Morning, so the defendant was given until 4pm yesterday to file a reply to the POC . However, they didn’t email it in until 19.30pm along with an email apologising for sending a previous email without attachments. Is it possible to apply to have this struck out, wold that be accepted ?

Thanks Andy, I was surprised by the scaremongery of the email, we previously informed this solicitor that he has been diagnosed with ADHD in early 2021 which completely changed the tone of correspondence from then on. They actually went through mediation before the claim. His claim isn't just about not receiving the expected amount of money back from the government scheme, the heat pump never really worked, never really provided hot water. Since he has moved the new owners had the manufacturers engineers in and they said it was set-up wrong and installed incorrectly making it impossible to service properly. I guess we need to look at his claim again now, I may add we have an email from this director telling him that the heat pump would never produce the kind of returns expected, these have been revised down, and that they have an inherent fault, he has removed several customers heat pumps free of charge including his own.

Hi Andy, what do you make of his email in general ? Usually his legal representative sends communications, it is unusual for him to do so personally

Evening, so my friend had his hearing today, having been delayed previously, the hearing was for their application to Strike Out his claim. To cut a long story short the judge thought he had over claimed (claim 10K) and was probably worth 2-3k and his evidence/Poc was a bit of a mess, along with the fact he didnt file direction and witness statements until over a year late. However, he has given him until August 24th to sort it out and resubmit but urged both parties to settle out of court. 30 mins after the hearing he received this following email, not from their solicitor but from the director Dear Mr Without Prejudice offer. Again, sincere apologies that you are aggrieved if I could rectify matters personally I would. Today`s outcome as you are now aware is that you will need to serve full particularised financials alongside detailed returns and evidence your alleged short fall. You have until 4pm 30th August to do so. Whereby we the Defendant then intend to serve a more detailed defence and counter claim against you which our legal team has almost finalised. We would of course rather not spend the day in court and of late these matters have been allocated a hearing of 9:30 am but are actually not getting going for the most part until well after midday. A recent hearing we attended started at 1:30pm having been allocated at 9:30am and was adjourned at 3:30pm, then re allocated for a further day ! Our technical and legal teams unfortunately attend a fair few of these claims as of course there are many customers that feel making a claim is the right thing to do. Unfortunately it just isn't as simple as thinking you have been miss sold, and we believe your claim has absolutely no merit, despite you being aggrieved and having some poor early days results. Point 20. of our T&C`s is quite clear and usually a claim does not get much further than that, your case has many other points in our favour and few in yours, I think the judge was being very nice in not allowing the strike out. It is a fact that our company has successfully defended the last 55 claims of this nature to the point we are now counterclaiming for time and costs. If you check the court records in Colchester County Court, Peter J Rodrup Vs Silvercrest Energy Ltd was a claim brought on similar merits as yours whereby Mr Rodrup unfortunately had to pay us £22`500.00 which was largely made up of legal fees and time costs of which we collected the sum 3 weeks after the hearing by high court enforcement. If of course you still had the unit we could at least retrieve the goods under a swap out agreement. That cannot be achieved here and our office especially our legal team wishes to continue the action. Judge Gallagher will issue a notice of trial for a date after 1stOctober and that will probably not be heard until quarter 1 of 2023. I apologise if this email sounds confident of the impending outcomes but this is what always happens. I therefore kindly suggest you accept our original offer of £1000 in full and final settlement of the matter and of which the offer is open for 14 days only as of today`s date. Please advise if you wish for us to draw up the Tomlin order agreement to settle, if not our legal team will be requesting a change in the listings track in order to add our legal charges should we be successful. Kind regards *********** I will also mention that they previously applied to change to Track, this delayed everything for 5 months and they withdrew their application the day before the hearing and submitted an order to strike out instead. This caused another 8 months delay up until today. Can they apply for change of Track having already done so and withdrawn it? Is this an abuse of process? Thanks in advance

Just to note, the got cancelled once again last month, he awaits another date. The can has been kicked down the road for 16 months now.

Hi Andy, yes I read that. So I guess what we are relying on is that their application for Fast Track superseded the need to comply as the court hearing date would not go ahead due to the application for FT. maybe clutching at straws here

Hi Andy, he received it in so much it was in the Moneyclaim online account which he never logged into, so didn't see it. Witness statement, I was referring to replying to their Witness Statements for the actual court hearing that they sent in previously in February. Now, does it matter less that he didn't return this form given that they applied for Fast Track instead, therefore the original hearing was never going to happen?

Hi @Andyorch he found the document, it was in the Moneyclaim online account, which he hadn't checked as he wasn't expecting documents through that, probably because other stuff was sent through the post or email. Obviously the hearing never went ahead as they applied to have it moved to Fast Track. Is it too late to submit a witness statement in response to their witness statement? 187MC148-Judge-Directions-Order.pdf

Thanks Andy, I’m travelling back from Scotland so will take all this in tomorrow and revert back to him and come back to you. as usual your help is very much appreciated

Hi @AndyorchHe can’t remember and can’t find any paperwork and neither does he remember the form, useless I know. so if he hasn’t, is there anything we can do or is it game over ?

Good question and I have messaged and asked him, I doubt he will remember and would of thought that he would of done anything when asked. He did submit evidence I believe, but will check. If he hasn't I guess he's in trouble right ?

Hi Andy, I've asked him, he cannot remember either way. So, would he have received that through the post? Does it have a form number? If he hasn't is it game over? They made their application for fast track before that was due. Just trying to grasp where we are, he has a learning disability so getting info out of him is not easy as he's easily confused. What I will add to that is that he went to mediation service through the court , so I would guess he filled out an N180 questionnaire ?

And here is the N244 N244Strikeout.pdf

Hi @Andyorch, attached is the full document, I have messaged him and asked if there was also a N244 App4Strike.pdf Funny how one minute the case is so complicated that it needs to go to fast track and now its so simple that its obvious it should be struck out.

And thinking about the Strike out application, it comes straight after their derisory £1k off to settle, maybe they thought using a strike out was a good tool to get them to accept the offer?