Property management company withheld £500 of mine for 5 months.

Its a long story but I paid ground rent on a flat I owned to a company called rendall and ritner, they basically did not recognise my payment then despite having it. After £2000 worth of legal fees and late cost they ignored my request form the £500 back that they owed me, after several e-mails and phone calls I eventually got it back, I am tempted however to persue them for cost for not refunding my £500 earlier, I was wondering if anyone knew how I can go about this. thanks.

I guess it depends on what evidence you have .

I have plenty of e-mails I sent them, I was wondering what court it would have to apply too.

I would imagine its the small claims court. If you sent payment & they
did not act upon that, then it would i think its a breach of contract.
I presume you have evidence of when you made payment,and everything
from that point onward.

Read the contract and see what it says, if they specify a refund time and have exceeded it then they have caused you a loss, if it cost you £2000 to recover the £500 then you can reclaim this back with interest and charges.

Thanks, I will gather the evidence together that I have and make a claim against them, it really not about the money, it more about the fact that they took the p*ss.

You need your original legal bills to prove your legal costs, you need a list of your billable hours and a charge per hour and keep it reasonable, any mileage and car parking or even postage costs and list them, and with any evidence you have such as receipts, and include the court charges.

Fill in the N1 form on the small claims court website and submit your claim, if they refunded you it proves they owed you the money and its a fairly open and shut case if the time and effort to refund you was excessive.

Just to add, You could if you wish just fill out the N1 form ,print out a
copy and send it to them ,and inform them you will proceed with this
unless they address the situation to your satisfaction.
Sometimes the threat of court does the trick.

I tend to disagree Dave, I like to spring on them what they spring on others.

It makes all the staff run round in a quandry in exactly the same manner they do us, perhaps I am a rotten b*stard.

It also puts them on the back foot when they are hit with legal proceedingd and know they have to answer them and try to rebut everything in substance.

Hi just been looking back throw my e-mails, I set R&R a fee schedule of £30 per phone call or e-mail should my concerns be dismissed. They ignored me and I had to sent out several other e-mails and make several phone call before getting my money back over 2 months later.

Just wondering can I or should I charge something such as a hourly rate of minimum wage form before I told them of the fee schedule, would it be pushing it to charge interest of 8% from the?? Also is £30 per call or e-mail reasonable. cheers.

Oh yeah and if anyone knows anything about the process of small claims, do I have to research previous cases, and laws. Cheers in advance James

Quick update I have informed R&R I will be making a claim against them, even though a big part of me did not want to bother. Amazing how quick they got back to me, they tried to reasure me that I got the £500 back, so I sent them a final response informing them I had to wait too long after numerous request and complaints for the money back. I mentioned to them I would negotiate a settlement but I doubt they will.

No you only need to present your evidence.and your calculation for your
loss

Do you work? if so then your hourly rate from work will suffice, if not them look up the average pay for your profession and print it off and use that, if you are self employed you can set whatever rate you choose but keep it sensible.

A few years back my lecy supplier wanted to change the meter (not smart)
in my factory . It was arranged they would send their contractor on saturday.
I waited from 8-5 no one showed up .i billed them for my time at weekend
rate ,Total £700.00 inc vat. They paid.

Nice, not bad for a weekends work, I work but its a complicated situation right now as I only work for a friend. But i think i still get wage slips from my old job as I an technically still on the books casually. Was just wondering can I still charge for my time for putting the case together. There is one call i made but don`t really have much proof of, just a reference made in an e-mail to it should I not claim a fee for that call. Thanks for your help btw guys.

As they say "Time is money" and nobody works for free.
Just base it on your hourly rate from your old job . Plus about
£ 30 for each email /letter and phone call. Thats not excessive.

In a civil action a Litigant in Person can claim their costs based on a rate of £19/hour.  Depending on your previous rates you might consider using this, and citing CPR as the justification for that exact figure.  Similar for the time they hung onto your cash, you should be looking for equivalent to 8% annual interest (again the court figure). Plus any out of pocket costs of course, phone calls at 10p/minute, postage etc.

darkfireblade wrote:Nice, not  bad for a weekends work, I work but its a complicated situation right now as I only work for a friend. But i think i still get wage slips from my old job as I an technically still on the books casually. Was just wondering can I still charge for my time for putting the case together. There is one call i made but don`t really have much proof of, just a reference made in an e-mail to it should I not claim a fee for that call. Thanks for your help btw guys.

Yes you can.

Hi just wondering if anyone else can add anything, I have put in a court claim, and rendall and rittner have finally responded and suggested mediation. Just wondered if anyone can give any advice of what to do from this point.

I would suggest NO as they have had months to mediate and have failed to do so, you have been fobbed off and you want your money back with interest, plus expenses to finalise this matter as it appears they are deliberately trying to draw out this matter so they get interest on your money. You simply want this issue dealing with and a conclusion to it.

This is their response :

Why they dispute the claim
2.1. The named Defendant (Rendall & Rittner Limited) is the managing agent
of the Covent Garden site, at which the Claimant was previously the leasehold
owner of 32 The Village Street.
2.2. In or around August 2020, the Claimant made a payment of £500 to the
Defendant, ostensibly as payment of ground rent due. However, that payment
did not contain any reference and could not be identified. In accordance with
our banking processes, the payment was then returned to the Claimant.
Subsequently, the Claimant resubmitted the payment. In the meantime, the
Claimant’s arrears had been referred by the Defendant’s clients to the client’s
solicitors, who recovered the arrears from the Claimant. It later came to light
that the Claimant had made an additional payment to the Defendant, which
payment (£500) was returned.
2.3. The Claimant’s claim is solely for compensation for the time spent in
corresponding with the Defendant on the matter, as well as for a phone line
rental and costs for postage and travel, together with interest on these sums.

It is noted that the sum claimed for emails and phone calls is stated as £500,
which (by coincidence or otherwise) is the same amount as the overpayment.
However and for the avoidance of any doubt, the overpayment was returned
to the Claimant in January 2021.
2.4. The Claimant has estimated that the compensation for the alleged 13
hours spent on the matter would amount to £228.00, after a calculation from
their part that each alleged hour spent on the matter would amount to
£19.00. In addition, the Claimant seems £500 in respect of emails and
phonecalls, phone line rental of £6.75 and the cost for postage and travel of
£7.50, without any proof of such expenses from the Claimant.
2.5. There is no legal basis whatsoever for any of the sums claimed, and the
Defendant denies that it is liable to pay the sums claimed, or any sums at all.
2.6. Further and in the alternative, the Claimant has not evidenced any basis
for the calculation of the sums sought and has not evidenced any costs
incurred.
2.7. Given the above and since the payment of £500 was returned to the
Claimant, the Claim should be struck out.

Just my take, An amount was due from you ,you paid that amouint.
Presumably that payment contained your name.that alone should be reference
enough. If they choose to generate their own method of referencing that is their
choice alone.
None of this dispute would have occured if they had the brains to link
a payment from x to an amount due by x.

Is a bit of a strange response, sadly i have lost one e-mail, but I have plenty where I clearly say they owe me £500 and no body responds. Strange that they are suggesting mediation, yet claim it should be struck out.

Hi guys well this is where I am right now with it, I paid the fee in august they charged me the £2562 throw solicitors shortly afterwards. I sent an e-mail stating they had £500 of mine, I got no response I sent a few other e-mails then made a formal complaint in the September, but got nothing back.

I kept asking them throw e-mail and eventually e-mailed them to say I had sent a fee schedule via post, and that it would come into play a week after. They responded with another fob off, so I called them and made another complaint, I have only claimed for the correspondence I have proof of although one e-mail has gone missing but I have the response to it, along with e-mail responses by staff members they made reference to phone calls etc.

I`m planning on looking up information on tacit agreements, as this is how I see this in terms of a contract.