|
||||||
| Writing a summon | ||||||
|
Before going to take legal actions, in general, one should write a letter to the other party to try to solve the matter. The letter should include the request to pay or deliver the services or goods within a reasonable period. Also one should explain why he or she is entitled to the payment or the delivery of services or goods. In this way the other party is informed what you request, on which grounds your request is based and when you would expect the other party to deliver. This is essential in Dutch civil law before even going to court. Let´s take an example. The rule applies often to situations where a buyer purchases a good: let´s say a house. In this example the house does not meet the conditions of the contract: the roof is seriously leaking. The seller has no knowledge that the roof is leaking, but the buyer (after a quick look) sees that the wood in the roof is rotten. The buyer leaves the matter and does not mention the leak to the seller. |
After
a bit of wind and rain (not unusual in The Netherlands) serious damage
to the electricity system in the house is caused. The buyer informs
the seller a month after the sale that the roof was leaking and that – according to the conditions of the contract – it
should be repaired as soon as possible. Now, what happens is that the
seller is liable for the reparation of the roof, but not for the damage
to the electricity system. The buyer informed the seller too late,
so the seller couldn´t take actions any sooner to prevent the
damages. If the seller was informed immediately, the seller could be
held liable for the damages to the electricity system as well.
|
Be aware that the situation is different if the buyer could not have been aware of the damaged roof (e.g. the damage were somewhat hidden). Due to the maximum length of this article, I will not elaborate on this situation here. For questions please contact me at Dnauta@guapa.org The aforementioned hopefully moves people to writing letters if something is wrong and not to wait too long with this. As the Dutch might say `wie schrijft die blijft`. |
||||
