Correct claim: how to maintain pre-trial order

When and who cooks

A claim is a written disagreement of one party to a civil law relationship with the behavior of the other. The reason for sending such a request is any violation by the counterparty of contractual terms, for example:

• delivery of low-quality goods, poor-quality services or performance of work;
• failure to fulfill obligations in general;
• incomplete payment;
• failure to provide documents provided for in the contract;
• other reasons.

This appeal has two purposes:

• make an attempt to resolve disagreements - ideally, after receiving the letter, the second party either fulfills the requirements set out in it, or enters into a constructive dialogue, which ultimately ends in reaching a consensus;
• prepare the ground for subsequent recourse to court - the civil and arbitration process requires compliance with the pre-trial procedure for resolving the dispute in a number of cases. For example, sending an official letter before going to court is necessary for disputes related to the termination of a lease agreement or arising from cargo transportation contracts. If federal law establishes a mandatory pre-trial procedure for resolving disputes, and the parties ignored it and immediately went to court, the claim will be returned to the applicant.

In a number of cases, the requirement for pre-trial procedure is not presented, including:

• bankruptcy cases;
• cases considered in writ proceedings;
• corporate disputes.

Thus, the reason for writing a letter is any violation of the agreement by the other party to the relationship. A party who is dissatisfied with the actions of the counterparty prepares an appeal.

To make your claim more convincing and help solve the problem, study court decisions in similar cases. The database of judicial practice in ConsultantPlus will help you find them (get free access to it by clicking on the link below). The database contains decisions of all Russian courts, and the search is as simple as in Yandex. Be sure to refer in the text of the appeal to those cases that the court decided “in your” favor.

to read.

How to write a complaint about a service of inadequate quality to an individual?

The sample requirement for the proper fulfillment of obligations assumed under a service contract generally includes the content of all sections that must be indicated in any pre-trial claim. The specifics of a claim submitted in connection with the provision by a contractor of a service of inadequate quality to an individual are the following:

• The powers of the applicant (consumer) are secured by Art. 29 of the Law, therefore the requirements must be specified in accordance with this norm and with reference to it;
• the requirements must be presented during the provision of the service or upon acceptance of the result of its provision;
• If it is impossible to identify deficiencies in the provision of services before they are accepted, the claim may be sent within the time limits specified in clause 3 of Art. 29 of the Law;
• the claim may indicate a requirement to pay a penalty provided for in Art. 31 Law;
• The consumer in the claim has the right to refer to the responsibility of the contractor provided for by the Law for failure to satisfy the consumer’s requirements on a voluntary basis.

Otherwise, the claims from an individual and from an organization are identical.

Examples

For example, here is a sample claim of an organization against an organization for failure to fulfill a contract:

Sample addendum to a claim with calculation of the amount of claims:

Another example you can use is a sample letter of complaint from a buyer to a seller of goods of inadequate quality:

Sample of how to write a claim for debt repayment:

Example of a copyright infringement claim:

How to file a claim for poor quality service?

In the field of consumer rights protection, the Rospotrebnadzor service provides methodological assistance to individuals in deciding how to correctly file a claim for poor-quality service. Sample documents are posted on the official websites of regional departments. With their help, citizens can draw up a document demanding to provide a quality service or eliminate deficiencies in the provided communication services, medical services, utilities, etc.

Legal entities can also use these samples, however, references to the Law should not appear in the legal entity’s claim, since it only protects consumers of services - individuals and does not regulate the legal relations of organizations.

Organizations can use the above sample, taking into account the applicant's legal rights. So, by virtue of Art. 15 and paragraph 1 of Art. 330 of the Civil Code, a person has the right to demand compensation for losses only if they exist and are sufficiently confirmed, and a penalty - in any case if it is provided for by law or contract.

Rules for writing a letter

The legislation does not define the concept of “claim” and does not establish certain requirements for its preparation. Written demands to eliminate violations of the terms of the concluded agreement are drawn up in free form. However, to solve the problem, it is necessary that this letter contain certain information confirming the validity of the requirements. If this information is missing, difficulties will arise in solving the problem and more time will be spent on the investigation.

Basic Rules

It is very important to comply with the requirements for writing claims. The most important of them are as follows:

• After writing a document, you need to copy it. One copy remains with the sender, and the other goes to the recipient.
• In the paper, be sure to indicate to whom the claim is being made (entering the full name of the organization) and who is sending it (indicating the name and place of residence). This information is written in the upper right corner.
• Write what law you were guided by when drawing up the document. Moreover, you need to provide specific references to the Civil Code.
• Use more specific information in the text.
• Write what compensation you expect from the other party. But inflated requirements will not be taken into account, so you need to rely on the articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
• It is imperative to indicate that if the claim does not receive a proper response, the party will appeal to higher authorities.
• And the last point is to indicate the date and time.

If this information is provided, the chances that the document will be answered satisfactorily increase significantly.

Example of writing a letter - complaints

Filling out the header of the letter

The claim is made on the sender's letterhead, which must contain the full name of the legal entity, in accordance with the constituent documents, TIN, legal and postal address.

Next, you need to enter the recipient, indicating his name and the official to whose name it is sent, as well as his last name, first name and patronymic.

Then the letter must be identified by putting down the number and date of its composition. In the upper left corner of the letter its brief content is indicated, for example, “about violation of the equipment delivery deadline.”

Filling out the main part of the letter - claims

Next in the letter there should be a descriptive part, which should contain:

• A detailed description of the violation, in which the specific clause of the contract or article of the legislative act must be indicated, additionally indicating the details of this document - number and date.
• If the violation is expressed in a monetary amount, it is indicated in numbers and in words. For example, the debt to pay for delivered products is 100,000 (one hundred thousand) rubles.
• After this, the claim itself is formulated, when several problems arise under one contract, each of them is formalized in a separate paragraph, where proposed solutions are indicated, with specific deadlines for implementation.
• At the end of the letter, actions that are possible if the specified violations are not eliminated are indicated. For example, “if the stated requirements are not fulfilled, we will be forced to go to court.”
• The completed claim is signed by the manager, whose signature must be deciphered

Sample letter – complaints

Is a simple letter considered a pre-trial settlement document?

To qualify a simple letter as a claim, it must contain the signs of a claim, namely: such a letter must contain a list of violations, a requirement to perform something, and a warning about seeking legal protection.

In the absence of qualifying features, a simple letter cannot be considered a pre-trial settlement document (for example, Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Moscow dated January 19, 2012 No. A40-57240/11-127-517).

A sample letter of pre-trial settlement can be downloaded from the link: letter of pre-trial settlement - sample.

Agreement on pre-trial settlement of a dispute - sample, rules for drawing up

A pre-trial settlement agreement is a document expressing the reconciliation of the parties to the conflict in a controversial legal relationship.

Drawing up this document is optional, but desirable, since through such an agreement it will be easier for the parties to control the process.

More detailed information about this document can be found in the article “Pre-trial settlement agreement - sample”.

Based on the results of mutually beneficial decisions, the agreement reflects:

• details of the parties;
• subject of dispute;
• obligations agreed upon by the parties;
• conditions and deadlines for fulfilling assigned obligations.

The agreement must be signed by the subjects of the disputed legal relationship.

The form of an agreement on pre-trial settlement of a dispute can be downloaded from the link: agreement on pre-trial settlement of a dispute - sample.

The claim must always include

To speed up the resolution of the dispute, the claim must contain the following information:

• About the sender and recipient, if it is sent to the address of a legal entity, it is necessary to indicate the full name, position and surname with initials of the person to whose name it is sent, most often this is the manager;
• Specific violations, with reference to clauses of the contract or specific legislative acts and legal norms that were violated;
• The procedure for eliminating violations and the consequences that should occur if they are not eliminated.

If a dispute arises in the financial sector and monetary amounts are indicated, it is necessary to indicate them both in numbers and in words

If the dispute requires additional evidence, it must be attached to this letter. They may be acceptance certificates drawn up in a certain form, checks, receipts, additional agreements, photos and/or videos, product samples, and other documents related to a specific dispute. At the end of the letter, all attached evidence must be listed, their number must be indicated, if these are written sources, a specific number of pages must be indicated for each separately.

The letter of claim can be drawn up by hand or typed on a computer in printed form.

Since 2021, legal entities can operate without a seal, but in certain circumstances it is still needed, for example, when concluding contracts with foreign partners.

The number of copies of the claim is not limited to the number of parties to the dispute, they can be sent to all interested parties, including third parties, therefore the number of letters is set by the sender at his own discretion. All copies must be properly certified, have a date and an originating number, which will allow you to refer to this specific letter in the future if necessary.

Claim for non-payment of services under the contract

A claim under a service agreement can be submitted not only by the customer of the service, but also by the contractor - in the event of the customer’s failure to fulfill such obligations under the agreement as transfer of necessary documents, making an advance payment, payment for services rendered, and others. Such a claim is subject to general rules, but has specifics in terms of the requirement to pay for services rendered and calculate interest for the use of other people's funds within the framework of Art. 395 Civil Code.

From 01.08.2016, the specified percentage is calculated based on the key rate established by the Bank of Russia; the calculation is drawn up in the form of a separate document, which is an appendix to the claim.

What are the types of claims?

The claim has several varieties, which differ depending on different characteristics and features. Some types of the document in question are presented in the table:

We will highlight another type of claims that should be discussed in a separate category. Such a document is drawn up on the basis only of the conditions specified in the cooperation agreements. In other words, you will not be able to complain about aspects that do not directly relate to the points specified in the documentation.

In what cases is the claim procedure mandatory?

It would seem, why do you need to send letters of claim to your partner if it is obvious that it will not be possible to resolve the issue peacefully and everything will end in litigation. In practice, this step cannot be avoided: there are situations when the justice authority will not accept a claim from the injured party unless it is proven that pre-trial methods were used to resolve the conflict.

According to the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a pre-trial claim is required in the following situations:

1. If the need to write it is provided for by federal legislation. Thus, disputes with:
   mobile operators;
2. carriers;
3. forwarders.
4. If such a procedure is stipulated in the contract concluded between the counterparties. For example, it is stated that disagreements that arise between the parties are resolved through negotiations, and that before going to court, a dissatisfied counterparty must notify the supplier (contractor) in writing.

Failure to make a claim will add unnecessary hassle to the injured party and cause loss of time. The court has the right to leave her claim without consideration. This means that the process will only begin when the negotiation method between the two counterparties has been tried.

Methods for submitting a claim

When the document is drawn up, all that remains is to figure out how to deliver it to the recipient. You can do this in the following ways:

• hand over personally from hand to hand;
• send a scanned document to an email address;
• send by fax;
• send by registered mail.

If the addressee does not want to accept the document, it is best to send it by registered mail using Russian Post. This will notify you of receipt. It can be used in court as an indicator that a person nevertheless filed a claim, but this did not give any result. For overall reliability, you can use several parallel methods at once. This will speed up the procedure.

Response time

The document requests that the debt be repaid as soon as possible, but the counterparty has time to respond. In accordance with Art. 452 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, business customs, judicial practice, the response is given for less than a month, unless a different period is established in the claim or agreement. Paying the debt is one of the answer options; more often the addressee receives a letter of guarantee or an appeal with a proposal to postpone the deadline for fulfilling material obligations, which are considered on an individual basis.