Paying Court Hearing Fee Problems

[consumer857]

Hi,

 

I have a question that I'm having a LOT of trouble finding the answers to, I think I'm out of my depth and thinking of just letting the claim expire completely.

 

I gave a landlord in London (name removed) £900.00 deposit and £931.67 first months rent on a property (£1831.67 total), but I changed my mind and didn't sign any contract with the landlord. The landlord refused to give my money back because he said he was suffering a loss and counter-claimed for a whole year of rent! I changed my mind within 1 week, and I feel he is trying to rip me off.

 

I changed my mind because I was moving to the USA (I live in the USA now.). I started the claim in the UK with a UK address and went through MCOL. The hearing is in London (Edmonton).

 

I received a letter to pay a court hearing fee of £170, however, I am supposed to pay this by 15th of May 2015. This letter did not reach me until today (14th), as it was relayed onto me in the USA from my family as the MCOL claim address is a UK address (My family address in the UK)

 

I'm in a bit of pickle, as I cannot afford the £170 and I do qualify to use form ex160a for a fee remission. Within the letter, there is no mention of who to pay the £170 to, I searched all over Google, and I simply cannot find any answer.

 

Does anybody know what steps I should take?

 

1. Who do I pay the £170 to? MCOL? Edmonton Court? Can I pay online? Can I apply for an extension on this payment date? What happens if the payment is late? If I can't pay online, I'm not sure how I can send a cheque to the UK from USA in time.

2. I'm not sure if it's the best option, but I can pay using a credit card, then can I apply for a refund later using ex160a?

3. When I log into MCOL, the last update was a year ago and the status is set to 'Transferred', does this mean MCOL is done with their part now and I should only contact the court directly from now on?

4. Do I need to give somebody my USA address now?

5. The court hearing is in November 2015, I'm 99% sure I cannot attend the date, would this affect my odds of winning?

 

Sorry if I sound a bit dumb, I really feel like a fish out of water with this.

Edited May 14, 2015 by honeybee13
Name removed.

[BankFodder]

I think that most of these questions are best dealt with by telephoning the court. You can either phone the court directly or phone the MoneyClaim helpline – they are often very good.

 

I'm sorry to say that if you bring a court action and you are relying on friends to relay the mail to you then you need to sort out a better arrangement.

 

You need to know instantly when you receive communications from the court. This means that your friends must open the mail and scan it to you and you should have it really within a few hours of it being received.

 

You can see what the effect is if you don't set it up this way.

 

Telephone the court – but to a certain extent it may be that you're going to have to rely on the goodwill of the landlord – and I suppose this is unlikely.

 

It may be that once you have failed to meet deadlines, the landlord could apply to have the matter struck out.

 

Get on the phone to the court today. For your own protection I suggest that you record the calls because although the people who work for the County Court system are very nice, I have found that often they are hopelessly inefficient.

 

It might be a good idea to fund them twice to cross check the responses that you get from them.

 

It really does seem to me that you are being badly ripped off by the landlord. Hasn't he placed your deposit in a deposit scheme?

 

Once again, sort out your document relay system from your family in London – or else don't start beginning court actions from international locations

[BankFodder]

Just a quick final note – Monitor this thread through the day because it is very possible that somebody who can give you a better answer than I have will contribute to this thread

[Ganymede]

Hi,

 

I'll try to answer as best I can.

 

Cheques should be sent to Edmonton Court made payable to HMCTS.

 

Forget MCOL now as it's finished.

 

You may be able to pay by credit card so call Edmonton Court to cheque however they may not allow it in which case you need to get a cheque there in time.

 

You can apply for a refund up to 3 months after you've paid the Court fee.

 

If you don't pay on time then your claim may be struck out.

 

If you don't attend the hearing then you will lose, especially if your former landlord turns up.

[consumer857]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the great and helpful replies!

 

I managed to get through to the court yesterday/today after a lot of effort! They said when the date expires, they will write another letter to me and ask for payment within a week, or it will be struck out. They didn't really offer any more help because they said the phone lines were closed and he was making an exception(?). He sounded kind of irate, so I hope the information was correct!

 

"If you don't attend the hearing then you will lose"

This worries me a little! I don't think I can get there on that date and a special trip just for the court will be $1500 in flights and fees for a claim of ~£1800!

 

On my N157 it states that I do not have to attend, so when you say I WILL lose, is this just a usual thing that happens when people don't show up?

[legalistic]

consumer34n, if you want to fight both your claim and the counterclaim you could ask someone to appear in court on your behalf. You could write to the court explaining your situation and asking for a named person to put your case. You would need to supply some written material too, arguing your case. Of course if you could afford a lawyer s/he could appear for you without needing the permission of the court.The good news is that, if you lose, by whatever means, your LL would find it extremely difficult to enforce against you in the USA. If you had been in the EU it would have been a different matter entirely.

[consumer857]

Just an update that may help anybody else!

 

I wrote a letter to Edmonton County Court asking for a named person to appear on my behalf with good evidence to support my situation.

They responded and said, "It will not be possible for a friend to give evidence for you. You need to attend to give the Defendant the opportunity to cross examine you".

 

On the ex160a note, I actually submitted a scan via email. This may be Edmonton County Court only, but they accepted it. I didn't receive a response of acceptance, so i had to re-email then a month later to check if the ex160a was approved, and they said it was.

[citizenB]

consumer34n, can you please check your inbox and respond to my message.

[steampowered]

I wrote a letter to Edmonton county courticon asking for a named person to appear on my behalf with good evidence to support my situation.

They responded and said, "It will not be possible for a friend to give evidence for you. You need to attend to give the Defendant the opportunity to cross examine you".

That is correct, unfortunately. In small claims you may be represented by someone else who is not a qualified lawyer, but only if you are physically present in court. This is specifically stated in legislation.

 

You could of course be represented by a solicitor or barrister but it might not be worth it given the size of this claim.

 

Does the landlord know about the difficulties you are having? If not, it might be worth trying to settle this. For example you might agree to withdraw the claim if he agrees to refund half the amount.

[consumer857]

Thank you for your feedback. I have a few other questions about the hearing, but I will probably make a new thread for those questions!

 

Yes, the landlord is very aware and is making this as difficult as possible and counter-claiming for ~£800. So no-go there im afraid!

 

Thanks again

[andydd]

That is correct, unfortunately. In small claims you may be represented by someone else who is not a qualified lawyer, but only if you are physically present in court. This is specifically stated in legislation.

 

You could of course be represented by a solicitor or barrister but it might not be worth it given the size of this claim.

 

Does the landlord know about the difficulties you are having? If not, it might be worth trying to settle this. For example you might agree to withdraw the claim if he agrees to refund half the amount.

 

Is this accurate ?, I ask because at my last court hearing against my landlord, the court decided it was to be a paper-only hearing, thus both sides put their arguments down but no need to attend court, I believe this is done more n more now in an effort to save costs for the court. Is it possible to request this ?

 

At the property FTT courts (which do differ from county courts), its accepted that it will be a paper-only hearing unless one side requests an actual hearing, these are often combined with a visit to the property in question.

[steampowered]

Is this accurate ?, I ask because at my last court hearing against my landlord, the court decided it was to be a paper-only hearing, thus both sides put their arguments down but no need to attend court, I believe this is done more n more now in an effort to save costs for the court. Is it possible to request this ?

My experience is that all small claims will go to a hearing. 'paper only' hearings are possible but I think they are very rare.

 

The CPR says that, if a party is not able to attend a hearing, he should notify the court and the other party at least 7 days before the hearing, asking the court to proceed in his absence. In this situation the court will take account of the documents that party has filed with court. See http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.9.

 

To be honest, my experience is that the person who doesn't attend court always loses. Most judges pay very little attention to anything submitted by someone who doesn't attend court because it is not possible to question or cross-examine that person. I guess there is a chance if the op gives the required notice of non-attendance, submits a very clear witness statement explaining their case, submits all necessary evidence and provides a good explanation of why he is not able to attend. Then you hope for a sympathetic judge.

 

A litigant in person is not allowed to be represented by a non-legally qualified person, unless it is a small claim and the person they are representing is physically present in court. This is specifically mentioned in the CPR (see http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27/pd_part27, paragraph 3.2).

[andydd]

My experience is that all small claims will go to a hearing. 'paper only' hearings are possible but I think they are very rare.

 

The CPR says that, if a party is not able to attend a hearing, he should notify the court and the other party at least 7 days before the hearing, asking the court to proceed in his absence. In this situation the court will take account of the documents that party has filed with court. See http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.9.

 

To be honest, my experience is that the person who doesn't attend court always loses. Most judges pay very little attention to anything submitted by someone who doesn't attend court because it is not possible to question or cross-examine that person. I guess there is a chance if the op gives the required notice of non-attendance, submits a very clear witness statement explaining their case, submits all necessary evidence and provides a good explanation of why he is not able to attend. Then you hope for a sympathetic judge.

 

A litigant in person is not allowed to be represented by a non-legally qualified person, unless it is a small claim and the person they are representing is physically present in court. This is specifically mentioned in the CPR (see http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27/pd_part27, paragraph 3.2).

 

Really ?, I think paper only ones are becoming more common in recent months due to a desire to save costs and time, primarily for the court or maybe because my last case was similar to others and the Judge is sick of seeimg us both !

[steampowered]

Really ?, I think paper only ones are becoming more common in recent months due to a desire to save costs and time, primarily for the court or maybe because my last case was similar to others and the Judge is sick of seeimg us both !

'on paper' hearings are certainly possible, but my experience is that they are still very rare. I don't think they save costs because you would end up with multiple hearings and orders for information. Most people do not submit complete written documentation in small claims - it is better for the judge to get everybody in the room and sort the issue out there and then. Perhaps others have a different experience.