Court date looming

[Chlo60]

Hi everyone, I’m a first time poster although have been reading for some time, hoping some of you clever lot can offer some advice. A simplified background is as follows:

 

Subby (my uncle) put a claim in online to the small claims court against a small limited company for non-payment. Prior to this the ltd company claim non-payment was because issues had arisen with a previous job the subby completed (which was paid for) and the Ltd company would now have to pay to have corrected.

 

I feel that the subby had no choice to initially issue a claim ( requests for payment were made and notice before legal action was sent), as he was simply told he would not be paid and was not allowed to correct alleged faults, view them or even told fully of the problems, despite requesting this. Therefore, it looked suspiciously like the ltd company were trying to pull a fast one and simply get out of paying.

 

Ltd company then counter claim (for a much higher amount) for said issues, on receipt of the counter claim subby for the first time gets some info regarding issues although they are still lacking in detail.

 

The ltd company have a dubious past history, which although not relevant here does explain much of the above. It can also be proven that costs in their counter claim have been inflated and they have not mitigated the costs as they should have done.

 

However, as the court date approaches the worry sets in. If the ltd company can prove the subby was at fault, can they win their counter claim? Despite the fact that had information been provided at the time payment was due then it would never have gotten this far? There was no written contract in place, therefore no terms and conditions other than do the work – get paid.

 

A court date is now set and we have what I believe to be the final chance to submit evidence and worst-case scenario is that the Ltd company will have more evidence not yet seen by the subby that will be submitted. Most of the subbys evidence was submitted in the original defence on the counter claim, but there are now a few extra bits.

 

Which would be the best track to go with this? Does he deny all responsibility of bad workmanship as he was not allowed to view it and the evidence supplied so far is poor, therefore how can he admit it? Or blame the whole thing on the ltd company not supplying evidence prior to the claim being entered? Or use the inflated costs, lack of mitigation of costs and the fact that he could have put right any issues for free, thereby leaving the ltd company with no costs at all? Or should all of the above be used in his defence?

 

Thank you for reading, any advice offered will be extremely welcome.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. I expect people will be along over the course of the day to advise you.

 

 

I expect they will have questions for you, but could you tell us how much the subby is claiming please?

 

 

Best, HB

[Chlo60]

Hi HB,

 

Subby is claiming for unpaid invoices amounting to just under £2,000. The counter claim is almost double this.