Jed's story: 'I won my claim but ended up owing money'

'I saw something about problems with housing repairs outside our local supermarket. I stopped to pick up a leaflet and mentioned to the man behind the stall that we were having a bit of a job getting the council round to mend the back door.

He sounded pretty confident that he could help get it sorted and promised we would get compensation. He talked about our claim being worth several thousand pounds. He seemed OK and it didn't sound as if we had anything to lose. So I agreed to him coming round the next day. He made a note of what was wrong with our house. I signed some papers that he said would mean the claim wouldn't cost me anything. He also arranged a loan for me to pay the insurance premium for the after-the-event insurance. I couldn't afford to pay this up front.

He sent my case to solicitors he knew. At first it all seemed fine, particularly as the door got mended quickly. Then I got a letter from the solicitors saying that I should accept £300 compensation. This was much lower than what the man outside the supermarket said I should get. I still owed £1,500 to the loan company including interest. I later found out the case had not been worth enough to bother making a claim and I should have been told this by the solicitors. The final insult was getting a bill from my solicitors for £550.'

Although Jed 'won' and the losers will pay his compensation, they will not have to pay any legal costs or expenses of any kind other than court fees because neither the estimated cost of the repairs that needed doing nor the compensation is more than £1,000. This means the court will treat his case as a 'small claim' and special rules apply.

Jed will have to repay the loan he took out to pay the insurance premium and disbursements as well as any interest; and pay his own solicitor's fees.
This amounts to a massive £1,750.