Preparing a defence for a claim by accountant

[jollyrogeruk]

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

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG, the legal guys should be along over the course of the day.

 

Please could you have a read of this stikky and provide the guys with the information? It will help them to advise you. I've assumed your in England or Wales, if it's Scotland it's a different stikky.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-April-2014**%281-Viewing%29-nbsp

 

My best, HB

[jollyrogeruk]

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

[steampowered]

It seems your case is that you agreed to pay £1,100 for the statements and the filing. This is really what it boils down to.

 

I think you need to be a little bit careful not to dilute that fundamental point. I would state this very clearly at the beginning of your Defence, and then mention that there were no terms of agreement provided which indicated that an additional payment would be required.

 

Points 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 aren't really relevant to whether or not the accountant has a legal claim against you, so if you want to include them keep them brief.

 

 

In your Defence you are supposed to admit or deny the points facts mentioned in the Particulars of Claim. So, for example, you would say that you admit that you engaged this person to provide accountancy services, but you deny he has a claim since the price of £1,100 was agreed and paid for the statements and the filing.

[Bandit127]

Either I am mireading your post or you have missed a crucial step in your information above.

 

Please type out their particulars of claim (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down.

Without this the experts will not be able to give you accurate and meaningful advice.

[jollyrogeruk]

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

 

Either I am mireading your post or you have missed a crucial step in your information above.

 

Please type out their particulars of claim (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down.

Without this the experts will not be able to give you accurate and meaningful advice.

[jollyrogeruk]

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

 

 

It seems your case is that you agreed to pay £1,100 for the statements and the filing. This is really what it boils down to.

 

I think you need to be a little bit careful not to dilute that fundamental point. I would state this very clearly at the beginning of your Defence, and then mention that there were no terms of agreement provided which indicated that an additional payment would be required.

 

Points 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 aren't really relevant to whether or not the accountant has a legal claim against you, so if you want to include them keep them brief.

 

 

In your Defence you are supposed to admit or deny the points facts mentioned in the Particulars of Claim. So, for example, you would say that you admit that you engaged this person to provide accountancy services, but you deny he has a claim since the price of £1,100 was agreed and paid for the statements and the filing.

[steampowered]

Yes, that sounds fine to me. I'm not sure what else you can really say, especially if you have not received much detail about the claim.

 

I would actually be tempted to delete the bit about the goodwill payment since the courts are very clear that they do not look at whether or not there was a settlement offer to determine whether there is a valid claim, but I don't think it is particularly damaging either so up to you.

 

 

Ultimately I think this just comes down to whether the judge, on a balance of probabilities, believes you that £1,100 was agreed as the price up-front or whether he believes that the price was only meant to cover the initial set of accounts. I would think the judge is likely to err in favour of you since it is really the accountant's fault if he did not keep any correspondence or contract, but this is not guaranteed.

[jollyrogeruk]

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

 

Yes, that sounds fine to me. I'm not sure what else you can really say, especially if you have not received much detail about the claim.

 

I would actually be tempted to delete the bit about the goodwill payment since the courts are very clear that they do not look at whether or not there was a settlement offer to determine whether there is a valid claim, but I don't think it is particularly damaging either so up to you.

 

 

Ultimately I think this just comes down to whether the judge, on a balance of probabilities, believes you that £1,100 was agreed as the price up-front or whether he believes that the price was only meant to cover the initial set of accounts. I would think the judge is likely to err in favour of you since it is really the accountant's fault if he did not keep any correspondence or contract, but this is not guaranteed.