I have bought a flat in April in a converted house which has three other flats. The freeholder is demanded the portion of this years service charge (September 2013-August 2014) from last year September to April 2014. He is demanded this payment after the I purchased the flat. His reason is due to change of ownership. I now have a county court hearing in November. Before completion the freeholder refused to provide a breakdown of works and items have been purchased since last September. He has provided this now but no receipts. The other leaseholders have not been made aware of any demand and are therefore will proceed to pay the service charge in September 2014. The freeholder made it aware to me that all service charge from last year September to September 2014 will be paid in September before i bought the flat. In the lease it states from time to time service charges can be demanded but he sent no summary of rights and obligations with the demand. Could someone please tell me what my rights are and is a defence of not receiving a full demand strong enough? Thanks Leon

Hi All, Me, my Husband and daughter(18) rented three storage "garages" from a storage company three years ago. In February 2014 they had problems with leaky roof which caused damage to daughter's stuff in her garage, which they never compensated for saying beyond their control as rain is an act of God (????). They put the charges up this year (contract to run April 14 - March 15) which we weren't prepared to pay as they still haven't repaired the roof. We therefore gave a month notice and removed our stuff on the 25th April. On the 2nd of May they then issued three invoices, mine & husband's storage fee for 1st to 25th April at double the previous rate and daughter's at three times the rate! I recalculated at previous rate and paid on the 17th May. They weren't happy with this and sent me emails threatening court, I stated that charging double/treble amount not reasonable under Supply of Goods and Services act, and charging more to cover loss of profit for loss of custom not fair under Unfair Terms and Conditions in Consumer Contract Regs 1999. They have now made a claim using MCOL for the rest of money on all three invoices - but only showing Daughter and Husband as defendants not me! I think this is as they know that husband and daughter are not as hot as me on consumer rights - and don't have as much fire in their bellies, plus both work full time whereas I have time for research! Can anyone give me advice - I believe I have a relevant defence but I'm not trained so can't become the family's legal representative. If I go I won't be able to say anything as not a defendant - can I become a defendant??? Help! - and thanks in advance for any knowledge

Hi all, I have been named as the defendant in a small claims case that I believe to be groundless. It relates to a 2 year old parking accident causing damage to another parked car (unoccupied) which was fully resolved with my insurer at the time. 2 years later, and with no prior correspondence, a claim has arrived for damages relating to a week's lost wages even though the settled claim included a substantial hire car charge. I assume that I will get this easily thrown out, but because I now live abroad I am unable to be present to defend myself. Do I have to pay for a solicitor to defend a nuisance claim, or can I request that my written defence be considered by itself? I have a relatively short window to respond, and this is entirely new and unexpected so any advice would be gratefully received.

Hi, Long story which I won't go into but: -I have a court claim issued against my company, with the company name spelled incorrectly and not identified as "ltd". I.e. our name is ABC DEF LTD, and the claim is against "ABCDEF". -Supporting paperwork attached to the claim is a pile of invoices issued by, according to the invoices, "XYZ". This name is not a limited company, and it's not identified on the invoices as "ABC T/A XYZ". There is no person's name on the invoices. The claim is then issued only in the name of the individual, not the company. So on the face of it there is no link between the invoices and the claimant. It would not be possible to argue that we don't know the identity of the claimant - it was a one man band company so we obviously dealt with the guy in question. However the claim is spurious at best and while we can fully defend it, a strike out or similar based on the above would be a lot more straightforward. Lawyers are trying to say it's impossible to know if any of the above will help, and basically it will cost several 000 to work it out. This is money I can't afford to waste though would be delighted to pay a solicitor something on that order if they can kill this off straightforwardly for us. Since filing the statute of limitations has passed so it cannot be refiled. Appreciate any advice, Thank you.

Hi Everyone, I am after a quick bit of help. I won a CCJ against a company that owes me money for unpaid invoices. I won the case in default because they did not respond. I have found out they are applying to have it set aside on the grounds they did not receive the forms which is a blatant lie. I am a bit confused because they have selected the "without a hearing" option. Obviously I want to object to this at a hearing because I have evidence they did receive the forms. I worry that their application will be granted without chance for me to dispute it. Is there anything I can do? can I send some information/forms to the court? Many thanks!

Hi everyone, I hope you can help me. In brief I contracted roofer to repair leaks. Full known work was not known until scaffolding up. Roofer repaired what he thought was the problem (according to quote). Identified another problem. Said could not do work as he was busy but then backtracked. I agreed to work, said I'd pay half now and the full amount (plus new work) when work completed. He refused and said he would do nothing until full payment received for first job. Next he emails me saying as I have not paid he will contact his solicitor. I receive a claim against me. He did not give me 30 days and the claim was made without a solicitor. The scaffolding still remains at my property. Do I have a case? Do I just 1) accept it and pay him, plus the fee of £95 within 10 days. Am I at risk of him then sabotaging the roof or scaffolding remaining? 2) write and ask him to remove the scaffolding and then I will pay him and then defend the claim? If I do this, will it then go to court if he refuses to remove scaffolding? Thank you in advance. Janet

Small Claims Court - No address for the defendant Hello, I have recently moved into a property. In the past 3 months the cellar hasflooded 7 times (each time 200+L water are removed), we have sufficientevidence that the vendor did not disclose any historic flooding, records ofeach flood, quotes to repair the issue and an independent flood reportoutlining it as an historic issue. Unfortunately the firm that carried out thehomebuyers report did not report flood issues, rather covering their back byindicating that it was dry and dark in cellar so a judgement could not be made. We have been advised that we have a very strong case against the vendor andshould begin proceeding for a small claims (for the adjustment in value of theproperty if we had been informed prior to purchase i.e. the cost of fixing theissue). The only problem is we do not have any address for the vendors. We haveasked for it via email and their solicitors but they have blocked both avenues.We have tried the electoral role but no joy. Can anyone recommend any alternative methods for finding someone's newaddress? I would be eternally grateful! Thanks Keith

Hi, I am considering making a small claim against a company in Scotland however I reside in England and am hoping someone can advise me how to proceed. Background. I had a financial agreement with a company who is based in Scotland and as far as I am aware do not have an office in England. When this financial agreement was set up I resided in Scotland however I no longer live there but reside in England and this financial agreement came to an end in 2012 and I was resident in England by that time. For reasons I do not wish to divulge I now wish to take this organisation to the small claims court as the usual letters have not resulted in a satisfactory response. Now the problem arises in that the organisation has offices in Scotland yet I live in England. Referring to the English small claims website https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview to make a claim through the English courts the organisation needs an English address which as I mentioned above the organisation does not have. So I looked at the Scottish law courts website and on the face of it it looked as though I could make an application to a court in Scotland. Because I do not live in Scotland I thought (by reading through the Scottish law courts website) that I should apply to the court nearest the defendant. To check this is the case I phoned the court and spoke to someone in the small claims court and explained my scenario. Unfortunately this is where I became confused. The person just asked me (words to the effect) 'under which jurisdiction' do I want to make the application. I stated that I did not understand what they meant re-iterating that I do not live in Scotland. They then replied that I would have to pursue the defendant through the English courts to which I countered that the English courts (apparently) will not allow this because this organisation does not have an office in England. At this point I got the impression they were becoming irate with me because I did not understand the phrase 'under which jurisdiction' (again I am para-phrasing somewhat), so they just pointed me to links on the Scottish Law Courts website where I can get in touch with Citizen's Advice etc. So my question is can I make a small claim against this organisation which has offices only in Scotland yet I live in England? which legal system do I use? Unfortunately speaking to the person in the Scottish court I became more confused. I realise that the court cannot give me legal advice but I would have thought they would have been able to clearly state whether they could accept an application for a small claim given the above scenario. Many thanks for your help.

I issued a claim and the defendant has admitted liability and already sent a cheque with the claim form return which has cleared. I just want to clarify what I tick on the form N225A. It has to be Box B 'I accept the amount admitted by the defendant in satisfaction of my claim' and then tick 'I accept the defendants proposal for payment'. But in Part C which is then obligatory it has the first part saying if I don't accept the defendants proposal for payment tick a box. Well I do, its paid in full. Then I need to fill out some payment totals. Do I fill these out? I don't seem to be able to avoid filling out C. The form isn't suitable if the defendant has paid in full. The defendant made an error by ticking the I admit partly box and then wrote an amount which equaled the full claim. I don't seem to be able to declare that the defendant has paid and full and the matter is closed. Is it just a matter of writing on the form 'full payment of cleared funds received'? Thanks for your advice! Jim

A deputy district judge has allocated a case FILED by my former accountant for hearing by July 30. I think its time I write and submit a statement of case with documents as evidence. What do you think? Thanks for your quick response

Hi all, We made a silly mistake (with hindsight) in bringing an online claim for a rip-off car in the company's trading name rather than an individual's name (sole trader not limited company) We exchanged letters with their solicitor at first, rejecting the car under the SGA. No reasonable offer to settle was forthcoming so we issued the claim. We eventually received judgment in default as no defence was served... only to find the company had disappeared from its premises, removed its online presence and (as I've discovered through lots of research) set up under a different name at a different address. My question is, if we can confirm the name of the individual and ideally a residential address, can we reissue the claim? This will be easier said than done as currently the only direct evidence linking he individual with the company is a 'Whois' web form showing the company's website as being registered as "Company XYZ trading as Mr X UK Sole Trader" and the original address of the garage. The amount of the claim is just over £4k plus interest from last November, so we don't want to let it drop. How can it be so easy for sole traders to disappear and avoid any liability? We know this company have stitched up many others, it wasn't a one-off, yet the police say its a civil matter and Trading Standards couldn't care less. Thanks in advance.

Hi - I live in Scotland and I need to raise a small claims action against someone in England. He is an individual (not a company), and he owes me money circa £600. I've called my local sheriff court, and the county court in England, and neither gave me a straight answer, and I'm still none the wiser! Please help me!

Hiya - a quick question: If an Unfair Term can be held in the consumer credit act re insufficient detail for example, can the same be held for a mortgage company that makes "SUNDRY" charges to an account. I am assuming that a charge has to be specified in more detail to be valid, but wondering what Act/Satute/Regulation may be applied?? any ideas on this as I believe many of us are being charged extras (and they simply point to their Tarriff) without any real information and they are similiar to bank penalties, probably for a service but totally out of proportion again... thanks

The summary is that the landlord failed to establish a sinking fund to collect money to set against major works. A large lump sum payment was demanded creating a huge burden and was based on estimates without surveyor inspection based on what the surveyor thought would e required for a set of properties on the landlord's books without consideration that the new freehold bought (where I am a lessee) already had major works done in 2000/2001. The other adjacent properties had not had this kind of work done. This new freehold where the contention is was bought in 2004. There is legal ambiquity whether the contents in the lease agreement support the setting of a sinking fund in a manner that sums be collected early for a target amount towards major works at a future date. The Leasehold Advisory Service pamphlet appears to suggest that a sinking fund of this manner shoudl operate with regard to inent of this type of clause. The landlord's solictors had acknowledged that sums were demanded in contravention of the lease terms but then redirected through the service charge estimates received on March 2012 for 2012, 50% in retrospect from 25th Dec 2011 to 24 June 2012, and then the next from 25 June 2012 to 24 December 2012. In initially I had asked to pay in monthly instalments for the estimated amount demanded over a period that would at least somewhat reflect the time the sinking fund should have been built. But this was refused. The works were completed by the first week of September 2012 and actual cost invoices should have been received. A Part 18 request for such invoices and actual costs have been side-stepped by the claimant in reply, who resent the estimates and the composition of the estimates only. A response stating that the Part 18 request has not been met has been sent to the claimant. A defence has been filed within the time limit and a N152 and N150) just received. I would appreciate advice on how to fill the N150 to get the matter heard by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, especially as I would like to bring up further issues such as excessively high insurance premiums (approximately £2,000 per annum) being charged and subsequent large service charge demands met for the internal refurbishment of carpets, which in the view of the 6 lessees of the property is not required as the carpet is in good order and a high charge for electrical rewiring, when the common parts only have two light bulbs.

I won a case in the small claims in November 2011 because the defendant didnt show up. At the time he lived in rented accomadation and i understand that to possibly still to be the case. I visited the old address and was told he moved out before the court case was heard .However he has filed a tax return shortly after the judgement from the original address. the new tenants of the property seemed to know him and were a little obstructive. What do i have to do now, Trying to get constructive advice has repeatidly failed and CAB have not been any help at all , i think because its not a straight forward situation. The outstanding debt is £2000.00 and he works 9-5 for a company but i think he is classed as freelance. I'm also aware that he has gone to considerable trouble to hide his internet activity since the case. Any ideas?

I just wanted to get an understanding if anything could be done about this.... I have a claim that I raised in dispute against a large company in Jan 2011. This went back and forth for exchange of letters on liability for a while. In the end they told me to jog on...so I issued a claim against them. It was defended and is set to go to court in December. This claim is for around £300 Two things happened, I had a telephone allocation hearing at which point the judge slightly chastised the solicitor for not engaging in mediation or trying to resolve the issue. Secondly the Defendant wanted an entire day to hear the claim, judge wasn't best pleased and gave him 90 mins, and stated that the hearing is only to determine whether or not the item in question met the legal requirement (not all the other issues that are being clouded by the Defendant). An order come through around 10 days later and within that order both sides had to file and serve all documents they wanted to rely on at the hearing, this was set at end of October. Subsequently today I received another document from the Defendant simply saying: Please find enclosed supplementary bundle documents which the Defendant intends to rely on at the hearing. Is this allowed? I don't really want them to be sending documents left right and centre, even though the court set a date.

Hi everyone Help required and appreciated re application to join MBNA as 2nd defendant thanks