Solicitor from house move wants £1800 a year later. Just received county court claim form. Help!

[Areyounot]

I am hoping someone can help navigate this rather confusing situation.

We purchased a house 18 months ago and the solicitors and other fees were paid from the proceeds of the previous house sale. I received an invoice on the day of the house sale and confirmed this is the amount we owed.

5 months later I received a call from the solicitors telling me I owed them £1800. They had no idea what this amount was for, except that it is from the mortgage company, so contact them directly.

I did, they told me that it was a mistake and it will be removed, I then told the solicitors what the mortgage company had said, and thought it was settled.

I then received a phone call from them a month later stating we still owed this money and I needed to speak to the mortgage company.

Again, I spoke to them and this time they told me it was for early exit mortgage fees for the old house. I had no idea of these charges as I thought we had ported the mortgage over to the new house. The house sale and purchase was a long process over 10 months.

I asked them to check the phone call recording I had previously made ,as the mortgage company had already confirmed to me it was a mistake. They came back and told me the phone was not recorded as the line dropped and the advisor called me back. They then told me the solicitor was liable as they had not done their due diligence.

I told the solicitor this and let them know I would be sending a letter of complaint. Which I did twice and heard nothing back.

Today I have received a claim form through the post from the county court. They particulars of the claim state “ the claimant settled the amount with the mortgage company at the advice of the claimants governing body” the governing body I presume being the SRA.

Our financial circumstances have dramatically changed in the past year, due to me being diagnosed with lupus and 2 pulmonary embolisms, I have had to cut my hours dramatically (self employed) so have lost one wage and I am in the process of claiming PIP’s.

My husband has also had some health problems and is a contractor so his wage has been up and down whilst he has been waiting for his operation.

Currently our outgoings are more then our incomings and we our living off credit cards as our savings and emergency fund has now disappeared.

So my questions are,

Do we have any chance of fighting this in court?

Do I accept liability, fill in the incoming and outgoings form and offer £10 a month?

Can the £10 a month be rejected from the claimant? If so what then?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Oh my gosh, how embarrassing! Thanks for the heads up! According to the email my solicitor replied back to “

the SRA may only be involved if you are alleging dishonesty, fraud, or discrimination. We leave you to make your own enquiries into this”

Thank you so much for that detailed reply, I really appreciate that and I will get on to it first thing in the morning. You have made me feel a lot calmer so thank you again.

Your solicitors are deliberately misleading you about the SRA's role. It's much wider than that.

SEA Website says:

There are seven Principles that all people and law firms we regulate must meet. This means that they must act:
in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice
in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons
with independence
with honesty
with integrity
in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
in the best interests of each client.

Well done OP you've got them really rattled! Keep at it!

I could be wrong as I got the information from Google, and quickly

But this is what I got

"The form of the statement of truth verifying a document for court proceedings is as follows: “[I believe] [The (applicant or as may be) believes] that the facts stated in this [name of document being verified] [and attachments] are true.”

Well that’s total bollocks, and worth a complaint to the SRA in its own right.

The clock doesn't start ticking on complaints to the legal ombudsman until you realise there was a concern. Similarly, the SRA will still hear a complaint if you only became aware of the actions about which you are complaining after the time limit expired. Add to that their failure to deal with your complaints and I would be surprised if the SRA and/or legal ombudsman refused to deal with this.

The statement of truth is on the defence form where you sign. It is the bit that says, "(I believe) (The defendant believes) that the facts stated in this form are true". As others have said, they are basically saying that you intend to lie on the defence form. That on its own is grounds for complaint.

So they are trying to intimidate me.

I wish I could copy and paste the whole email they sent as it sounds a bit deranged at times and it’s very long!

I am not sure how they can say I could lie, as there is a clear paper trail and invoice!

You will have had an acknowkedgment of service with the claim form. Were the Particulars of Claim also served with it? If so, any documents/letters they seek to rely on should have been included to back up their claim.

First things first, complete and sign the AOS stating you intend to defend the claim in full. Send this back to the Court ASAP.. you then have 21 (or 28)days to file a defence. This will need to be filed at court and a copy served on the Solicitors (this can be email if they accept service by email) or by 1st class post.

Be as detailed and factual as possible. State everything you have said here, include any documentary evidence you have to back up your side of events you can only include documents that are mentioned in the defence to support events

In the meantime, tell the solicitors you are defending the claim and do not accept that you owe this money.

(Sorry if cross posted with anyone by the way) x

I should have said put in your defence that the solicitor has not followed the correct protocol for issuing a claim in that you have not received a letter before action.

Did you receive a response pack with the claim? (This would include the AOS) and noted on next steps etc?

Yes I have I the claim form that came yesterday. There is no additional documents to back up the claim only the below written in the particulars of the claim form.

“the claimant settled the amount with the mortgage company at the advice of the claimants governing body”

OP, you definitely have more than a year for complaints or queries, my firm allows up to 6 years and files aren't stored/destroyed until 12 years. Ask for their compliance manager to contact you, you have every right to insist on a full copy of your file together with all paperwork received from the bank and a copy of your client ledger.

Someone needs to send you a copy of the lender’s redemption statement valid for the day you moved. That should have all additional fees on it.

Hope you get this resolved OP.

Yes that’s what I thought. I have asked for this so I will see if they come through with it.

Thank you very much. The support on here is much appreciated.

@Areyounot if you didn't have a response pack with your claim then it has not been served properly, but that may not necessarily stop the court making a judgment. It is certainly a point you can make in your defence though, lack of particulars, lack of documents backing up their claim, no letter before action. You can go on HMCTS and download N9 Reponse Pack which will give you what you need.

But please do file the Acknowledgment of Service ASAP (it will be in the reapinse pack) stating you are defending the claim.

And they have sent 4 letters in the past year. This has got to be absolute lie

Former finance person here. This is a debt collection tactic - saying that you've been sent several letters about an outstanding debt and haven't responded. It's meant to look as if you're avoiding the debt and not trying to sort it out. It's meant to panic you and show the court that you're a defaulter while also showing the firm chasing you as doing everything correctly and that court is a last resort to get money owed (yes, I'm cynical).

State very firmly that you haven't received these letters and this is the first you know of this. And deal with this by email, not telephone, so you have an audit trail.

Additionally - one letter might go astray, but not four. And as someone said upthread, the later ones should have been sent registered or by courier.

Yes i has a feeling this may be the reason they said this.

we did have some issues with post redirection, as the lady who bought the house paid to have it done and I had some letters go missing to her house, but surely not 4. I also asked for proof of postage from them.

I honestly feel they haven’t sent anything, and have they have filed the County Court case once they think they are free of me making any official complaint.

Hence the why he said on the email yesterday “I can no longer complain to SRA or the Legal ombudsman”

If they sent the letters to your old address knowing full well you ĥad moved (because they dealt with the conveyance) then they really can't argue that they "sent you letters" if they sent them to an address they know you don't live at!!! I bet that is why they are cagey about giving you copies/ proof of posting. I don't think a judge would be very impressed.

That's actually the more likely explanation rather than them deliberately lying that they'd sent the letters. OP, ask where they sent them and the dates.

And never be afraid to ask them to revisit the SAR if you suspect they've missed something out.

A full timeline is essential for you to see what's going on.
Every time you speak to someone write it down with times and who.

Sorry I should have clarified. The lady we bought our current home off paid to have the post redirected to her new address.

I presume some of our letters got caught up with hers. Her son did bring some a few months later. nothing from the solicitors though.

You can't do a general redirection for all mail to an address. It should only be for mail to specific people. Royal Mail do get this wrong and redirect letters they shouldn't (and fail to redirect letters they should), but it would be surprising if four letters from your solicitor went missing this way. I think them sending the letters to your old address is more likely.

This is so shocking OP.

Great advice from other posters above.

It's pretty obvious the Solicitors have messed up and are trying to bully and trick you into not reporting them to cover their tracks. I'd expect them to ramp up their bullying tactics now in any correspondence out of sheer desperation.

Surely this unethical behaviour would get the Solicitor a disciplinary at the very least with the regulating body, if not struck off.

I'll be interested to hear how this plays out.

Best of luck OP - sounds like you've a very strong case.