His mum would try to let me know im fairly certain, he might not let her though. He is a bit scared of my mum though so I can perhaps use that to my advantage.