Court summons - from individual not ltd company

[worrybee2]

Hi. I had my car serviced by a company that a failed to provide a good service and b put on parts that I specifically did not ask for and charged me. I part paid the invoice, and they have taken me to court for the balance.

 

The company was a ltd company, but the court summons does not mention the company, it is from a n individual (one of the directors). Is that still a valid claim?

 

Thanks

[citizenB]

Is the company a "T/As" company.. ?

 

I have moved your thread to the legal issues forum as a claim is involved.

 

I will try and find someone to help, however, you might want to provide more information.

 

Can you let us know what the date of issue of the claim is, we can then advise what your timeline is.

[Conniff]

Will you list the parts 'put on' that you didn't request please worrybee ?

 

Can we take it that you are in possession of your car at this time ?

[SabreSheep]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-December-2014**

 

As you have received a claim form, please answer the questions that apply in that link and place the answers here.

[worrybee2]

Hi. Thanks for your help.

 

Although I am the user of the vehicle, I am not actually the owner - but that has no real bearing on this case as I was the one who took it into the garage so the contract in that case falls with me.

There are some intricacies in this case though - and a long story.

 

I took the vehicle in to the garage, as the MOT was due the next day, and I knew there was a problem with the handbrake. They sent a chap underneath, who adjusted the cable and greased up the handbrake mechanism. I paid them £25 in cash, no receipt.

 

The next day, the vehicle failed its MOT on a few parts - tyre tread, a suspension bush and.... the handbrake...! The cable had frayed and needed to be replaced.

 

So I took it to the garage and asked them to sort it out and asked how much, and they said about £300 so said go ahead - but was very specific in that they should put the spare tyre on and not a new one.

 

When I returned to get the vehicle the owner said it would be £480. I gulped and said ok - will go and get my chequebook. He said in that case, he'd have to give me a reciept and add VAT. I was stumped, so he said he'd raise the invoice and drop it through my door.

 

When he did, the invoice was not for £480, but £500 plus vat, making it £600. I was annoyed to say the least.

 

The noise coming from the wheel where they had worked was terrible - squeaking etc, but he is not a man to be confronted...He then started coming round to my house and harrassing my wife. One time - my 7 year old daughter and 12 year old son opened the door, the garage owner shouted, making my daughter cry. The next day he took one of his vans, parked it on my drive, with an invoice taped to the window saying 'I will remove the van on payment'. But he hadn't locked the side door, so I was able to push it out of my drive. I had however, paid him £250 by bank transfer.

 

I wrote to him saying he was welcome to have the tyre back as I have many spares.

 

So - eventually they issued a small claim - which comes to court tomorrow...

 

I was going to repeat the above, unsatisfactory work, parts put on without permission causing breach of contract, i could even possibly resort to it being an illegal contract as he was not going to charge VAT - but that's hard to prove. It could get messy. But I was going to fight it whichever way. So in preparation I was looking at the claim when suddenly it dawned on me...

 

Lets say the company is officially Xylophone Yankee Zebra Autos ltd. Its Website and trading name appear to be XYZ Autos, but the invoice was raised under XYZ Autos Ltd. So whatever - my contract is presumably with the limited company of one name or the other.

 

I just realised that the claimant is "Mrs Jane Xylophone", and not XYZ Autos Ltd or Xylophone Yankee Zebra Autos Ltd. She may be a director, I don't know - I have never met her. The payment address is her home address. On the part where it says where to send payments it does refer to XYZ ltd invoice 123, but other than that the company name is not mentioned anywhere else on the claim.

 

I know when you do MCOL you can register and claim as an individual, or the option on the right of the screen is for an organisation. I dont think they're the brightest of people, so can only assume she's chosen he wrong option. But to my mind - rather than go through all my defence as above, it would be simpler to plead that I have no contract with the claimant, and get it thrown out. But is that possible?

 

I realise its last minute stuff - but I had only just cottoned on to the fact!

 

Any pointers tips or help very very gratefully received! Thanks

[worrybee2]

One last thing... As I mentioned - their legal name is Xylophone Yankee Zebra Autos Ltd. She put on the summons invoice 123 for XYZ Autos Ltd. It actually happens that there is an XYZ Autos Ltd somewhere in the North of England - and trading. So there is NO reference to the true trading company that did the work on the vehicle on the summons....

[worrybee2]

And lastly.... the invoice (which really really annoyingly I have misplaced) was not itemised - it was written by hand and barely legible...

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved to the the correct forum.

 

Andy

[SabreSheep]

Court tomorrow?

You have not left yourself much time.

 

To help get advice you would prob need to upload a copy of their POC and the defence you Submitted (removing all personal information and court number)

[Conniff]

Don't leave the forum now, you don't have time to.

Respond to all questions asked and in-between start making a complete chronological list of exactly what happened and what was said.

[andydd]

Don't leave the forum now, you don't have time to.

Respond to all questions asked and in-between start making a complete chronological list of exactly what happened and what was said.

 

..and with that, he was gone !

[Old Cogger]

There he was Gone!

[steampowered]

To answer the original question - no, the claim was not valid if it was raised by a director, when it should have been raised by the company.

 

In reality it doesn't matter that much - all they would do if you had the claim was dismissed on this basis, would be to simply reissue the claim in the name of the company.

[worrybee2]

Thanks for your advice. Hopefully it will buy me some time. Do you know how long it takes to reissue? Thanks

[worrybee2]

Hi again

Just dotting the i's and crossing the t's...

 

The invoice issued was handwrittten and as I said had no itemised values on it. Looking at the http://www.gov.uk website it says this about valid vat invoices:

 

Valid invoices

You’ll use a full VAT invoice for most transactions. You can use:

 

a modified invoice for retail supplies over £250

a simplified invoice for retails supplies under £250 - and for other supplies from 1 January 2013

Include the following on your invoice, depending on which type you use.

 

Invoice information Full invoice Simplified invoice Modified invoice

Unique invoice number that follows on from the last invoice Yes Yes Yes

Your business name and address Yes Yes Yes

Your VAT number Yes Yes Yes

Date Yes No Yes

The tax point (or ‘time of supply’) if this is different from the invoice date Yes Yes Yes

Customer’s name or trading name, and address Yes No Yes

Description of the goods or services Yes Yes Yes

Total amount excluding VAT Yes No Yes

Total amount of VAT Yes No Yes

Price per item, excluding VAT Yes No Yes

Quantity of each type of item Yes No Yes

Rate of any discount per item Yes No Yes

Rate of VAT charged per item - if an item is exempt or zero-rated make clear no VAT on these items Yes Yes (1) Yes

Total amount including VAT No Yes (1) Yes

 

As the above shows that the price per item ex vat was not listed on the invoice, can I assume that the invoice is invalid?

 

Thanks

Edited April 8, 2015 by worrybee2
put my name on it!

[steampowered]

Do you know how long it takes to reissue? Thanks

The court could simply order that the director's name is replaced with the company name. If they did it the long route of withdrawing the claim and reissuing, then that would just restart the court process.

 

As the above shows that the price per item ex vat was not listed on the invoice, can I assume that the invoice is invalid?

The court won't be interested in this. Failure to issue a proper VAT invoice does not mean that there is no money owing.