Claim against landlord/me for unpaid tenant bills by DCA of Insolvent Orbit Energy

[masterchij]

'What am I to do at this point? Can I still attend the hearing and request the court ask the claimant to reimburse the fees?'

Make sure you attend and make your case regards the £126.70.

Request that the Judge orders the Claimant to reimburse the set aside fee, as this could have been sorted a long time ago, but your communications fell on 'deaf ears'. Instead they 'harrassed' you for money that clearly wasn't owed.

The following isn't correct, you've always challenged the whole claim, although I might be wrong on that.

'We have previously informed the Defendant of these findings, however, he is now alleging that Orbit Energy Limited did not supply energy to the property. Given there is no evidence to support this allegation, the Claimant believes that £126.70 is owed for the charges accrued.'

Indeed that last paragraph is not correct. I have no idea where that came from. All I ever disputed was there right to claim 'standing charges' when there was no contract between me and Orbit Energy to begin with and I never agreed to such standing charges.

I think they want to use this as an argument to offset the amount that the court might ask them to reimburse me.

I will go to the hearing and I have printed out the full email thread of the conversation I had with the solicitor so I can show the judge that I never alleged such.

[masterchij]

Hi Experts,

So finally had the hearing yesterday.

When I entered the court room, the Judge asked if it was just me, I said yes. She then went ahead to start discussing my set aside application and commended me for making the application promptly. She said she wished I had attached the documents I referred to in my application. At this point I realised she had not seen my Witness Statement or the Email from the Claimant saying they were not attending, both of which was sent to them.

I then informed her about these and handed her the copies of the Witness statement and Email from the Claimant sent to them, which I had printed. She read the email first and said this was good for me as the order the claimant suggested meant she would set aside the judgement and a 'stay' meant the case was put on hold until one of us decided to reopen it in the future. She asked if I was happy to go ahead with this order.

I told her that if she had the opportunity to look at my email conversations with the claimant and my witness statement, that she would see that this case should not have been brought to court in the first place, and that the claimant was aware I was not responsible for the amount. I told her I would like the order to also ask the claimant to reimburse my £303 set aside application fee.

She refused to look at the email conversation between me and the clamant because it had "Without Prejudice" in the subject header. She said that the issue with requesting reimbursement of fees is that the claimant can always turn round and ask for their own fees to be reimbursed seeing as no judgement has been finalised on the case in my favour, but one was being set aside. She said she believed that by getting the judgement set aside, I had got what I paid for, and that should be a satisfactory outcome for me. She went on to say if I wanted to push for more, she could add a caveat on the stay to be for about 3 months, after which the proceedings gets restarted and I can request for re-imbursement of costs in a full hearing. She said she genuinely felt that given the order suggested by the claimant, it is unlikely they are looking to recommence proceedings, so it would only be if I wanted to restart it.

I reluctantly agreed with her, but told her to leave the 3 months caveat out of the stay. She said I would get the order through the post soon, at which point I can approach the credit agencies to remove the CCJ from my file.

So learnt a couple things
a. Do not send correspondence that contains "Without Prejudice" to the Court
b. When you email a county court, follow it up by calling them to make sure they actually file the documents attached to the case file.

Question:
Does anyone know the maximum time period a claim can be 'stayed'

[Pezza54]

Thanks for updating the forum

Stays can be temporary or permanent. The judge offered a temporary 3 month stay which would have meant proceedings restarting in 3 months.
A permanent stay, which you have accepted, means either party if it so wishes, can make an application to lift the stay. It is difficult to think that the court will keep docs for 6 or more years, they appear to have mislaid your case papers in a few months

It is your decision whether to let the claimant off the hook. "....got what you paid for and that should be a satisfactory outcome for you" doesn't sound promising. If you have signed the CO you would have to pay £303 for another application

As for the solicitor sending an email to the court marked Without Prejudice - what was that about

[masterchij]

Thanks for updating the forum

Stays can be temporary or permanent. The judge offered a temporary 3 month stay which would have meant proceedings restarting in 3 months.
A permanent stay, which you have accepted, means either party if it so wishes, can make an application to lift the stay. It is difficult to think that the court will keep docs for 6 or more years, they appear to have mislaid your case papers in a few months

It is your decision whether to let the claimant off the hook. "....got what you paid for and that should be a satisfactory outcome for you" doesn't sound promising. If you have signed the CO you would have to pay £303 for another application

As for the solicitor sending an email to the court marked Without Prejudice - what was that about

No, the solicitor sent an email to me marked "Without Prejudice". I tried to get the Judge to read it, but she refused.

I don't understand, Why would I have to pay another £303 for another application? I had already made the £303 payment as part of the application for the set aside hearing

[Pezza54]

Sorry I thought you meant the solicitor's email referred to in your post 67
The judgement is being set aside as your application request

Once both parties have signed the CO and sealed by the court the stay will be made permanent and an application notice is required to lift the stay

[masterchij]

Sorry I thought you meant the solicitor's email referred to in your post 67
The judgement is being set aside as your application request

Once both parties have signed the CO and sealed by the court the stay will be made permanent and an application notice is required to lift the stay

Ah I got you now. Wow, so its another £303 to restart the case? That's madness.

Oh well, I guess that will be the end of that. I don't see them paying £303 to reopen the case for a claim of £126, I definitely won't be paying £303 just so I can claim twice of it back.

[echat11]

Ah I got you now. Wow, so its another £303 to restart the case? That's madness.

Oh well, I guess that will be the end of that. I don't see them paying £303 to reopen the case for a claim of £126, I definitely won't be paying £303 just so I can claim twice of it back.

In totality it's a great result, started off at £3,000 being alleged as owed, actually nothing being owed, yes at a small cost.

You could complain to Orbit (they are out of administration) that they've 'trashed' your credit file when no monies was owed, that's effected your ability to obtain credit. You should be compensated for that. Once you get a final response / deadlock letter.

Lodge a complaint with the ICO.

[masterchij]

In totality it's a great result, started off at £3,000 being alleged as owed, actually nothing being owed, yes at a small cost.

You could complain to Orbit (they are out of administration) that they've 'trashed' your credit file when no monies was owed, that's effected your ability to obtain credit. You should be compensated for that. Once you get a final response / deadlock letter.

Lodge a complaint with the ICO.

Thanks for all your help and advise.

Yes it was a good outcome in the end, though not perfect. Ultimately I have to accept my costly error in not understanding the timelines, which worsened the matter.

I will definitely look into submitting a complaint to ICO once the CO comes through. I potentially have to lodge complaints against 3 different entities (Perch Capital, A&M and Orbit Energy)