Been sent a County Court Claim Form
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Kayjo
Posts: 22 Forumite
Hi
I'd be really grateful for any advice on this.
On the 19th September the Freeholder of my property sent me an invoice that covered Buildings Insurance and Ground Rent.
On the 13th November I received in the post a County Court Claim Form dated 9 November.
I don't have a problem paying the bill but I think this was quite an aggressive act as they hadn't sent me a warning of their intention. I'd purely put it on a to-do pile!
On the CAB website it says:
Before taking you to court, someone you owe money to ( called a creditor) must send you a warning letter. The letter should tell you that unless you pay back what you owe, they will start legal action within a certain amount of time.
Depending on the type of debt, the letter will either be a default notice or a letter before action.
You will get a default notice if the money you owe is a credit debt, such as a personal loan or credit card debt.
When court action is started, you will get a claim form. If you haven't got a warning letter before you get this claim form or the letter doesn't contain the right details, the court action might not be able to go ahead.
END
What I object to is having to pay a £70 court fee. This was nothing but an oversight and if I'd been sent a default notice it would have brought it to my attention.
Please let me know what I should do?
Thank you
I'd be really grateful for any advice on this.
On the 19th September the Freeholder of my property sent me an invoice that covered Buildings Insurance and Ground Rent.
On the 13th November I received in the post a County Court Claim Form dated 9 November.
I don't have a problem paying the bill but I think this was quite an aggressive act as they hadn't sent me a warning of their intention. I'd purely put it on a to-do pile!
On the CAB website it says:
Before taking you to court, someone you owe money to ( called a creditor) must send you a warning letter. The letter should tell you that unless you pay back what you owe, they will start legal action within a certain amount of time.
Depending on the type of debt, the letter will either be a default notice or a letter before action.
You will get a default notice if the money you owe is a credit debt, such as a personal loan or credit card debt.
When court action is started, you will get a claim form. If you haven't got a warning letter before you get this claim form or the letter doesn't contain the right details, the court action might not be able to go ahead.
END
What I object to is having to pay a £70 court fee. This was nothing but an oversight and if I'd been sent a default notice it would have brought it to my attention.
Please let me know what I should do?
Thank you
0
Comments
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There should be something on the County Court claim form about disputing the claim. Have a look and fill it in on the basis that you never received a warning letter then return in to the Court.
But before you do that just double check all the post in your to-do pile in case you overlooked a warning letter.
Once you've done that you can write out a cheque for the buildings insurance and ground rent that you still owe.0 -
Hi
I'd be really grateful for any advice on this.
On the 19th September the Freeholder of my property sent me an invoice that covered Buildings Insurance and Ground Rent.
On the 13th November I received in the post a County Court Claim Form dated 9 November.
I don't have a problem paying the bill but I think this was quite an aggressive act as they hadn't sent me a warning of their intention. I'd purely put it on a to-do pile!
On the CAB website it says:
Before taking you to court, someone you owe money to ( called a creditor) must send you a warning letter. The letter should tell you that unless you pay back what you owe, they will start legal action within a certain amount of time.
Depending on the type of debt, the letter will either be a default notice or a letter before action.
You will get a default notice if the money you owe is a credit debt, such as a personal loan or credit card debt.
When court action is started, you will get a claim form. If you haven't got a warning letter before you get this claim form or the letter doesn't contain the right details, the court action might not be able to go ahead.
END
What I object to is having to pay a £70 court fee. This was nothing but an oversight and if I'd been sent a default notice it would have brought it to my attention.
Please let me know what I should do?
Thank you
Section 1 of the defence and counterclaim form gives you the option to admit part of the claim. (and details how to proceed)0 -
Is this the same property that you had insurance issues with over 5 years ago?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=381666
Unfortunately, as someone who has been a director of a residential management company in the past (I did it because I wasn't happy how it was being run previously), the stark reality is that you will end up paying the £70 one way or another I'm afraid.
You see, once the summons is filed, the fee is paid and is then non-refundable. Management company's only stream of income is from the residents they manage.
I know you suggest in that 5 year old thread there is no service charge, but there must be. As a minimum it costs £13 a year to keep a management company registered with Companies House, and that has to be funded somehow. There's a number of other expenses that would have to be met too, maybe not a lot, but everything has to be funded somehow.
If you decide to defend the court fees, and the matter goes to a hearing, then more court fees will be incurred, which again I fear you will ultimately pay whatever the outcome for the reasons I've already mentioned.
If it is the same property, have you explored possibility of the right to manage?
http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=210 -
Do you have any previous action against you at the LVT over ground rent or buildings insurance? If so they may be using the court simply to enforce a previous ruling there. Do you dispute the ground rent or insurance at all? If not they may argue you were aware the charge was due under your long lease, the demand itself was just a reminder, that you should have diarised the payment.
Did the demand meet the legal requirements in every way including any prescribed information being included? Can the freeholder actually prove you received the demand in September, did they send it recorded delivery for example? Does your long lease allow for legal fees to be added?
http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=14Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️0 -
Hi Kayjo, thank you for your query re been sent a county court claim.
As you do not dispute the debt then you can complete the admission of part of the debt and state you dispute the court fees as you were not sent a letter before action and were not give the opportunity to come to an arrangement out of court and include the letter of the 13/9/12. I would say that if this is a usually yearly fee that you are expected to pay that may weaken your case and if there are any other reminder letters/texts/emails/telephone calls that to would weaken your case. You can find more information on defending a county court claim at www.adviceguide.org.uk.
Hope this is of assistance.“Official CAB Representative
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