rent over payment - issued a claimform - Statute Barred?

[simeon1964]

In 2015, I became aware that the rent collector was owing me money as a result of over-payment of rent after my accountant reviewed the payment received by the agent at the end of my tenancy/lease which ran for the period of the tenancy going 15 years. 

 

The collecting agent however admitted over-payment of £500 and not £4,000.00 as I claimed it to be and asked to see from me evidence of my claim of £4,500.00 which was forwarded and his response went quiet for couples years with several letters from requesting payment without reply.

 

I recently took small claim action against the agent and the Landlord for recovery.

 

The agent has now put up a defence that:

'Claimant's claim is statute barred insofar as it relates to any facts which have occurred more than six year prior to the commencement of the claim.

The defendant reserves the right to plead an alternative limitation period if the claimant seeks to rely upon further particulars in respect of any alleged claim'

 

Given that I became aware that the money was owed to me in 2015, can the statute of limitation be extended or have consideration in this instance? 

 

[BankFodder]

Well I suppose it won't make you very happy when I say that you've been here since 2007 and yet you didn't bother to come and ask any advice on this before you contemplated the action. Bravo.

What was your cause of action? Please will you post up your claim form and also the defence in scanned PDF format please

[BankFodder]

I don't really understand why it's not possible to redact the documents quickly and to post them up here. It's important for us to be to help you and it's important for others to be able to see what is going on in case they find themselves in the same kind of position.
This forum is not only about trying to help the individual who comes to us but also then providing a knowledge/information base for anyone else to come and consult. It's worked that way for 14 years.
This is all taking far more time than it needs to.

Please could you redact your documents correctly and then upload them. Also, I would like to know the identity of the defendant.

In the meantime, based on the very scant information that you have provided here, you might want to look at the rules relating to limitation periods in respect of money paid under a mistake – Section 32 Limitation Act 1980

[simeon1964]

Many thanks

CAG 12092019.pdf

 

Thank you.

The identity of the defendants are local government and its agent.

I do not understand why this was referred to as scant information have sent you information required

[AndyOrch]

But I removed  it because you failed to redact all the identifiable data and redact it properly ...so Bankfodder has yet to see the finer details.

[BankFodder]

So I understand that you are suing a local authority as the first defendant and also their rent collector as a second defendant for the return of money which was paid under a mistake. Maybe the first and second defendants are the other way round. I haven't worked that out yet – but maybe it's not important.

I don't altogether understand why you are suing the rent collector. I would have thought that you only needed to sue the local authority as they are the eventual recipients of the money and the collector is simply acting on their behalf.

I've already hinted at it, but once again it's a shame that you didn't come to us before you started this off. Although if one reads your claim carefully, one can gather that you are suing for money paid under a mistake – but it doesn't specifically say this and it would probably have saved a lot of trouble if you had come out and said this because you probably wouldn't have had to deal with the issue that has been raised by the agent – the issue of limitation.

So in terms of dealing with the issue of limitation, if you have now consulted section 32 of the 1980 act which I directed you to above, you will see that the limitation period runs for six years starting from the date upon which you could reasonably have discovered the mistake.

So we could say that that is the answer to your question. If you want more help then you will have to be much clearer about the circumstances. I have to say that your claim is extraordinarily convoluted and verbose and if you had come here first we would have helped you to draft a claim which would have fitted into the character limit imposed by money claim online. I think you are giving away far too much information and the important thing is merely to state your cause of action without giving away any evidence and then to wait and see what the others I have to say.

Did you draft the claim yourself? It looks to me as if you may have taken some advice from somewhere – if so where?

However the verbosity of your claim is matched in spades by the verbosity of the defence which clearly has been drafted with somebody with some legal knowledge and who clearly is being paid by the word.





 

[simeon1964]

Because it has gone on for so long and the LG not owning to owing and had referred me to the agent to chase my claim that was why the agent was included. If there is away out of this, can i then withdraw the case at stage? As you said it falls on money paid under mistake.

Yes I was legally advised.

[BankFodder]

Who advised you?

[simeon1964]

A law firm gave advice  on this as  it felt it will not worth their while to act for me.

[BankFodder]

What was the advice that they gave you? Was it they who drafted the claim? Was it their idea to sue two defendants?

And why did they think it was not worth their while? Because they thought that you wouldn't get very much will because they thought you had a very poor chance of success? Have they commented on the limitation defence? What did they say?

Did they charge you anything?

[BankFodder]

What correspondence have you had with the local authority? What has been their attitude? Has nobody suggested that you make a claim through the local authority ombudsman?

[simeon1964]

L/A reject my claim sent me back to the agent when claim was issue against the two defendants the L/A offer settlement for 700pds which  I rejected. I went to the omnudsman, I was rejected because my claim was over 12months. Yes the law firm mention limitation Act but will not take it up because it will cost me more than l will be claiming. Advised me round drafting the claim.

[BankFodder]

Quote

Did they charge you anything?

 

[simeon1964]

Free consultation

[BankFodder]

Please could you post up the rejection which you had from the local authority in scanned PDF mode please. Don't redact it too heavily

[simeon1964]

Reject Letter 2017.pdf

[BankFodder]

Thank you.

This letter tells me that there was apparently a consent order dated 2016 – which you have not referred to
the contents of which were apparently agreed between you and the council – which you have not told us about
that a £4000 payment was made to you and which you accepted in final settlement of a claim – which you have not told us about


Earlier on, you seem to be surprised that I suggested that the information you had given us was scant but unless I'm very seriously missing something, at almost every step you seem to be introducing new information – completely unexplained so we have no idea what the story is or what we are advising you about.

I'm terribly sorry and I don't mean to offend, but I can't keep on being involved in a thread like this where information is being fed to me – "drip feed" and only if I accidentally happen to ask the right questions.

If anyone else can come to the thread and tell me what the story is from what we have been told so far then I'd be very grateful. I really can't make head nor tail of what is happening here.

I think the only thing I've helped you with is to direct you to section 32 of the Limitation act.

[simeon1964]

That is not the case at all.

 

The consent Order had nothing to do with this matter.

The part of the letter you are concerned with is the Last paragraph of that letter please.

The consent Order was 2016 in respect to notice to quit.

We are in 2019 now

 

This  issue is over-payment which you think it should be money paid by mistake. 

The letter was addressing  over payment but were trying to avoid liability for the issue of rent made by mistake, that was why the letter was referring me  back to the agent at the last paragraph in shelving their responsibility. The reasons why this matter has prolong and thrown me into so much confusion.

 

BankFolder, How can one have a consent order completed  in 2016 for £4K and the same person trying to settle out of court with you in 2019 for £700.00.

 

You are just in-patient in understanding my claim.

I have given you all you asked for about this case as I cannot do otherwise if I want help.

Now you given up on me?

Got it all wrong mate!  

I have there somebody there who can see my reasoning.

[BankFodder]

Well I'm sorry you feel this way.

If anyone else can come to this thread and make head or tail of the story then they are welcome to.

It wasn't at all clear that the letter you posted referred to 2 separate issues and now that I understand that the 2016 issue is completely separate, the information contained in the letter referring to the overpayment explains absolutely nothing at all.

I think the best I can do for you is to wait until you see the defence from the local authority which I understand may be on its way. Maybe it will be better drafted and more explanatory than the one from the collector. When you receive it, you can post it here if you want.

I think you were ill-advised to sue both parties although it's fair to say that I am not really aware of the facts of the overpayment because you haven't explained them. I also think that on the facts as I understand them, you should have specifically referred to the fact that you are attempting to recover money paid under a mistake.

When you receive the second defence then your best move might be to serve a reply to the defence specifically on the limitation issue.

Incidentally, I can tell you already that quite a lot of people have visited this thread and no one yet has attempted to make any contribution and I suspect that might be because they also don't really understand what is going on. I really hope that someone else can come along and shed a little light on the situation.

[simeon1964]

Thank you for coming back.

 I already sent  council defence together with my PC. Here is the agent defence.

CAG agent def092019.pdf

[BankFodder]

I'm even more confused now.

In your opening post, you told us that the agent had put up a defence

 

On 11/09/2019 at 20:09, simeon1964 said:

 

 

The agent has now put up a defence that:

'Claimant's claim is statute barred insofar as it relates to any facts which have occurred more than six year prior to the commencement of the claim.

The defendant reserves the right to plead an alternative limitation period if the claimant seeks to rely upon further particulars in respect of any alleged claim'

 

 

Now you have posted another defence which you say comes from the agent – and it certainly seems to be the case from its contents. Does that mean that the first defence that you posted was from the local authority?

[simeon1964]

Yes! the council twisted things around by making themselves first defendant as against my PC. 

[AndyOrch]

I think you need to elaborate on the first claim that the Consent Order of Jan 2016 is connected to..then perhaps the above might start to make sence.

 

£4500 over 15 years equates to £25 pm..the consent order paid out £4000.00 as at Jan 2016...they have since offered a further £700.00 since 2016 so 3 years equates to £19.00 per month 

 

Andy

[simeon1964]

Consent order had absolutely nothing to do with this statute Barred.

Consent Order was to do with Notice to quit to which i was paid 4k.

 

I was asked to produce letter by your site team 'Bank Folder'  where the L/G had denied liability and shifted liability to the agent. 

 

The letter had however raised issues with previous case I had with L/G (which was Notice to quit compensation ) and the L/G are now trying to rope the consent order case into this new issue to avoid liability. 

[AndyOrch]

So why did they wish to evict you ?......why did they pay you compensation ?