Hi All,
We’re stressed and confused and would really appreciate someone with experience of counterclaiming in the small claims court advising on this.
Our builder made a claim against us earlier in the year. We made a counterclaim against him (after he wrecked our house and didn’t finish the job). We paid a fee of £205 to the court to raise the counterclaim.
A court date was set and the letter, naming him as the claimant, said the claimant had to pay an additional hearing fee by a certain date. He didn’t pay it and his claim was struck out. However, they said our claim was also struck out because we didn’t pay the fee.
The letter didn’t say we had to pay, our solicitor said we didn’t need to pay and I called the courts at the time who said we didn’t need to pay.
I’ve since called the court who said I was advised wrong by them and should raise a complaint. However, my solicitor phoned the court and was told it was an error at the court, we didn’t need to pay and our counterclaim still stands. We’re being told different things by different people. We’re now waiting to hear back from the court.
Anyone with experience of counterclaiming in the small claims court- did you have to pay the hearing fee??