Dear Steampowered, Thanks very much for your insights and i will lose the goodwill payment sentence. Hope the judge sees the same way as you Will update the thread on the development. Regards, Vincent

Dear Steampowered, Thanks for your inputs, and after shamelessly copying your text i have restructured my defense as follows: Defense: I admit that i engaged with 'Mr.xxx' to provide accountancy services, but deny he has a claim since the price of £1,100 was agreed and promptly paid for the visa application statements and the tax filings. I specifically checked with 'Mr.xxx' for any additional charges and i was told there would be none except the charges required by HMRC. There were no terms of agreement provided which indicated that an additional payment would be required. I dispute and disagree with the invoices as they were not discussed, disclosed and agreed with me beforehand. I have communicated and since communicating the same to 'Mr.xxx' when i was provided with the invoice almost a year later and also offered to make a proportionate goodwill payment which wasn't considered by 'Mr.xxx' --------- Do you think this would suffice the court requirements while being a reasonable defense working? Thanks for your kind help. Regards, Vincent

Hi Bandit127, Thanks for the question. The 'What is the claim for' section in my previous post is the verbatim of the claim particulars mentioned in the claim or have i misunderstood it and need to add additional info? Regards, Vincent

As advised by Honeybee13, i have represented the information in a formal structure below: Name of the claimant - A medium sized Accountants firm Date of issue: 05/08/2014 Date of Acknowledgement of service – 19/08/2014 What is the claim for – The outstanding invoices for “xxx” is for the following- Invoice 0369 – filing of a tax return and company accounts of which contained different figures than those contained in the visa application (previous visa invoice application has been paid). We have already raised a credit against this invoice 0369, as a goodwill gesture for the amount of #180.00, which has reduced the balance outstanding to #612.00 There is also invoice 0361 which is for the preparation of individual tax return 2012/2013 which is unpaid to the value of #210.00 Actually what happened? The accountant agreed (verbally to provide me account statements for visa purposes and tax filing services), there was no formal agreement provided or signed and I made a single payment of £1100 for the above mentioned service and since 2013 the accountant is claiming for more money for the tax filing (only filing) services. This was not mentioned to me or agreed with me beforehand and I fully dispute this charge (which is also quite high for the services he has provided in total). He is also blocking me in closing down my company (by claiming that i owe him money and making to file for taxes eventhough the company seized operating). Value of the claim – (£822 + court fee £60 = £882) there is no mention of interest. Agreement – There is no formal agreement provided or signed with the service provider, the service commenced from 2012 Oct. Claim made by - The claim is issued by the direct accountant firm which provided the service My defense points - 1. There was no clear terms of agreement provided by the service provider. 2. There was no clear breakdown of charges 3. Other than the initial £1100 charges, no other charges were neither mentioned to me nor agreed with me beforehand. 4. I clearly mentioned him that my company was not operating anymore (so he knows that all he has to do is calculate 6 months worth of transactions for tax filing) 5. I have been prompt in paying him the agreed charges (paid him the £1100 straight away as a single payment). 6. Whatever charges he is claiming for the services he has provided is quite high (i did check with few other accountants and i was told that i should not cost more than £350 for just tax filing and my accountant is claiming £1900 in total). 7. I have been consistently in communication with the accountant and disputed this claim. 8. The service provider didn’t respond to my goodwill offer (£100) Your kind help is much appreciated. Regards, Vincent

Dear all, Thanks for the fantastic job of running this great forum. A friend of mine kindly referred this to me today. My situation (apologies for the length): In 2012 (sept) i urgently needed a set of my company accounts (ltd company) for Visa purposes so i spoke to an accountant and he said he would be able to help me. All i needed was 4 months (my company had already stopped trading st that point) of account statements he charged me £1100 and he said this included annual tax filing as well. There was no terms/condition of service was provided to me or signed, all these happened verbally (i made a bank transfer to his account). He did prepared the documents (though i had to review and suggest changes heavily), and i used the documents for my application which was successful. After around 11 months he send me an invoice of £800 for tax filing purposes and when i inquired he said this is the charge for annual tax filing 12/13 (my ltd company only operated for 6 months). I was very surprised the charge, informed him that this is not we discussed or agreed and my upfront payment should also cover the tax filing. There was no indication from his side about this charge and i was only aware when i received the invoice. And on top of this the charges are really high for filing (only filing, no invoices to customer or any other activities) for 6 months. But he was very adamant despite me offering him a goodwill payment of £100. He has now filed a claim (issued on 05/08/14), i have done the acknowledgement via MCOL and now need to file the defense. My key points are: 1. There was no clear terms of agreement provided by the service provider. 2. There was no clear breakdown of charges 3. I clearly mentioned him that my company was not operating anymore (so he knows that all he has to do is calculate 6 months worth of transactions for tax filing) 4. I have been prompt in paying him the agreed charges (paid him the £1100 straight away as a single payment). 4. Whatever charges he is claiming for the services he has provided is quite high (i checked with few other accountants and i was told that i should not cost more than £350 for just tax filing and my accountant is claiming £1900 in total). 5. I have been consistently in communication with the accountant and disputed this claim. does the above points makes a decent defense or do i need to think more? Also is there any stickies for 'how to put a good defense' I am very new to this and your valuable insights will help me to make my case. Thanks for your help! Regards, Vincent