Awful Housing Association Landlord who're taking me to Court

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

This isn't going to end well.

That may be, but for 15 years, it's not ended well anyway, so for the sake of a £100 or so, this ridiculous stalemate and inadequate HA have to wake up (if they are capable - I remain optimistic)

The response need to be a skeleton argument. The minimum should be "I propose we use mediation to resolve this"

I think you're right - I could have said we can use mediation to resolve this. The form is in now, I cannot add to it.

I assumed it was implicit but realise I should have been explicit

Guest101

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

Sorry if I've not made it clear. I have defended their claim and in that I mentioned I may wish to make a counterclaim IF they proceed. I have not formally made a counterclaim, as I wish to avoid any further costs at this stage.

I want to see how they respond.

They wont?? You now have 14 days to file your case, like they do

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

Indeed but there are 14 days to provide the details.


Offering mediation from the get go will at least counter any claim from the claimant that the respondent was being 'unreasonable'


Look we are mostly in agreement, im not sure why you wouldn't put in an offer of mediation, I would - so I wont get into an argument about it.


But certainly what was written was not a skeleton case.

I have no idea what this means 'skeleton case.' Is it relevant?

Guest101

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

I think you're right - I could have said we can use mediation to resolve this. The form is in now, I cannot add to it.

I assumed it was implicit but realise I should have been explicit

Can I please suggest you look at the next steps.


Now that you acknowledged their claim, you have 14 days to submit your evidence, as do they.


After this there will not be an opportunity to add to it. Sitting and waiting will mean that you miss the deadline and have no evidence at all at court

Guest101

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

I have no idea what this means 'skeleton case.' Is it relevant?

A skeleton case is a basic synopsis of your defence.


(I don't think you actually have a valid defence by the way)


But in theory it would be along the lines of:


factual discrepancies.
lack of contract
if the claim is punitive


Legal basis of why you don't owe the money. It seems to me you do owe it, so it would be prudent to pay it and then claim for disrepair etc separately.

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

They wont?? You now have 14 days to file your case, like they do

On balance, you obviously think they will put in another claim straight away and will ignore my 'without prejudice' offer to settle this between ourselves.

Who then is being 'unreasonable.' If they ignore my email, sure I'll pay and I don't want to throw money at the Courts and waste Court time.

I just hope the HA now acts on its obligations under the lease, as they have already agreed to do, but they are so useless that the section 20 that came through failed to mention any of what was agreed...

Guest101

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

On balance, you obviously think they will put in another claim straight away and will ignore my 'without prejudice' offer to settle this between ourselves.

Who then is being 'unreasonable.' If they ignore my email, sure I'll pay and I don't want to throw money at the Courts and waste Court time.

I just hope the HA now acts on its obligations under the lease, as they have already agreed to do, but they are so useless that the section 20 that came through failed to mention any of what was agreed...

No no, you just seem to not understand the process. There is no other claim, they have now paid for and issued court paperwork. The next stage is to submit evidence to the court.


Your offer can be safely ignored, because it's not relevant. Anyone with a modicum of experience of court will see that your defence is not existent, there's no reason to settle.


The court will offer mediation next, but that is simply a telephone call with a mediator talking to both parties to try and resolve it. It's not 'unreasonable' for them to not settle at this stage.


You have to separate the two issues. You owing them money is one, their repair is another.

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

Can I please suggest you look at the next steps.


Now that you acknowledged their claim, you have 14 days to submit your evidence, as do they.


After this there will not be an opportunity to add to it. Sitting and waiting will mean that you miss the deadline and have no evidence at all at court

There was nothing on the money claim site that offered the chance to submit evidence. So, it's not as simple as merely saying this:

The service charge demand issued to me was non compliant as it
failed to be accompanied by a summary of the rights and
obligations of tenants of dwellings in relation to service
charges.

All that was sent to me on the 2/2/17 was a covering letter;
Reference Only Claim Form; Statement of Account and Ways to pay.

If the Claimant wishes to proceed with this action, they should do
so correctly.

And, if they wish to proceed, I wish to make a counter-claim to
seek monetary damages for breach of the lease (Section 5.3.1)
relating to the roof and (5.3.3) general maintenance and upkeep.
Also, (5.4) regarding lighting.

The Claimant has offered £100 in monetary damages (an offer which
I find unacceptable, given that my complaint is over 15 months old
and has taken up a lot of my time managing and sorting.) There is
no reflection of this 'discount' from my service charge bill as
set out in this claim.

The Claimant has tried to close down my complaint, but since
receiving this Court Order, I have written to the CEO of the
Claimant explaining their breach of the Lease and that there is
still no satisfactory response to my complaint.

I am prepared to pay the service charge once we can agree on the
final amount, which I hope fairly reflects the time, effort and
money I have put into the servicing of this building and the
claimant fulfilling their obligations as set out in the Lease.'

Do I really need now to submit the detail of the evidence?

Obviously, I thought they'd see my response and my 'without prejudice' email and contact me to settle - ideally with a better offer of my out of pocket costs (& ideally a view on the amount of effort I have put in over 15 months as the spokesperson/chair of whole block - maybe I should just let 29 others have bombarded them daily with requests to comply with the lease!)

Look, I'm not being an idiot. I know they may dig their heals in, but a stand had to be taken (albeit a flawed one - desperate times, desperate measures and all that...!)

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

No no, you just seem to not understand the process. There is no other claim, they have now paid for and issued court paperwork. The next stage is to submit evidence to the court.


Your offer can be safely ignored, because it's not relevant. Anyone with a modicum of experience of court will see that your defence is not existent, there's no reason to settle.

But, their application to the court failed to comply. They will have to resubmit following the correct procedure. Is this not time for them to reflect?

The court will offer mediation next, but that is simply a telephone call with a mediator talking to both parties to try and resolve it. It's not 'unreasonable' for them to not settle at this stage.

Great. Mediation may be what is required. But, only after they have correctly issued proceedings, surely.


You have to separate the two issues. You owing them money is one, their repair is another.

Ok, I hear that.

Hard_food_for_midas

Oops, something went wrong there - my reply got lost in the body of your quote.

But, their application to the court failed to comply. They will have to resubmit following the correct procedure.

Surely they have to make a fresh claim.

Is this not time for them to reflect?

Great. Mediation may be what is required. But, only after they have correctly issued proceedings, surely.