Small claims court

user1977

Confussed12 said:

No his company does not have ltd on it

It would be less confusing if you stop calling it a "company". It isn't a company.

Confussed12

Please give me a break, I think by now you would understand that what I'm on about, apologises if I'm getting this wrong

Sandtree

macman said:

I repeat: does his 'trading/company name' include 'Ltd' or not? If not, he's a sole trader. 

Not necessarily plenty of companies drop the suffix to use as a trading name... some go further, how often have you seen U K Insurance Limited advertised? Plenty because its trading style is Direct Line, amongst others... its a company but doesn't have LTD or PLC etc after when in common materials.

Sandtree

Confussed12 said:

Please give me a break, I think by now you would understand that what I'm on about, apologises if I'm getting this wrong

We aren't picking on you, we are pointing out that if you use the wrong language in court papers etc it will get thrown out. You in the eyes of the law are a natural person, a company is a legal person, a sole trader is a natural person. When you go to court it is you -v- a person and if you switch between two different persons or switch between discribing someone as a natural person and a legal person the judge will say its not clear which person you are suing and its a requirement of the CPR that you are. You can pay a fee to correct the issue but its at the judges discretion. 

Confussed12

Is this ok as a LBA letter?, if not I'll try and find a better one on line, if it is ok, do I now need to inform him after this letter that I am now going to proceed to raise small claim court papers or can I just proceed without informing him any further,

I sent the original letter by registered post and via email which he responded to by email is I know he got it, once I submit my court forms the only address I have is his trading office address which I have described before, what happens if he dosent regularly check his mail at this address and says he didnt know about the case, if it goes to this address will it be classed as being served,

The deadline I gave him in my orginal letter has passed is this ok or do I need to send him another letter and give him 14 days again.

 I hear all the advice given here and want to make sure that it doesn't get thrown out before it even gets started for the wrong letter or if I need to further advice him of my intent to proceed to court, i

I have taken off all the personal info on the LBA I sent him so I can post on here (see letter below)  and the details of my works complaint, it is addressed to him personally on the first line with his trading name and trading address below, here is an extract of the letter I sent him, is it ok do I now need to do anything else:

Dear Mr?
Trading as 
Address

 I have discovered the following problems with the work you have done for me: The main areas discussed prior to the job commencing and outlined in the quote have not been addressed, i.e. the finish height of front edge of the driveway is incorrect and higher than agreed, all drainage has not been correctly connected and what has been attempted is to a very poor standard, the finish level Of the driveway is laid to a height not agreed, Overall no care and attention has been given to the complete works and what i have been left with is below the standard what was promised both verbally, in the quote and what we discussed and i what i expected, as you are aware I have tried on several occasions both via email and over the phone to arrange a meeting to discuss these issues with you but as of this point in time you have been refused to do so, hence why I am now writing to you.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that reasonable care and skill must be used while working. In my opinion, you did not use reasonable care and skill when you carried out this work and you have broken your contract with me.

I ask that you fix the following issues:

In this paragraph in the letter I have outlined the areas i wanted fixed which I have cut out to save you boredom.

Please contact me as soon as possible, and no later than 14 days from the date on this

letter, to agree a date by which this work will be put right.

If I do not hear back from you in the time suggested above, I will consider taking further action and seeking legal advice. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Confussed12

The above letter was sent over 2 weeks ago now

Sandtree

The courts require that you take reasonable steps to deal with the matter outside of the court room... you shouldn't come home, find one of your eggs are broken and instantly go onto MCOL and sue Tescos.

Ideally the LBA would have explicitly said about taking the court route rather than just legal advice but I'd be surprised if the judge would withhold fees or award the defendant costs because of it and as already pointed out before the confusion of the entity you are suing is a bigger risk in this case.

Courts aren't moving at any pace at the moment so if you want belts and braces you could always send a 7 day LBA. You can reference the previous letter to save having to repeat most of it.

pablo_el_diablo

Similar situation here. I've sent a letter 'Refund request' to the garage (poor service and mot, I told them I expect a full refund for 3 year servicing, as a goodwill gesture agreed but only if I sign NDA that I won't share the information and videos, I refused). I haven't mention small claims or legal action though, I gave them 7 days two weeks ago. How likely it would be that the court will refuse my claim because of this or because I could still go to Motor Ombundsman ADR first? (I don't want that alley due to poor reviews and waiting time).

Sandtree

pablo_el_diablo said:

How likely it would be that the court will refuse my claim because of this 

To the best of my knowledge the judge will never refuse a claim because you missused the system however for moderate cases they won't award you costs if you win (normally the defendant has to reimburse the claimant the court charges etc if they lose). For a more extreme abuse they can require you to cover the defendants costs - note that these are fairly rare but a google will find plenty of examples... if you look hard enough you can even find cases where someone not party to the litigation is ordered to pay costs.

pablo_el_diablo

Sandtree said:

 they won't award you costs if you win (normally the defendant has to reimburse the claimant the court charges etc if they lose).

We've had a lengthy email exchange and the service manager have mentioned Motor Ombudsman direction, if I'm not happy with their judgment that everything was ok. But eventually they have stopped replying altogether. There was also no answer to my letter Request of the refund(sent by 1st class recorded). Poor reviews of the MO can be found online, and the conclusion is most regret going that way and should have gone to the Small claims directly. This is why the motoring industry is mentioning MO. Also, I'm not sure if the MO procedure is started, but leghty, let say after 3 months of waiting can Small Claims be involved? PS. The servicing cost was £450.