Contract altered and enhanced, used as evidence. Small claims.

[nightnajjers]

A small claims claim has been issued against me for breach of contract.

The contract that I am supposed to have breached was cancelled in accordance with the company's cancellation procedure months ago. I am quite happy to defend the case on this basis, however, for a bit more ammo if required, I am wondering if there is any merit in the following.

 

The copy contract supplied in the court claim by the claimant, is not the same as the original copy that I hold.

The claimants supposed copy has been increased in monetary value and has been re-written. eg. the same person has signed and dated the copy but it can clearly be seen that the signature is in a different place to the original and other parts have been re-written or overwritten.

 

I am interested to know how the court would view the Claimant tampering with the copy that they are relying on for their case? To my mind this is falsifying documents as it is not a true copy of the original? Will the fact that they are claiming a larger sum than was in the original enhance my defence?

 

Any thoughts appreciated

nn

[SabreSheep]

If you hold the orignal you hold the cards.

 

IN short, this will go down very well in your favour

 

You may even find that when it comes to disclosure stage that they back off when receiving a copy of yours

[legalistic]

I suggest that you don't make too big an issue before a judge of any falsification. Point out the differences by all means. But these things ultimately belong to the criminal law and a civil judge won't want to go there. Be assured s/he knows the score though.

[nightnajjers]

Thank you for your advice. I will do as you suggest and point out the difference.

[nightnajjers]

Update. Which should cheer up anyone who has experienced poor service provided by their estate agent.

 

The case in question was brought about by an estate agent. The agent was useless from the outset, all the usual failings from estate agents, too numerous to list. As they failed to provide a reasonable service I cancelled the agreement/contract with them. As above I cancelled it in accordance with their cancellation proceedure. They failed to respond to the cancellation notice and that, I thought was that. Some two months later they phoned to say they had a customer to view the house, I thought at the time, this could get interesting. The customer went on to purchase the house.

 

After completion they sent a bill for the original fee stated in the cancelled agreement. I replied and agreed that I obviously owed them a fee as they sold the property, however the fee was not yet agreed and that we would have to come to a new agreement/fee. After several letters back and forth, they ignored that request and forged on ahead with a Small claim. On the court day, as suggested I did not make much of the altered agreement and to be honest it did not really get that far. The judge was more interested in the cancellation notice.

 

The outcome! The judge ruled that I had cancelled the contract in accordance with their own cancellation procedure and dismissed the case.

 

Estate Agents don't always win.

nn