Can I take proceedings against a builder company after 5 years and 8 months?

Jenni_D

Dissolved in May 2015 ... That was ~6.5 years ago. But the OP says they contracted with the "dissolved" company in December 2015, just under 6 years ago ... however it is impossible to contract with a company that doesn't exist, so it must have been a contract either with the new company, or the individual?

Small claims are judge on the balance of probabilities - does the OP have enough info to support claiming against the new company/individual? (That's why I asked who they paid - it may give more supporting evidence).

Usman90

Hi Jenni_D i have the account details on the contract.. I have just checked if the account details match with the person i had paid and they don't match, However i had sent the payment to the same account details which are on the contract. Since the details are on the contract to where i need to pay is this a advantage? I had sent the payment to the account details provided with reference xxx paving limited.

Usman90

Also i forgot to mention on top of the sort code and account number it says Bacs details xxxx construction.

Thrugelmir

Usman90 said:

Hi Jenni_D i have the account details on the contract.. I have just checked if the account details match with the person i had paid and they don't match, However i had sent the payment to the same account details which are on the contract. Since the details are on the contract to where i need to pay is this a advantage? I had sent the payment to the account details provided with reference xxx paving limited.

If the old company was dissolved prior to the completion of the works. Then difficult to see what the legal counter argument can be. As the new company appears to have taken on the order book of the old. 

Usman90

I have managed to confirm the account details.. I searched the account name under the name of xxxx construction limited.. It says the account details do match the name.. It also says that this is a business account.

Sandtree

Jenni_D said:

Dissolved in May 2015 ... That was ~6.5 years ago. But the OP says they contracted with the "dissolved" company in December 2015, just under 6 years ago ... however it is impossible to contract with a company that doesn't exist, so it must have been a contract either with the new company, or the individual?

Small claims are judge on the balance of probabilities - does the OP have enough info to support claiming against the new company/individual? (That's why I asked who they paid - it may give more supporting evidence).

All civil law is on the balance of probabilities, not just Small Track... though how probabilities are balanced does consider relevant case law and not just if the judge likes the cut of your jib. 

There is a fairly high probability that the defence, if filed, will contest if the right entity has been named as the defendant and so its a matter of building up the evidence for the witness statements etc such as showing the counterparty had been dissolved prior to contracting, payment was made to the new company and anything else (eg if the person negotiating the deal was a director of the new company) 

Usman90

Yes the person negotiating the deal is the director of the new company.

Usman90

In such a situation wouldn't it be possible to take proceedings against the new company since it's director is the same as the old? And since I had paid the funds to the new company? Are my chances really slim to make a successful start to the case based on the information I have provided?

Sandtree

Usman90 said:

In such a situation wouldn't it be possible to take proceedings against the new company since it's director is the same as the old? And since I had paid the funds to the new company? Are my chances really slim to make a successful start to the case based on the information I have provided?

Your argument will be that despite the paperwork the contract was really with the new company... their argument will be that it wasnt and so the claim should be struck. What is hard to predict is who they claim the legal entity was but that isnt necessarily their problem.

Assessing legal prospects have to be done by a legal professional, with the relevant insurances if they give you bad advice, but ultimately it adds one more area of concern in addition to the timescales etc.

Ectophile

Every company is a separate legal entity. So you can't sue one company just because it shares a director with another one.

But if you made payments to the new company, then they can't claim that the work was nothing to do with them.