Small claim Problem

robram2

Didn't quite know where to post this, but i need some help.

In April, I was driving down a major road, passed some building site, and the Steel fencing that guards the building site fell down into the middle of the road, and seriously damaged my car.

I called the police who attended, and spoke to the site foreman who agreed it should have been securely fastened.

Since then I have been in constant contact with their head office "Balfour Beatty" who have consistently promised that they would send me a letter out confirming what would happen next in regards to looking at the car and re-imbursing repair costs etc.

I haven't run this through my insurance at all as I need to keep my no claims.

As I hadn't heard anything from Balfour Beatty, I spoke to the person whom i had been dealing with there, and said that if I did not recieve a letter by recorded delivery within 7 days, I would be pursuing a claim for the complete cost through the small claims court.

I still heard nothing, so issued a small claim.

Still nothing, until I entered Judgement by default.

NOW, some corporate lawyer has replied to the Judgement stating that Balfour beatty are only a holding company and that this should have been directed to "Birse Civils"... great how they waited until judgement to tell me.

What do I do now?

Any help much appreciated.

anewman

Surely the judgement still stands. You might need to get some sort of enforcement or bailiff involvement?

robram2

They've requested that the Judgement be set aside, and it's gone to court on sept 2nd.

"Balfour Beatty is not and have never been an operating company. It is not the party responsible. Birse Civils Ltd is the company that built the fence that cause the alleged damage"

Spoke to Citizens advice, and they said that Balfour beatty don't really have a case to set judgement aside, as they did not respond in good time to the original Court Order, only after it had entered judgement by default.

dacouch

Birse Civils are a Balfour Beatty company, why don't they just pay you your claim and ask you to set aside or note the ccj as settled.

RobertoMoir

anewman wrote: »

Surely the judgement still stands. You might need to get some sort of enforcement or bailiff involvement?

Contrary to popular rumour, bailiffs can't just rock up to someone (or some business) that looks a bit like the one they are being asked to enforce against and randomly take stuff. That would be stealing. Despite the usual companies house shell game, if the judgement is against a shell company with no assets of its own, there is nothing to enforce against as far as that route to recovery goes, anyway.

daveyjp

Not informing your insurance company was the biggest mistake you made, you pay them to do the chasing for you and it's a clear cut case.

You have already seen Birse have corporate lawyers at their disposal who will run rings round you unless you can also afford hundreds of pounds an hour for legal advice.

You still have to declare the accident when you next renew your insurance anyway.

My advice would be to contact your insurance company asap and don't try and be a bar room lawyer.

Premier_2

What a nightmare!

Unfortunately it was your responsibility to ensure the legal entity you were claiming against was the one responsible for the claimed negligence. There appear to be over 50 different Balfour Beatty companies and Balfour Beatty plc is indeed just a holding company so is unlikely to be the responsible party in this instance.

However, now you've started, you may as well finish. I would suggest going along to the court hearing on September 2nd, and see what happens.

But I think you are probably going to have to end up starting again with a case against Birse Civils Limited.

Premier_2

daveyjp wrote: »

...don't try and be a bar room lawyer.

You don't need to be a lawyer, bar room type or otherwise, to take action in the small claims court. In fact such a court is set up specifically to enable those without legal training to take action to uphold their rights.
As a result, costs for legal support is not awarded in (most) small claims matters. The judge is fully aware of the fact of who and who is not legally trained and will help as much as possible those who are not so trained.

daveyjp

I'm fully aware of that, but even in small claims court you do need to know who you are claiming against. This claim may have failed at the first hurdle, so it's more paperwork, more costs, more hassle, more grief.

Going down this route was a mistake, it would probably be sorted now if the OP had simply made one call to their insurance company - why buy a dog and bark yourself?

Quentin

robram2 wrote: »

NOW, some corporate lawyer has replied to the Judgement stating that Balfour beatty are only a holding company and that this should have been directed to "Birse Civils"... great how they waited until judgement to tell me.

What do I do now?

Any help much appreciated.

It isn't the responsibility of the wrongly named defendant to tell you about your error!

If they get the judgement set aside (from what you say they will), then you are back at square one. (Though if they are successful in getting the judgement set aside, the court fees you have paid out for the first case are lost, whatever you decide to do).

Why not let your insurer deal with this? If they get reimbursed it won't affect your NCD, and you will be able to get your excess back from the responsible party.

robram2

Quentin wrote: »

It isn't the responsibility of the wrongly named defendant to tell you about your error!

If they get the judgement set aside (from what you say they will), then you are back at square one. (Though if they are successful in getting the judgement set aside, the court fees you have paid out for the first case are lost, whatever you decide to do).

Why not let your insurer deal with this? If they get reimbursed it won't affect your NCD, and you will be able to get your excess back from the responsible party.

The problem with insurance is that it wasn't my car, it was my friends'. I'm insured third party only on other cars.

As I mentioned, I had been dealing with a guy at Balfour Beatty PLC, and it is HIM who did not get back to me, hence why I claimed against Balfour Beatty.. the company I had not heard from. They never told me to address anything to another company, until AFTER the claim had entered judgement by default because they didn't respond.

Even if I did claim against another company, of course, Birse Civils have no record of this incident, so may simply settle without having to go to court, I would still ultimately hold Balfour Beatty responsible for the small claims court loss Incurred because THEY didn't respond to me.

They had a month from the time the small claim was originally issued until the case entered judgement. plenty of time which i'm sure the court will see in my favour.