Consumer Advice

FortuitousFluke said:
Good response, I'll look into getting it moved to nearer my location.
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Not concrete but this link suggests it may happen automatically when you file a defence?

Assuming the defendant does respond to your Claim, there are 2 possible outcomes:
The defendant can admit the Claim, pay you in full, and that's the end of the matter - but let's assume that won't happen! It’s more likely that he will dispute some or all of the Claim, known as 'Filing a Defence' - you'll get a copy of his defence statement, and things get interesting from this point onwards because once a Claim is disputed, it's then transferred to a named County Court, and later, allocated to a Court Track. All MCOL Claims are first dealt with at the Northampton County Court (CC). When a Claim is disputed, the Claim is transferred to a County Court local to the defendant(*) – In my case Birmingham CC.

(*) One Exception; If you (an individual) are taking a Company to court, the Claim will be transferred to a County Court local to you.
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FortuitousFluke said:
£1700, doesn't sound like much but to me and my partner it definitely is. For that price I expect some wear and tear but I definitely don't expect the brakes to fall off.
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Thats a lot of money for some people, I for one would not be able to fork out £1700 off the bat.

It was more to work out what they are chasing because a) they are going to lose and b) it will end up costing them maybe around that figure to lose

So instead of them being £1700 down (despite them being back to before the contract was agreed if they just took the car) they are going to be throwing more money away.
 
They have to use a court near to you.

Several years ago I took an old flatmate to small claims and he lived in Reading. I live in Liverpool. It automatically went to his local county court.
 
So I'm updating this as I said I would and figured someone might find a use for it eventually.

The story so far:

1. Bought car
2. Car crap
3. Complained to retailer
4. Refused to repair to acceptable level or refund
5. Awarded credit card clawback after retailed didn't challenge
6. Passed to retailers legal team to pursue me for the clawback amount, couldn't find agreement around return of the car and fair usage
7. Retailer lodges with small claims court

Fast forward to now. I responded to all of the court paperwork with my defence, I heard nothing I called the central claim line who said the court wanted the info again (he didn't know why). I sent the info again, and got a letter saying it was transferred to my local court. I chased them up twice having heard nothing. Last week I got a judgement for the claimant stating that I had not lodged a defence by responding to the claim form.......the response mentioned earlier.....which I submitted to them......twice. So I now owe £800 more than I paid for the car (the sum requested by the claimant was the value of the car + fair usage....I know)

I'm now in a tricky situation. I don't owe the money, this has come about due to a court balls up. I've spoken to the claim centre who have requested that the court contact me directly. However this could take 35 days, and if I don't pay in 30 I risk the CCJ becoming permanent, which due to a possible need for credit in the future would be a massive problem for me. I could apply for it to be set aside, which I think I have a good case to do, however given their handling so far I don't have any faith in the court system, and even if I do get a positive response this may be the only route to rectify the situation. The lack of info on the judgement has me concerned that there may be another element to the judgement that might scupper any appeal.

Looks like I might be forced to just pay up in order to save my credit rating. Absolutely baffling that they can screw this up so badly and then legitimately tell me that I could be so long waiting for a response that my credit rating could be nuked as a result.

Long story short don't bother standing up for yourself when dealing with unscrupulous retailers as incompetent beaurocracy will just bugger you in the end.
 
FortuitousFluke said:
So I'm updating this as I said I would and figured someone might find a use for it eventually.

The story so far:

1. Bought car
2. Car crap
3. Complained to retailer
4. Refused to repair to acceptable level or refund
5. Awarded credit card clawback after retailed didn't challenge
6. Passed to retailers legal team to pursue me for the clawback amount, couldn't find agreement around return of the car and fair usage
7. Retailer lodges with small claims court

Fast forward to now. I responded to all of the court paperwork with my defence, I heard nothing I called the central claim line who said the court wanted the info again (he didn't know why). I sent the info again, and got a letter saying it was transferred to my local court. I chased them up twice having heard nothing. Last week I got a judgement for the claimant stating that I had not lodged a defence by responding to the claim form.......the response mentioned earlier.....which I submitted to them......twice. So I now owe £800 more than I paid for the car (the sum requested by the claimant was the value of the car + fair usage....I know)

I'm now in a tricky situation. I don't owe the money, this has come about due to a court balls up. I've spoken to the claim centre who have requested that the court contact me directly. However this could take 35 days, and if I don't pay in 30 I risk the CCJ becoming permanent, which due to a possible need for credit in the future would be a massive problem for me. I could apply for it to be set aside, which I think I have a good case to do, however given their handling so far I don't have any faith in the court system, and even if I do get a positive response this may be the only route to rectify the situation. The lack of info on the judgement has me concerned that there may be another element to the judgement that might scupper any appeal.

Looks like I might be forced to just pay up in order to save my credit rating. Absolutely baffling that they can screw this up so badly and then legitimately tell me that I could be so long waiting for a response that my credit rating could be nuked as a result.

Long story short don't bother standing up for yourself when dealing with unscrupulous retailers as incompetent beaurocracy will just bugger you in the end.
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If you got a CCJ for this, and the court actually acknowledge that it's due to their incompetence, then the CCJ would be null and void regardless.

Stand your ground, don't pay a company money hurt because the court has been incompetent. There are very few things that can't e rectified.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
What a joke!

Surely you have something as above or even a reference number for the calls you made?
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So I have proof of postage for both paperwork submissions including tracking, they have reference of all calls and the advisor last time I called mentioned that there was a note on the system saying something along the lines of "submission received from defendant".

They've not acknowledged that this is through their incompetence, the advisor on the phone (central so not related to the court) has just told me that it appears my submission was received. I suppose the concern I have is that the judgement is just one line saying I've not responded to the claim form, if it turns out there is something beyond that e.g. my submission was invalid or I failed to file the correct documents (I don't believe this was the case but who knows) then there's a risk they could come back and say "actually we meant x", and then I've gone beyond the deadline to pay.

I've got until around the 20th - 25th before I need to pay in order to avoid a CCJ being registered against me on my credit file, just hoping the court respond before then so I can at least make an informed decision. The only other option is seeking further legal advice but that could cost a bomb.

The whole system really is a shambles, the very idea that the it's acceptable for the court to take 35 days to respond to queries when the deadline to pay is 1 month is absolutely sickening.
 
This sounds ridiculous.

There's no way they should be able to slap a CCJ on you if it the court themselves are at fault.

I'd head to the courthouse in person and attempt to speak to someone marginally competent face to face.

Good luck!
 
Might be wrong thinking but surely the retailer should be taking the card company to court?

Either way seems like a big mess which I hope you get sorted!

Also innocent until proven guilty? What evidence did the retailer provide?
 
Further update for anyone who still gives a fig. I took some advice from friend who is married to a county court judge. Based on that I decided to apply to have the judgement set aside.

I handed the paperwork in personally at the court in november. 4 weeks later they claimed they'd lost it. I posted duplicates by recorded delivery. The duplicates and the original "lost" copy were returned as no payment was enclosed ( I was advised by numerous court officials to enclose a letter asking them to call me to take payment by card as that's now standard procedure). I submitted yet again with a cheque and was issued a hearing date.

So I've had the hearing, the claimants didn't show, the judge seemed surprised by a lot of the crap that has gone on and set aside the judgement. He then said that as the claimant didn't bother to show up he would rather not set another court date and made a subsequent judgement that I should make the car available at my property and the claimants should come and pick it up. No monies owed. All other claims dismissed.

He was quite scathing of the requests put in by the lawyers of the dealership and of some of the actions that had taken place. He also seemed somewhat jaded with the courts admin process.

As the dealership didn't show up they have about a week to challenge the ruling after that I need to contact them to arrange for the car to be picked up at their cost.

This has been an incredibly stressful episode and it just shows how difficult the courts can be for joe bloggs to deal with. I'm mulling over lodging a complaint around the handling of my case by the court system but that's one for another day. No wonder these changers take a punt at small claims though, It's enough to scare anyone off!

Thought I'd update to close off the chapter and as a reference for anyone experiencing similar issues.
 
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I totally forgot the specifics of the story now a few months have past.

How much are you out of pocket now things are coming to a close on this ordeal now you owe nothing and the charge-back was successful?
 
Avenged7Fold said:
I totally forgot the specifics of the story now a few months have past.

How much are you out of pocket now things are coming to a close on this ordeal now you owe nothing and the charge-back was successful?
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So I'm out £255 as I had to pay for this most recent hearing and £100 for legal advice back when they first set the solicitors on me. Maybe another £20 or £30 in postage.

Not the end of the world, would had been a lot less if they had received my original defence as I wouldn't have needed to pay for the hearing but I'm just happy it's nearly over (touch wood).

I'm not even sure they'll bother coming to get the car, but I'll deal with that when I get there.
 
If they fail to pick it up, you can claw some cash back by notifying them that you will start to charge daily storage fees. Pretty sure this is completely legal if you give them enough notice.
 
Join one of those parking association private firms that are allowed to officially slap fines on cars. Put signage up and then play their game by taking them to small claims :p
 
Just out of curiosity, how much was the car? I take it this was a local garage not one of the big franchises? Good on you for sticking to your guns even though it was stressful.
 
Even better than that in terms of them not picking it up. My original plan would have been to charge them and then seek the right to sell the car to recover the cost of storage. However it's actually a condition of the order that they collect so if it doesn't happen I can approach the court for a remedy taking some of the hassle out

Car was only £1700, and ten years old so obviously I was expecting some wear and tear, but the laundry list of faults was mental, and then when the brake pad fell off after he had just told me they looked fine it got a little silly!
 
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