Being sued for money we don't think we owe - should I pay it "under protest"

cmaguire

Sorry, I'm not sure if this is in the right place. It seemed like the closest fit.

To cut a long story short, I have recieved letters from a Solicitors demanding payment for an amount (£700+) that they say we owe. They say they need payment by return of post or they will take legal action and that no further correspondance will be entered into.

I won't go into the ins and outs of the whole thing, but we are sure that this is money that we shouldn't be paying. It relates to a workshop that we rented and vacated a few years ago. There has been correspondance backwards and forwards since. The money is for insurance and service charge for a period after our lease expired and delapidations for damage that was previously admitted by them to be their liability.

I can't afford a solicitor. I certainly can't afford to be taken to court over it and potentially have to pay their costs too. What on earth is the best course of action.

Can I pay the amount but mark it as "paid under protest" and then try to reclaim it from them.

Thank you so much for any input into this. We really can't afford to pay this money for something that was not even owed.

RobertoMoir

How would you reclaim it from them if you can't afford a solicitor to help you do so? Would paying be admitting liability, in which case good luck with claiming it back after?

Sorry but you really do need legal advice.

cmaguire

That's a very good point.

I was thinking that I would take them to the small claims court since it is under £5k, but having just done some reading on it, even if I let them sue me rather than paying it, it would end up in small claims anyway.

Perhaps best to let them take me to court? I thought that if I was taken to court and lost the case I would be liable for huge fees from their side and also that it would badly affect my credit rating.

From reading up just now, the fees I would be liable for even if I lost in small claims are quite small, and it wouldn't affect my credit rating if I lost (only if I lost and then didn't pay).

I am waiting for the CAB to help, but they can't see me until late next week (if at all) and a solicitor I spoke to said it would cost at least £200 for him to sort it out and that I couldn't recover that from the other side.

DVardysShadow

Your choices are to fight or pay up or negotiate a settlement. No point in paying under protest. Do at least ask for a solicitors advice on whether your case is defensible or whether you should pay up - even if you don't get him to take on the case.

Pollycat

cmaguire wrote: »

Sorry, I'm not sure if this is in the right place. It seemed like the closest fit.

To cut a long story short, I have recieved letters from a Solicitors demanding payment for an amount (£700+) that they say we owe. They say they need payment by return of post or they will take legal action and that no further correspondance will be entered into.

I won't go into the ins and outs of the whole thing, but we are sure that this is money that we shouldn't be paying. It relates to a workshop that we rented and vacated a few years ago. There has been correspondance backwards and forwards since. The money is for insurance and service charge for a period after our lease expired and delapidations for damage that was previously admitted by them to be their liability.

I can't afford a solicitor. I certainly can't afford to be taken to court over it and potentially have to pay their costs too. What on earth is the best course of action.

Can I pay the amount but mark it as "paid under protest" and then try to reclaim it from them.

Thank you so much for any input into this. We really can't afford to pay this money for something that was not even owed.

Was the corredspondence backwards & forwards between yourselves and the owners/landlords of the property you leased?

You say their claim dates to AFTER your lease expired.
Did you give formal notice on the lease?
Or do you have documentation that states that you don't have to give notice and the lease can just expire unless you actively renew it?

Do you have written proof that they admitted liability for the damage?

This letter MAY just be the landlord/owner 'trying it on' by spooking you with a solicitor's letter.

I agree that you need legal advice.
Some solicitors offer a free 30 minute consultation, which might just put you on the right track.
I'd ring a few more.

drsquirrel

Pollycat wrote: »

Some solicitors offer a free 30 minute consultation, which might just put you on the right track.
I'd ring a few more.

+1
This is exactly my thoughts.


As for the letter, I have seen them enough (not talking personally of course ) and they mostly amount to scare scaremongering. What you might find is they will continely say "pay up or we will issue summons", if they continue doing this you have grounds for harassment. If they are serious then they will do it rather than multiple letters. If they do take you, you have to consider their legal costs, although even if you go they will have costs too... this is why you need to see a solicitor, if they think you have a good chance they will take it on and recover their costs as well. Hopefully if they think you don't have any chance, they will tell you.

Can you name the solicitor company for us?

cmaguire

Pollycat wrote: »

Was the corredspondence backwards & forwards between yourselves and the owners/landlords of the property you leased?

You say their claim dates to AFTER your lease expired.
Did you give formal notice on the lease?
Or do you have documentation that states that you don't have to give notice and the lease can just expire unless you actively renew it?

Do you have written proof that they admitted liability for the damage?

This letter MAY just be the landlord/owner 'trying it on' by spooking you with a solicitor's letter.

I agree that you need legal advice.
Some solicitors offer a free 30 minute consultation, which might just put you on the right track.
I'd ring a few more.

The correspondence was about 50:50 between the agents of the landlord and the solicitor.

We did give formal notice on the lease, which was sent recorded delivery and acknowledged, however the situation gets complicated because the agents then agreed with the person with whom my husband shared the workshop (not named on the lease and not a business partner, just a friend) that the lease would be extended for a period of three months. We were not informed of this from the agent, but managed to recover the amount of the rent etc from him (our friend) ourselves. Even so the insurance etc seems to be after this period too (and this insurance was not something we had paid previously, nor something covered by our rental contract).

We have email proof that they admitted liability of the damage, and photos that we took at the time. They called in a contractor to assess what they would need to do to repair the damage but they didn't fix it. We don't know the name of the contractor unfortunately. At the time we nearly pursued the option of getting the damage fixed and taking the cost out of the rent, but unfortunately decided it wasn't worth it.

The only thing we probably are liable for is that there was an old sofa left in the workshop and the sink wasn't cleaned. Even this is complicated by the fact that it wasn't actually us that vacated the property - as explained above, we had already terminated our lease, we were busy having our first child (I was in the hospital for quite a while) and we had to leave it up to the person who shared the workshop, with whom the agents arranged the extension, to clear out the workshop. We did ask repeatedly for an inspection visit to be arranged but were ignored. Once we realised the sofa had been left we offered to go and pick it up and clean etc ourselves but were told that they would not release the keys to us.

I'll try a few more solicitors.

cmaguire

drsquirrel wrote: »

+1
This is exactly my thoughts.


As for the letter, I have seen them enough (not talking personally of course ) and they mostly amount to scare scaremongering. What you might find is they will continely say "pay up or we will issue summons", if they continue doing this you have grounds for harassment. If they are serious then they will do it rather than multiple letters. If they do take you, you have to consider their legal costs, although even if you go they will have costs too... this is why you need to see a solicitor, if they think you have a good chance they will take it on and recover their costs as well. Hopefully if they think you don't have any chance, they will tell you.

Can you name the solicitor company for us?

The solicitor that they are using? It is Anderson Strathern. I believe they are quite reputable, and to give them their due I believe from telephone calls that they are as frustrated with the Agent as we are. All the Agent will provide in support of their claim are print outs of line items from their ledger. If they could actually show to us that we owe them the money then, fair dues, we would pay it (I am a stickler for morality in this kind of thing). It's just that so far as we can see it is not money that we legitimately owe them.

Widelats

Check your local outreach team, they usually have solicitors for free consultations, no matter how long it takes, they also come under "Neighbourhood Advice Centre" or most areas they do, its usually a run down building, dirty wallpaper but the very best caring people you could ever meet inside them places, beats a big flashy solicitor who doesn't give a hoot about your case and wants £££££'s before they will even entertain you.

Equaliser123

As it is below £5k, it will be heard in the small claims court. There are no cost implications.

HOWEVER - leases often contain an indemnity that you will pay legal costs of enforcement. So if this clause exists, you do need to watch out and only defend if you have a good case.

As for them not entering any further correspondence - remind them of Part 1 of the Civil Procedure Rules which details the "overriding objective" to avoid litigation.

cmaguire

Widelats wrote: »

Check your local outreach team, they usually have solicitors for free consultations, no matter how long it takes, they also come under "Neighbourhood Advice Centre" or most areas they do, its usually a run down building, dirty wallpaper but the very best caring people you could ever meet inside them places, beats a big flashy solicitor who doesn't give a hoot about your case and wants £££££'s before they will even entertain you.

Thank you, I will see if I can find one.

Equaliser123 wrote: »

As it is below £5k, it will be heard in the small claims court. There are no cost implications.

HOWEVER - leases often contain an indemnity that you will pay legal costs of enforcement. So if this clause exists, you do need to watch out and only defend if you have a good case.

As for them not entering any further correspondence - remind them of Part 1 of the Civil Procedure Rules which details the "overriding objective" to avoid litigation.

No clause like that in our lease so hopefully that will be OK. Thank you so much for the tip about the Civil Procedure Rules - I would MUCH rather sort it out without going to court.