We posted the Defence to the court and the claimant by recorded delivery, which did not reach to the court but reached to the claimant within time.

post was delayed by Royal mail due to christmas rush.

The claimant checked with the Court that the defence did not reached to the court in time

he cleverly request the court to enter into default judgement even though he had our defence.

We send proof of the post etc to the court and claimant later.

The Claimant gave the consent to set aside the judgement but asked for the cost, which we refused .

Now Question is

could he claim the cost for application to set aside even though he consented?

under what rule he can claim cost where there was no fault of us?

if we succeed in set aside the judgement can he still ask for cost?

Firstly, please could you be a little more careful about punctuation and spacing. It's very difficult to follow your story when it is presented in the way that you have done.

If the claimant had received the defence in his hands then I would say that it was abusive to apply for judgement. Did you say this in your set-aside application?

Please will you post up the claim, the defence and also the set-aside application in PDF format.

Also, wasn't the claim issued on MoneyClaim? And if so why didn't you respond through MoneyClaim?

Is the Claimant represented, or a litigant in person?

Has a consent order been agreed and signed, and if so what does that say regarding costs?

Thank you very much for response

set aside application was ours.

The claimant was represented by the Solicitor who received the Defence in time but he checked with the court on the day and asked the court to issue default judgement, without mentioning that he has received our defence.

In set aside application we provided proof of postage and delivery to the Cliamant's Solicitors and proof of postage to the court and royal mail letter of acknowledgement that that was their fault to the court.

The claimant Solicitors consented to our application to set aside judgement but asking to pay his client's legal cost for consenting. Under what rule he is asking for cost?

If we succeed in set aside the judgement can he still ask for cost OR Can we claim cost for set aside application ?

Did you not post your Defence to the Court as well?

If you can't agree between you then it'll go to a hearing and the Court will decide what was reasonable and who should receive their costs.

YES the Defence was posted to the Court but delayed by royal mail.

Why did you not serve the court (hearing centre) by email - most in England and Wales have an auto-responder (invariably setup badly) to acknowledge (service) receipt.

Any original documents can be taken to the hearing (just putting this paragraph in for anyone using the forums for guidance).

Reading the certificate of service may help: http://formfinder.hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/n215-eng.pdf

I suppose costs can be claimed if the application (N244) occurs before allocation (directions N180 etc) to track (historically small, fast and multi-track).

So if not allocated to small claims track, the other side will try and get away with the highest cost basis it can, adding in pre-court action costs (not allowed) rather than using standard basis costing.