NLC in action.

Our client is a small but successful buildings maintenance company based in London. It was approached by an Estate Agent on behalf of a Management Company to undertake some relatively minor work on an empty property.

Our client prepared a detailed quotation which provided that it would remove and dispose of the furniture in the property as the property was to be offered as unfurnished.

The quotation was accepted by the Estate Agent on behalf of the Management Company.

The works were completed, and my client submitted its final invoice for £4750.00. The Management Company wrote denying liability for the invoice on the basis that it had not wanted all the furnishings removed. It said that it had expected certain items to have been kept. It was claiming the cost of replacing the furnishings and refusing to pay the invoice on that basis.

Our advice was that the Management Company was bound by its Agent’s agreement of our client’s quotation. Although we tried to persuade the Management Company to pay the invoice it refused to do so and our client was left with no alternative but to issue proceedings in the Small Claims Court.

As a client of the National Legal Consortium all the work undertaken for our client was paid for by its monthly agreed fee of £240. When proceedings became necessary our client was able to have Small Claims Proceedings prepared and issued for the cost of its monthly agreed fee of £240. The only cost to the client of the preparation of its case was the court fee which is recoverable if it wins the case. Although the NLC does not pay for an advocate in Small Claims Proceedings the client is happy to pay the £150 plus vat fixed fee for an advocate for the hearing of its claim.

Had the company not been a client of the NLC then unless it was prepared to undertake the issue and preparation of the proceedings itself, it would have had to pay a solicitor by the hour (typically £240 plus vat an hour) and the costs of the solicitor may well have been as much as the sums claimed. As it is not possible to claim solicitor’s costs in Small Claims Proceedings this would have meant the proceedings were uneconomic to pursue.

The National Legal Consortium unlocked the ability to take economic proceedings for this client for the cost of its monthly agreed fee of £240.

For more information about the National Legal Consortium visit www.nlcuk.net or call David Jackson on 0800 085 7772.