county court ruling ???

[olliedog12000]

Hi all, please could anyone give me some advice, i am sorry if i have posted this in the wrong section but im sure someone will point out the correct one.

 

I have just had my small claim hearing and was awarded the win, the story behind the claim was in september i bought a landrover second hand from what seemed to be a private seller for £2400, one week later i found out the car had been clocked by over 100,000 miles so went back to the seller and asked for a refund, it turns out although not registered he is classes as a trader because of the amount of cars he sells, anyway after waiting and waiting for the refund of which he verbally agreed i ended up contacting consumer direct and eventually trading standards. Trading standards tried to act as a mediator and arranged two seperate dates with him to refund the money( of which he didn't turn up and ignored my calls) so after sending two letters giving him 21 days from each to respond i filed my claim. At first the court ordered mediation via telephone of which he spoke to the mediator and said he wanted to go to court so off we went on friday 25th. I went with all my paper work showing the proof of the clocking and some other faults which he agreed to repair and did not, he turned up with nothing, I told my story and he told his with the judge questioning us both. The judge ruled that he was in the wrong under the sales of goods act and awarded me the win. now this is where i think she got it wrong and i don't know how to respond to it.

 

The way she made the ruling sounded wrong to me, she said he had to refund the cost of the car and i had to have it valeted at a cost of £100 due to it being covered in mould because it has sat on my drive for the 6 months it's taken to go to court. I have no problem with that but then her final ruling of which she wrote down was that i had to get it valeted for £100 and he had to give me £2300 when he collects it.Suddenly i'm £200 down on a car that was sold illegally, then on top of that she made no mention of the court cost and my other costs of keeping the car insured just in case it is stolen or damaged while in my possesion or the time i had to take off work for the court date etc. Other than appealing is there a way to question her ruling and getting it reassesed as this just doesn't seem fair especially as he has been trading without registering the business.

 

All in all i have lost £500+ buying a clocked car and he gets the car back to resell to the next unknowning person

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome, olliedog12000.

 

I've moved this thread to the appropriate Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[Gaston Grimsdyke]

Almost impossible to appeal a small claims decision. Think you'll have to take it on the chin.

[the_shadow]

Hmm does sound strange, think you are right on the mistake by the judge, it should either be the trader paying for the valeting and then you only getting £2300 back or them paying you the full amount and you pay for the valeting.

 

As to the costs, costs of application should have been requested at the hearing, if you dont ask you dont get. Other costs as in your time etc are not claimable as this was small claims.

 

IMO I'd contact the court manager on monday and request clarification of what the judge has written, you may have to put a letter in to the court to request the judge looks at what they have written down.

 

Just my opinion tho.

 

S.

[olliedog12000]

Thanks for the quick replies, it's really got to me that this is our justice system, I did put the costs on the initial court paper work but as you can not for see how long it will take to get to court you have limited knowledge of what costs will arise. Thanks the-shadow i will be calling the court tomorrow and see what they have to say but i don't hold much hope as the judge just wasn't really interested in the first place, Even when i said i was prepared to negotiate at mediation and he was not her words were basically "i dont need to know the in's and out's of that as far as i am concerned mediation was a failure." All i hope is trading standards follow this through, that might give me some comfort.

[olliedog12000]

Hi just a quick update on this case, I have received the final paper work today and it has confused me all the more, All it says is this.

 

Upon hearing the parties and oral evidence and upon considering the documents

 

IT IS ORDERED THAT

 

1.The claim is proved

 

2.Damages are assessed at £2300

 

3. Judgement against defendant for £2300.

 

Dated 25th febuary

 

Now from what the judge said I have to return the car once I have it valeted and he has to pay me £2300 but there is no mention of me having to return iton the general form of judgment or order, so do I take this as is or do I return the car. I am confused because maybe this is why she didn't add my costs to the case.

[olliedog12000]

Hi all sorry to drag this all up again but i am looking for a little bit more advice if possible. After receiving the judgement order the defendant sent a letter to the judge asking for clarification of the order.

This letter was sent on the 14th march 2011, now today 21st june 2011 i receive a letter from the court with her response. Between these dates I have telephoned the court every week asking if the judge has sent her response to which i was told no bla bla bla (excuse after excuse).

 

So I sent a letter to the court manager on the 10th May asking for a reason why it should take so long to get a response to a letter, 2 weeks later I called the court again to see why I had no answer from the manager, only to be told they didn't have a record of my letter. (ok should have sent it recorded)

 

I continued to call the court every week still with no answer, so on the 15th june 2011 I hand delivered another letter to the court, this time a formal complaint for the way my case has been handled and the fact that over 3 months had passed and I still hadn't had a response. then today I receive a letter back from the court, not about my complaint but the judges decision and admittance to making a mistake and it only seems to complicate the case more to my way of thinking.

 

In the letter I also asked how i could go about seeking compensation for the way my case has been handled and the fact that the judge didn't allow me to request my costs.

If i can i will upload the letters i sent to the court and the response from them, and if possible could someone tell me where to go next with this in regards to escalating this complaint.

thanks Andy

first letter.doc

second letter.doc

courts response.pdf

Edited June 21, 2011 by olliedog12000

[the_shadow]

Hi, some problems with the attachments so I've unnaproved for the moment.

 

1. The scan is too small, can you save it as a PDF and attach? ensuring you have removed all personal data

2. You left your name at the bottom of the word document

 

See my anonymous link below for info in Word documents that gets stored without you knowing also.

 

S.