Insurance Policy Dispute
A. Problem and background
The dispute involved an inheritance tax insurance policy and had been running for more than 6 months. Despite a constant stream of letters and telephone calls, no one seemed able to unlock the stalemate and proceedings were subsequently issued.
B. What we did
One of the parties contacted Centre for Justice to see if we could help. We then contacted the other party involved and explained our service – emphasising that it was non-adversarial and impartial.
Both parties agreed to use the Centre’s service and the claim was automatically stayed under the Centre’s rules. One of our panel of assessors was appointed and the assessor proceeded to investigate the issues - dealing directly with the parties.
The Centre’s integrated process allowed the parties to choose whether to mediate or ask the assessor to make a binding award – or a combination of both.
C. The result
In this case the parties decided to mediate. In accordance with the Centre’s rules, neither side was legally represented and a mediated settlement was reached in less than 4 weeks from the assessor being appointed.
Total costs were less than a thousand pounds per party. See the key benefits of our service for more details.
D. What if the case had gone to court?
Each side would have had to instruct their own lawyer to investigate and give their preliminary advice. Both parties would then have had to go through the laborious court process of pre-trial hearings, witness statements, pre-trial disclosure, preparation of claims documents, and preparation for trial followed by the trial itself. The total costs would have been likely to exceed £10,000. See how our costs compare for more details.
Housing Dispute
A. Problem and Background
An 88-year-old woman (HB) who lived in Barnet and was experiencing problems with her housing association contacted CfJ:
(1) HB believed the housing association had informed her that she was in arrears when she was certain that she was not; and
(2) The housing association had been told by the fire brigade that HB’s flat was a fire risk (the fire department had visited a few weeks previously when the fire alarm accidentally went off in her kitchen). The housing association consequently told HB that if the flat was not cleared by the following Monday she would be given notice to evict. HB was not physically able to carry out this request.
HB was an Amercian living alone in London. She had three sons who were all living abroad. She was awaiting results from some hospital tests and had an appointment in the few months time for dental work to take place. After this, her plan was to move back to the U.S.
She was not happy with the housing association or the housing manager - the individual who was her first point of contact if she needed help or had any problems. It sounded as though their relationship had broken down and HB told us she had come to Centre for Justice instead because she did not trust the housing manager to help her sort out the situation.
B. What we did
HB told us on the phone that she suffered from several ailments that made it difficult to leave her flat so a CfJ member of staff personally visited her at home.
Whilst there HB explained her story and gave us the necessary documents to investigate the housing association’s claims.
The documents we were given were all very old and there was nothing recent to indicate whether HB was in credit or arrears.
We therefore proceeded to investigate the issues in dispute; dealing directly with HB’s rent arrears officer and housing manager. We explained that our service was non-adversarial and impartial.
C. The result
(1) Rent arrears
After investigating, it transpired that that HB was actually in credit by around a thousand pounds. Centre for Justice then also found out how HB could claim her money back. HB was understandably both relieved and pleasantly surprised to find the housing association owed her money and not vice versa!
(2) Fire-risk
The second part of the problem was more difficult to resolve. We contacted HB’s housing manager and although they were sympathetic to HB’s situation, they confirmed that HB had been informed that if her flat was not cleared by the coming Monday she would receive a Notice of Eviction. This was despite the fact that it was quite clear (and they themselves were aware) that HB was in no physical condition to carry this out herself – nor did she have anyone who could help her.
The issue was that the Housing Association told us they had already spent a lot of money on clearing her flat themselves; however, after much to-ing and fro-ing, it was agreed that the Housing Association would take no further action.
HB did not receive a Notice of Eviction the following Monday and a few weeks later we received a letter from HB thanking us for all the help we had given her. Key to the Centre’s involvement was that HB’s relationship with the housing association had been greatly improved.
In terms of time, everything was resolved in a matter of weeks thanks to the Centre being able to deal directly as an independent body with both parties – and without the need for them to be legally represented. See the key benefits of our service for more details.
D. What if the case had gone to court?
Each side would have had to instruct their own lawyer to investigate and give their preliminary advice. Both parties would then have had to go through the laborious court process of pre-trial hearings, witness statements, pre-trial disclosure, preparation of claims documents, and preparation for trial followed by the trial itself. The total costs could easily have run into thousands and for HB the stress and anxiety involved would have been unthinkable. See how our costs compare for more details.