Small claims court order from mother in law

[lemlem21]

Hi All

 

I really need some assistance on this matter.

 

My mother in law is claiming money from me for a period that i lived with her 4 years ago.

I lived with her for 4 months, i moved on and am still going through the divorce process with her son. She is claiming £4500 from me for expenses, food and travelling costs. She said there was a verbal agreement that i will pay her back and i can't remember ever agreeing on any amount.

 

Does she have the right to do this? She said "dont worry you are family, i will look after you"

[Bandit127]

Hi and welcome to CAG.

 

It is a sad fact that you will need to defend this claim to avoid her winning. If you do not defend according to the correct procedure she will get "judgement by default". This is sad in my mind because none of the merits of the case are examined for a default judgement.

 

(In a magistrates court, they can find you guilty in your absence but at least they will examine the evidence).

 

The good news is that a good defence will make her have to prove her case. Which it looks like she will not be able to do.

[andydd]

Ok..Queue mother in law jokes.

 

As mentioned above you will have to defend this claim, it is a fact that anyone can start a claim against anyone else for any reasoin, however unreasonable it may be.

 

She may have a right to do this, but the problem would be proving it, if it was only a verbal argreement it would be very hard to prove and many people (maybe including the Judge) may find it rather unsual and unlikely that a family member would demand money in this way, especially as the figure of £4500 is rather high !, to rent a room in house (which is effectively what you did), the cost would be far lower, even if a verbal agreement did exists it would normally be along the lines of "you can stay for £500 a month", not "you can stay and Ill add all sorts of costs together such as food, travel, etc". She would for example have to provide proof that you agreed to such a contract and then how the figure was arrived at.

 

I would of thought that the mother in law hasnt much chance of success and in fact I'd consider perhaps a summary judgement application (this is used to throw out hopeless cases at an early stage) could be used.

 

What does the court claim say ?, can you post up a copy ?, (removing personal details).

[lemlem21]

Well at the moment i am waiting for a response from the court.

 

The last letter gave the option for a Small Claims Mediation Service, to try and settle the matter via telephone. If not successful the court process will continue.

 

The following she is claiming for:

1. Stop orders going through my account whilst being in a different country.

2. Deposit for Studies

3. Deposit for upfront rent

4. Traffic fine

5. Travelling, food and money

 

 

1. My ex and i shared a joint bank account, so i don't know if he asked for the money as i didn't. ( My ex and i are not on speaking terms and he has not contributed towards the divorce ).

2. I did ask her for this and i paid it back in full, this was amounted to £1500 (I have proof).

3. She gave me £500 to help out and i have proof of this on my statements.

4. Well this one is complicated.... my ex received a traffic fine. Driving a car with out a license and the car was not in his name. So she paid the fine. She thinks she gave me the money and i paid it. I dont have proof of this in any of my statments and what i think happened is that we filled out the cheque at the bottom of the parking fine letter and gave that into the bank.

5. Travelling and food.

 

 

I have heard that she has done this to a few people before "help them out", then adds extras on top.

 

I really didn't want anything to do with that family anymore. When i did move away from her, my ex got arrested for the second time for criminal involvement and possesion and i just wanted to get away from them.

I am paying for the entire divorce process.... I hope this not tooo confusing for you all and that you would be able to help.

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved to the appropriate forum.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[steampowered]

As you have described it, her claim sounds pretty hopeless.

 

You need to file a Defence within the proper timelines which clearly admits or denies each of the paragraphs in her Particulars of Claim. The key point is to deny that there was any verbal agreement.

[andydd]

Have you sent back an acknowledgement of service and/or defence ? I thought the mediation option came along a bit later but I maybe wrong, it is only worth agreeing to mediation if you think you may owe something or are willing to pay a sum to settle it all and make it go away.

 

Otherwise be prepared to defend the full sum. As mentioned above it mnay be worth thinking about a summary judgement/strike out application, this is used when the other side has no case and there are no 'trailable issues', (i.e there is no paperwork or proof and nothing to argue about) and the court can save everyones time and money and dismiss the case.

 

BUT Summary Judgement does have some pros and cons, pros are it puts extra pressure on the claimant and as its normally done pre-allocation to small claims track, you can get costs, cons are that the other side may prove that its not that cut and dry and it should go to a full hearing, you may then by liable for the other sides costs (although these are capped by the fixed costs cpr).

 

Your SJ claim would be along the lines of "There was no agreement entered into to pay any amount back and therefore the claim has no basis".

[lemlem21]

I only agreed to the £1500, i didn't want to settle anything else, so i only agreed to part of her claim. But i paid it already.

 

I thought mediation is to speak through someone and get this sorted, not that an amount should be agreed on. I am waiting on the court to get back to me now with dates.

 

I will use the SJ Claim moving forward.

 

I will keep you guys posted on the reply i get and thank you so much for your help thus far:oops:

[andydd]

If you've paid the 1500 then your defence should say something like 'it's is admitted that 1500 was loaned to me and it was paid back on xxxxxx.

 

Mediation can settle anything including amounts,etc

[andydd]

Be aware that SJ is only to throw out cases with no merit at all, if there is any element of doubt or 'triable issues' then it may be unsuccessful and go forward to full hearing which you may win.

[lemlem21]

So an update

 

The mediation appointment is scheduled for the 10th, I have to get a bullet list ready.

 

I received a letter stating notice of transfer of proceedings, the file will be referred to a procedural judge who will allocate the claim to track and give case management directions.

Am I suppose to do anything with this?

[andydd]

The mediation will just go back and forth and sometimes either side offers or is willing to accept a sum of money, its often just like haggling, but if neither side wants to budge, nothing will hapopen and it will go to hearing.

 

You wont need to do anything untill after mediation, if it fails, you will get directions. Keep an eye on paperwork, the coiunty courts seem to be very shoddy/making mistakes these days.

[lemlem21]

I am getting my list ready that i need to explain to the mediator, my situation and story.

 

That she added all these extra costs and interest and that there was no agreement.

 

I will state that he did not pay anything for the divorce, with the costs being at £4000 until now.

 

Is it advisable to mention that she supported her son financially for his business. His business being selling drugs, he once told me she gave him around £50000 ( which she received from a divorce settlement and kept it in a different account, as she lives from benefits witht the other account, i do not know if this amount is correct buy he was spending a lot of money ) to set it up in a differnt country. But he did not make a profit, started using it himself and was arressted twice for possession. So she lost a lot of money from him and i feel like she is trying to get as much money from me now.

 

Will i get in trouble for mentioning that they did this business? Will i get into trouble that i knew about his business and that i didn't say anything to the police?

[andydd]

You appear to be waffling a bit now, I have no idea what you are on about in your last post, it appears to be various criminal allegations, a mediator will not be interested in this at all.

[steampowered]

Do bear in mind that the mediator has no power to make a decision about anything. The mediator is not a judge and is only there to help the two sides reach an agreement.

 

You will have to decide on the best strategy, but I would think that talking about the mother in law's son is likely to make her act in a very defensive and would not be likely to result in an agreement.

 

Personally I would stick to the merits of the claim and explain why you think it is weak - points such as there being no proof of the agreement; the legal presumption that there is no 'intent to create legal relations' between family members; the lack of any certainty as to what you supposedly promised; and the risk of her being ordered to pay you costs at the litigant in person rate of 18quid an hour for time spent on the case if the judge thinks that bringing the claim was unreasonable.

 

The way you have described the claim - as being based on a verbal agreement between two family members for 'living expenses' - it sounds utterly hopeless, so I would be tempted to stand firm (although we haven't heard the other side of the story).

[andydd]

I agree with the above. Keep it simple, there is no contract and no proof of amount allegedly 'borrowed'.

 

Unless one side does want to capitulate and offer/.accept a sum then mediation will prob be a waste of time, Ive just had a session and the other side didnt want to offer any money at all and therefore it failed, however I did get a glimpse of his thinking which was usefull, as usual his knowledge was rather lacking of leasehold law.