Hi there,

I am in the process of going through MCOL for over £3500.00 due to poor service, supply, project management and deadly electrics when I had my kitchen installed by a large DIY chain.

I am actually out of pocket to the tune of £3500.00 putting their mistakes right and my kitchen still isn't finished and it should have been completely finished by 6th October last year.

I've managed to do all of the paperwork and POC and I have named 2 defendants; one is the large chain and the second is their parent company.

I named the parent company because when I was liaising with the DIY chain and following their complaints process I was getting nowhere so I tried to use the parent company to apply pressure to no avail!

the DIY chain have filed a defence, admitting some of their mistakes but not all even though I have proof, photos, electricians as witnesses, emails of complaint etc.

Unfortunately,

I have not heard a thing from the parent company with regards to filing a defence, acknowledgement of service or anything.

Do I just leave them alone until it gets to court or do I have to let the court know I haven't heard anything back from them?

I have received a copy of the defence from the DIY chain's solicitors and it's just full of legal speech to try and frighten me I assume.

Also,

they have offered me mediation with them

however I really don't want to do that.

For at least 2 months,

I attempted to discuss this with them and they just ignored me

I feel that because I followed their complaints process to the letter,

they don't deserve to go through mediation.

Does this go against me at all because I don't want mediation?

Any help you can give me is really appreciated.

Not your problem if they dont submit a defence or ack service. You follow the timelines properly and follow court procedure and carry on the claim.

What were your POC's, and what was their response?

Also mediation is there to try and settle out of court so the courts time isnt taken up. It would look better on you if you attempted it. You dont have to agree anything, but you MAY get a good solution out of it. No harm in agreeing to it.

I think you should apply for judgement against the parent company and also apply for judgement on the portions of your claim against the other defendant which they have admitted.

I think this is unlikely to be possible using MoneyClaim – although maybe they will allow you to apply for judgement against the parent company who haven't responded at all. Check on MoneyClaim and see if this is possible and then do it – immediately.

In terms of the judgement on the admitted portions, I suggest that you contact the court tomorrow and asked them about it and say that you want to apply for a partial judgement and then go to trial on the un-admitted portions.

Although the parent company doesn't seem to have taken any notice, once you get a judgement against them – then believe me they will start leaping into action. If by getting judgement against the parent company you have effectively obtained a judgement for the entire sum claimed, then as soon as you have the judgement I would then get the matter transferred up and enforced by HCEO. There are several services which will do this – check the Internet – but make sure that what you sign up to promises you that if there is any failure in the enforcement, that you will not have to do pay the fees. You need HCEO to do this enforcement because they are extremely powerful and they will go in and they will refuse to leave without a cheque in their hands.

Once this happens then you can be certain that everybody will sit up and take notice. The parent company might try to get the judgement set aside – and they may well succeed but at least people will be listening to you. If you are really lucky then they will simply decide to argue with their retail customer and to get any reimbursement from them – although this is unlikely.

t would look better on you if you attempted it. You dont have to agree anything, but you MAY get a good solution out of it. No harm in agreeing to it.

Sorry but I disagree with this completely. You have a right to go to court and have your case heard. If you wanted to go to mediation then that is up to you but it would be highly improper for a court to take a different view of the merits of your case simply because you had decided not to go to mediation.

" I have named 2 defendants; one is the large chain and the second is their parent company."

Joint defendants ? or 1st and 2nd defendants ?

The following thread may be of interest to you....

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?483610-CCJ-Issued-against-two-defendants-builders-partnership.-One-replied-one-not.-What-now

Thank you all for your replies - I've decided that mediation isn't for me as I need my electrician to attend as a witness.

I'm also going to call MCOL regarding the other defendant. I've checked back on all of the paperwork and they have been served details of the claim so I'll see what they say.

Many thanks again all!

I have a similar case.

Judgement was passed against my landlord.

This was because they did not response to the initial paperwork sent to them by the courts

They have applied for judgement to be sent aside

I have received a paper from the court that my case has bee transferred to a local county court

For some reason I worry that they will win

They have not bothered to contact me. What now?

I have a similar case.

Judgement was passed against my landlord.

This was because they did not response to the initial paperwork sent to them by the courts

They have applied for judgement to be sent aside

I have received a paper from the court that my case has bee transferred to a local county court

For some reason I worry that they will win

They have not bothered to contact me. What now?

Please will you start a new thread for this and you will get the advice and support that you need

If you are going to reject mediation, it would be a good idea to invite them to put forward a settlement offer in writing so that you can consider it. So at least they can't turn round later and say that you unreasonably refused to consider an attempt to settle the litigation.

Mediation is just a form of settlement meeting - either a solution is agreed by the parties, or the case proceeds to court.

Agree with steampowered.

Always accept mediation, it won't hurt your case, in fact it will probably make it stronger if they unreasonably offer a peppercorn token.

You've had a lot of advice on here but for what it's worth, I'd be hesitant about suggesting that you enter Default Judgment without knowing at least the following:

Firstly:

1. During the complaints process with DIY chain, did Parent Co respond/intervene/do anything? Or was it radio silence?

2. Did you send an LBA to the Parent Co requesting payment of the £3.5k prior to issuing against them? If so, did they respond?

3. Were proceedings correctly served on the Parent Co - i.e. at their own head office (I'm guessing London) as opposed to the DIY chain's head office (I'm guessing Eastleigh).

Secondly:

You haven't actually clarified that you have a legitimate claim against them? I'm saying this as we don't know what's in your Particulars of Claim. I'm not sure that naming Parent Co in proceedings to apply pressure counts, particularly when you've already been in correspondence with the DIY chain about the issues. Has the Parent Co been negligent in any way?

If you scale down the entities you're dealing with, imagine it was a sole trader/individual who fitted your kitchen badly and then you issued proceedings against him and also his dad.

I say this because if you do enter Judgment, the Parent Co will almost certainly apply to get it set aside, and could (if they're on the ball) ask the Court to strike out your claim against them entirely. If they are successful, this could in turn lead to you having to pay them costs for issuing the claim against them in the first place (this would be at the Court's discretion and you would have some degree of leniency being a litigant in person).

You are perfectly entitled to enter default judgment against Parent Co as they have not filed a defence. However, looking at the bigger picture I wouldn't expect them to just roll over, particularly if you have no actual claim against them. We don't have enough information here to say either way, so it's just a word of warning.