Property Dispute, Money Claim, Counterclaim and Stay

[Panamax]

SterlingMess said:

(User name is) partly a reference to my business life—I distribute in the UK and Europe for two US manufacturers and remember fondly the days when our beloved Pound bought nearly 1.9 US Dollars.

That's a relief. I thought perhaps Kwasi Kwarteng had joined PH...

[pork911]

What is the ownership issue and why would you ever think it would or should be separate?

[SterlingMess]

pork911 said:

What is the ownership issue and why would you ever think it would or should be separate?

In 2018, my friend paid a lump sum, leaving £62K to pay to acquire full ownership. My friend paid a reduced "mortgage interest" or rent until November 2023 when they decided they had overpaid on the interest, and then brought up other matters such as not having had sight of the survey in 2009 (not true) therefore claiming their original stake back, a small extension (which we didn't authorise), and various other rubbish, reducing their final payment from the £62k agreed in 2018 to £14.5k today.

I have now cancelled the claim because it was causing too much of a distraction from getting on with settling the dispute, but I considered it separate because it was for unpaid "mortgage interest" which I feel was due even while the dispute endured. Even if the fantastical figure of £14.5k was correct, mortgage interest is due, about £100 month (the DoT stipulates a £50 rounding up).

[SterlingMess]

Pro Bono said:

SterlingMess said:

Is it true that the Money (formerly Small) Claims court will consider the separate dispute a counterclaim? The counterclaim/ownership dispute involves sums greater than the Money Claim's limits, so I hope they consider the unpaid mortgage interest on its own merit.

You don't bring a claim in the `Small Claims Court' as there's no such thing. If you bring a claim for less than £10k then on the face of it the case will be allocated to the small claims track by the court. But if a counterclaim for, say, £15k were to be filed the case would instead be allocated to the fast track, where totally different rules apply.

It's not clear from your post whether or not there actually is a counterclaim. Normally, if a Defendant is going to make a counterclaim they would do so at the same time as filing their Defence. So has your co-owner filed a Defence / Counterclaim, and if so what does it say?

If he has, and he's raised the issue of ownership, then the court will send each of you a directions questionnaire.

Depending on the answers that you both give the court will decide which `track' to allocate the case to - the three options are small claims, fast track (up to £25k) or multi-track if the value of the counterclaim exceeds £25k. However, from the figures mentioned, and the technical issues involved, there's no way that such a case would ever be allocated to the small claims track.

However, as you said that you'd settled the ownership dispute I can't see on what basis the defendant could now raise it as a counterclaim.

Also, I can't understand how the dispute as to the amount of interest due has arisen in the first place. Presumably the DoT set out in detail the amount of interest you were to receive, so it should be a simple arithmetical calculation. Why, therefore, is the amount disputed?

Thank you for your detailed response. I have now cancelled/settled the claim because I don't want my friend's solicitors distracted by it any longer- I want them to get on with drafting the settlement. With hindsight, the DoT was too vague:

"The Owner Occupier may live in the Property and use it as their principal place of residence as long as they wish in consideration of her paying to
the said Mr. X an amount equal to the monthly mortgage payments that the said Mr. X shall make to proprietor of the Charge rounded up to the nearest fifty pounds."

It's not just the interest- the friend has brought up several other claims in order to reduce the capital owed from £62k agreed in 2018 to £14.5k today.

[vikingaero]

SterlingMess said:

Mad Maximus said:

Money and friends, money and family money and any other human just don’t mix. Even the closest of people turn nasty over it. It’s an embarrassment to us as a species.

Any who I hope you get it sorted and finished. I feel your pain of trying to be nice and getting stung.

Absolutely- never again!

About 20 years ago, my Dad foolishly agreed to act as a guarantor on a friends commercial mortgage. Over the course of the last two decades, there were demands every couple of years on my Dad to pay monies as and when the friend defaulted, but brought the default under control. Fortunately the mortgage was paid in full at the end of its term.

[JQ]

vikingaero said:

SterlingMess said:

Mad Maximus said:

Money and friends, money and family money and any other human just don’t mix. Even the closest of people turn nasty over it. It’s an embarrassment to us as a species.

Any who I hope you get it sorted and finished. I feel your pain of trying to be nice and getting stung.

Absolutely- never again!

About 20 years ago, my Dad foolishly agreed to act as a guarantor on a friends commercial mortgage. Over the course of the last two decades, there were demands every couple of years on my Dad to pay monies as and when the friend defaulted, but brought the default under control. Fortunately the mortgage was paid in full at the end of its term.

Are they still friends?

[pork911]

SterlingMess said:

It's not just the interest- the friend has brought up several other claims in order to reduce the capital owed from £62k agreed in 2018 to £14.5k today.

What is this about?

[MustangGT]

SterlingMess said:

"The Owner Occupier may live in the Property and use it as their principal place of residence as long as they wish in consideration of her paying to
the said Mr. X an amount equal to the monthly mortgage payments that the said Mr. X shall make to proprietor of the Charge rounded up to the nearest fifty pounds."

To me that statement makes it clear that whatever you paid for the mortgage, rounded up to the nearest £50 is what she should pay, so, if you managed to reduce the mortgage payments to below the next £50 threshold then you should reduce the amounts she paid as well.

[pork911]

If the use of the nearest £50 is anything to go by I dread to think what the rest of the scrap of paper says