would this count as costs? Or would this be a seperate fee they can claim i owe?

help with some advice Have tried to arrange collection of the vehicle as scrap but the dealer has said they will not release the vehicle back to me until i pay £700+vat for storage at £20 a week..or sign the car over to them and call it final During their initial response to the mcol claim they said they reserve the right to claim storage fees. They havent up to this point mentioned anything about it, i havent accepted any terms relating to it. During the court hearing, the legal representative asked at the end if they could claim costs and the judge said he wasnt going to award costs. Where do i stand on this? I feel that a contract hasnt been formed as i havent been given any details of terms and I havent accepted them. Although is the previous comment about them reserving the right to claim fees valid for my acceptance as i carried on with the claim? I feel like i am being blackmailed here to sign the car over to them for nothing

Yeah you are right and the judge wasn't very happy with the report either. Unfortunately AA cancelled their appointment and said they couldn't do the report and recommended this other company But it's fairly obvious that the garage have directed them to a certain conclusion so I should have just done one myself as well. Unfortunately I didn't know about this until the day final evidence had to be submitted

yeah i felt that it may have been a different decision with a different person. He laboured so hard that 116k miles was an extremely high mileage for a car so the bar for satisfactory quality was going to be much lower. 116k isnt that much for a used car in the grand scheme of things. High yes but not horrifically high In hindsight I am just annoyed that the process is such that you dont get a chance to rebuff what the judge is saying past your 1 allocated moment, just have to sit there in the summing up and accept it

Case dismissed Apparently driving off the forecourt and driving for 3 months is sufficient to prove that the vehicle was of satisfactory quality and time of sale and negate the CRA subsection 14 Oh well. Life goes on

thank you. So you dont think i would need to stand up and present my case again? Its just a case of clarifying/answering questions as needed and requesting time to speak to rebuff the points raised by defendants?

got my hearing date coming up shortly and was going through things ahead of time. Not sure what to expect as far as process is concerned though. At the last hearing I barely spoke and the judge basically asked to confirm details and then told us to get an independent report and then we left At this final hearing am I going to be standing up to make a statement and counter arguments etc or will it be another situation where I am mainly responding to questions from the judge? Should i prepare an opening statement of sorts? Should i expect the judge to have read my witness statement and attachments in depth? Its supposed to be up to 1.5hrs long but I am not sure what will take that length of time Also it states on Citizens Advice "If you lose you might have to pay some of the defendant’s costs - like travel and lost wages" Is this a realistic thing that might happen?

Should i send a copy of my witness statement to the defendant? The document i got from the court says i need to 'serve and file' by the date. I have already sent to the court but have just received the defendants statement so im not sure if i should forward mine to them? edit: nevermind, I have realised that 'Served' means to send to the defendant so i have done this

Apparently I tell them my number over email and someone then calls me at a random time to take paymebr over the phone. Waiting for someone to call me at any point now. 2023 apparently! Where are the online payment options??

I meant Thursday, Friday, and today but I will keep trying I guess. Hopefully don't have to resort to turning up unannounced as its about an hour away

Been trying on phone for last 3 days to get hold of the court to pay my fees. Emailed them and they say it will take 29 working days to reply to my email. Website says not to just turn up without an appointment... what a system!

Thanks Andy, So at this point final evidence and witness statements are due by 27th April. So I just send a pile of documents marked as exhibit a, b, c etc and then an index of them all? Or do I send a letter like 'I am bringing a claim against the defendant under CRA due to xyz...' and then reference my documents thought that statement?

That's really kind of you to respond in such a detailed way. I need to type up and send off all my evidence in next day or so and this has been very helpful Do you (or anyone else) know, when submitting my evidence ahead of the trial, am I also submitting my arguments and the story of the claim? Or is that done on the day? Not sure if I should be sending in just the documents or sending my full argument in writing... If that makes sense

The instruction from the judge at the last hearing was for a report to be arranged that would state what went wrong with the car and if this fault was present at the time of sale. They said it was to be an AA or RAC report and the cost was to be split between both parties. As the garage have had the car for the last 6 months and they are 50 miles from me it made more sense in my head for them to arrange the visit and send me the report once done.

Have had this report through today. Court date is in June, I need to pay court fees in May, I need to submit my final evidence at end of the month. It says that I have driven the car when it was overheated causing further damage but also says that the vehicle is not fitted with a temperature warning gauge or temperature warning light. So how would i know if the car was overheating? I refer back to the lack of any guidance in the manufacture book about checking coolant. My first thought is that it still doesnt state that the issue that caused the breakdown wasnt present at time of sale which is what the law assumes to be the case....but i am not sure Any thoughts from anyone? Hankins Report 290323.pdf