loss of use

rufuschucklebutty

I own a boat, and the licencing authority has illegally prevented me from obtaining a licence since January 2014, at this stage they have admitted this in writing but not in court yet, can I take legal action to claim compensation for my loss of being able to use my boat ?

There is the complaint ,and ombudsman process to complete before I start any claim , I am just thinking ahead.

vuvuzela

What (provable) losses would you be seeking to have compensation for ? I'm not sure that small claims (which this would likely be) would be the place to get compensation for loss of enjoyment etc of the boat.

cono1717

You can claim for Loss of Enjoyment, however justifying a figure would be the difficulty. If you had to pay a storage fee for a boat you were told you weren't allowed to use then this would possibly apply?

bris

Loss of enjoyment, it's difficulty to quantify and the small claims court won't hear it. Because of this it can be expensive to chase due to the legal costs.


If your going the ombudsman route you will often find that the courts (if they allow you to bring it to court) will uphold their findings, so court would be a waste of time.

LilElvis

Could they be refusing because you already have a court order against you for non-payment of the same fees. Why would they grant you a license when you have failed to pay in the past?

marliepanda

LilElvis wrote: »

Could they be refusing because you already have a court order against you for non-payment of the same fees. Why would they grant you a license when you have failed to pay in the past?

I thought the OP sounded familiar...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5245261

rufuschucklebutty

LilElvis wrote: »

Could they be refusing because you already have a court order against you for non-payment of the same fees. Why would they grant you a license when you have failed to pay in the past?

Its actually statutory law that they cannot refuse a licence application, if it meets the conditions set out by legislation. Any previous court order has no bearing on it. As they have now admitted.

LilElvis

rufuschucklebutty wrote: »

Its actually statutory law that they cannot refuse a licence application, if it meets the conditions set out by legislation. Any previous court order has no bearing on it. As they have now admitted.

Have you paid the outstanding fees?

daytona0

From your other post 21/5/2015 (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5245261

I had a severe illness and neglected to renew my boat licence.

And now you talk about how have they "illegally prevented me from obtaining a licence since January 2014"?

In fairness if you had a life threatening illness/on your death bed and couldn't physically renew your licence then that's fair enough, I'm sure they would be happy for you to retrospectively pay for it (or maybe write off the debt through compassion). If you were suddenly laid off work due to a severe, but not life threatening, illness then I'm sure they would have accepted part payments OR gave you alternative options around 2014. I am very concerned, however, at your use of the word "neglect".... almost hints that YOU didn't renew your licence when you could/should have.

I think it all boils down to either your negligence (not renewing your licence in time) or their lack of respect/empathy for someone who was on death's door. Which one is it?

I admittedly don't know the first thing about boats, but it sounds like you didn't pay a bill and stored your boat somewhere illegally. This resulted in a future licence application being rejected, because you had messed them around previously, but you have now gone on to prove that they were not allowed to reject your application on those grounds (which is fair to you). I think you got the correct result if my summary is correct.

I just don't think you are entitled to compensation, as I think you probably caused all of this stuff to develop AND you were allegedly seriously ill (can't see you doing much boating between 2014 and 2015) AND your boat needed repairing ("Now I want to move the boat to a repair yard") AND you hadn't paid a bill! All things which are going to dilute a claim for "loss of enjoyment".

I might be way off, but in the spirit of a forum I hope it is food for thought

rufuschucklebutty

daytona0 wrote: »

From your other post 21/5/2015 (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5245261



And now you talk about how have they "illegally prevented me from obtaining a licence since January 2014"?

In fairness if you had a life threatening illness/on your death bed and couldn't physically renew your licence then that's fair enough, I'm sure they would be happy for you to retrospectively pay for it (or maybe write off the debt through compassion). If you were suddenly laid off work due to a severe, but not life threatening, illness then I'm sure they would have accepted part payments OR gave you alternative options around 2014. I am very concerned, however, at your use of the word "neglect".... almost hints that YOU didn't renew your licence when you could/should have.

I think it all boils down to either your negligence (not renewing your licence in time) or their lack of respect/empathy for someone who was on death's door. Which one is it?

I admittedly don't know the first thing about boats, but it sounds like you didn't pay a bill and stored your boat somewhere illegally. This resulted in a future licence application being rejected, because you had messed them around previously, but you have now gone on to prove that they were not allowed to reject your application on those grounds (which is fair to you). I think you got the correct result if my summary is correct.

I just don't think you are entitled to compensation, as I think you probably caused all of this stuff to develop AND you were allegedly seriously ill (can't see you doing much boating between 2014 and 2015) AND your boat needed repairing ("Now I want to move the boat to a repair yard") AND you hadn't paid a bill! All things which are going to dilute a claim for "loss of enjoyment".

I might be way off, but in the spirit of a forum I hope it is food for thought

Please dont think i am trying some kind of scam.

The period that I would be claiming for is after I was Ill, and after I had paid all my outstanding debts. I could have applied for and received a licence but the authority lied, and told me I could not have one, they have since admitted this was wrong, ( and it is a breech of the bylaw ) and they knew it was. I think we could safely say they have prevented me from using my boat, there is no reason why I couldn't have used it, apart from their false statement.

shaun_from_Africa

rufuschucklebutty wrote: »

Please dont think i am trying some kind of scam.

The period that I would be claiming for is after I was Ill, and after I had paid all my outstanding debts.

I think that the reason other posters brought up your posting history is that in this thread you are claiming that you have illegally been refused a licence since January 2014 but in your other thread which was started in May last year, you clearly state that the reason you didn't have a licence then was because you didn't apply for one.

So, if you still had an outstanding debt and hadn't applied for a boat licence in May 2015, how have you been illegally refused a licence since Jan 2014?