2. Your Witness Statement

Updated on May 31, 2012 By admin Comments Off on 2. Your Witness Statement

As always, the information provided is the result of the experiences of defendants who have been in dispute. It is NOT intended to replace professional legal advice and you should always see a solicitor about any claim against you. Remember to take the skeleton argument (in the Court Bundle section) with you.

The documents in this section are to help you put together an evidence bundle for a court hearing.

Your witness statement should detail the facts of your case, from when you contacted the Business Transfer Agent (or they contacted you), what their telesales staff said, what the rep said who valued your business, what happened after that.  Detail everything that has happened.  You don’t need to refer to documents in your evidence bundle in here, that’s done in your skeleton argument.

Click here for a downloadable version of this document.

IN THE WHERE COUNTY COURT
CLAIM NO : 1AA99999

BETWEEN:

RTA (Business Sales) Limited

(Claimant)

And

 

Mr Defendant

(Defendants)

 

 

WITNESS STATEMENT OF Mr Defendant

 

 

 

  1. My full name is Mr D Fendant.
  2. I reside at << Address >>
  3. I have had cause to complain about the service, or lack of it, provided by RTA (Business Consultants) Limited.
  4. In January 2006, the claimant’s contacted me via an unsolicited telephone call where they claimed to have buyers waiting to purchase my business.  An appointment was made for their agent to meet at my place of work on 9th January 2006.

 

  1. On 9th January 2006, the claimant’s agent visited my place of work.  Although he didn’t appear to use any formal method to value the business, he placed a price of £250,500 on my business.  I felt at the time that this price was far too high but I was assured by the claimant’s representative that the business could easily be sold within 6 months at that price and it was suggested again that they had buyers waiting.

 

  1. As I had no immediate funds and wanted to sell quickly, the claimant’s representative suggested that he had authority to waive the upfront fee and reduce the contract term to 6 months but would need to increase the withdrawal fee to £1000.

 

  1. The claimant’s agent told me that the contract would be in place for 6 months as sole agency but would expire after 12 months.  The withdrawal fee would only be due if the contract was terminated within those 12 months.

 

  1. The agent asked me to initial a number of clauses and he said that the others were ‘industry standard’ clauses of little importance – in actuality they were highly onerous clauses requiring me to pay various penalties and fees at various stages and requiring a fee even if the claimant cancelled the agreement.

 

  1. In the time from 9th January 2006, the claimant contacted me a further 7 times asking if I wanted to place my business on the market as they had buyers waiting.  Each time I stated that the business was already supposed to be on the market with them.

 

  1. In the time from 9th January 2006, the claimant arranged for just 1 person to view the business.

 

  1. The claimant appeared to have only advertised my business on their own websites and a few other websites at a cost of just a few pence per month.

 

  1. On 10th March 2010, the claimants wrote to cancel the contract.  I was not aware that the contract was still in place as I was told that it would expire after 12 months, so this came as a complete surprise.  Especially as the claimant’s only appeared to have advertised my business on a few websites, which I could have done for myself.
  2. When I signed the claimant’s contract I was led to believe by their telesales staff and by their agent who visited me that they were the biggest transfer agent in Europe with the biggest success in selling businesses.  Now I realise that the claimant is not in the business of selling businesses.  They are in the business of taking up-front fees from clients, charging withdrawal fees even if they are the ones to withdraw, and charging commission on businesses they haven’t sold due to onerous clauses in their contracts.
  3. My business was supposed to go on the market with the claimant immediately as of 9th January 2006 and yet the claimant did not advertise my business anywhere until January 2007, a year later.  The document also shows an advert being placed on 1st January 2006 and yet this is over a week before I first met the client’s representative or signed the contract.  No advertising at all in 2008, and then only 2 adverts in the 14 months.
  4. Regardless of their failure to properly respond to my issues with their service, the claimant issued court proceedings against me for failure to pay the withdrawal fee for the which culminated in court proceedings for £……

 

I, the Defendant, declare that the facts stated in this, my statement, are true.
Signed …………………………………… Mr D Fendant

Dated ……………………………………. 2011