Council taking me to court over pothole claim

[Deleted User]

Any chance we can see photos of this chasm?

agrinnall

waamo wrote: »

Excellent point. If they are asking for a set aside with consent then you can set conditions for that.

Tell them you will agree providing they meet all the costs for it AND they pay what they owe you.

It's highly likely they will agree and means you don't have to worry about arranging enforcement.

This is exactly what happened when I made a claim against a taxi company that they didn't defend but later asked to have the judgement set aside - they paid the claim of £88, the costs for the steps I had taken up to then, and £50 goodwill on top.

Djnixlover

Thanks again for all your input. I don't have all the correspondence with me st the moment but I do have the email regarding the set aside. They wrote ;
If you do not consent, we will make an application to the court in order to have this set aside. If we are successful in having the judgment set aside, we will seek the costs of the application from you.

The reason we are looking to have this judgment set aside, is that **** Council has real prospect of successfully defending the claim, as per r13.3(1)(a) of the CPR (https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part13).***** council has an inspection mechanism in place, to maintain the roads, and look out for potholes. The mechanism is sufficient to meet the Councils obligations for road maintenance. The incident occurred in between an inspection.

That is copied and pasted direct from their email.

Djnixlover

So am I best to maintain my stance or just give them consent with conditions?

waamo

Djnixlover wrote: »

So am I best to maintain my stance or just give them consent with conditions?

Don't just give them consent. Offer it with conditions and see what they say. You are in a strong negotiating position. Their chances of recovering set aside costs are slim to none and they know it.

By the time you take into account paying lawyers to attend a hearing then it will be an awful lot cheaper to pay you at this point. That's even if they win.

DoaM

Agree to set-aside with consent, with conditions.

Conditions are:

1. They bear all costs in respect of the set-aside.
2. They pay the original judgment amount in full
3. They cover your costs to date in looking to enforce the judgment, or a goodwill equivalent. (Worth asking - you can easily agree to remove this condition).
4. You agree between you that, once the claim is reset, it will be withdrawn and no further action will be taken by either party in respect of this incident.

Something like that. They may not go for it though ... a CCJ against a Council makes no odds - they have no credit rating to be impacted, for example - so they may be looking at this as a cost-saving exercise. However, if they realise that their threats are not working they may decide that discretion is the better part of valour.

Arklight

The council have a CCJ? Well that's them up the swannie now. They'll have to get Wonga loans to cover the pothole budget.

Djnixlover

An update - they said my requests were unreasonable and so have gone ahead with the set aside request within which they state "technical difficulties" between them and the insurers meant that they weren't instructed sooner to deal with my original claim. And that there is insufficient evidence the hole caused the damage!?
So I am just wondering how do I argue against the set aside request ? As in physically where do I sent my evidence ? They've not even got my car model or registration correct in the documents so are coming across as highly incompetent !

snilloct1957

Hi Djnixlover, I've sent you a PM, good luck.

Dr_Crypto

The Court will get in touch with you in due course and you can resist their application for a set-aside. I’d rely on the fact that the papers were properly served.