Anyone savvy with Money Claim?
Discussion
Quick background
My mother had a lodger last year, to begin with was fine, paid every month no problem, she was a young girl (18 i think) who fell out with her parents and moved out. Fast forward to around September last year and she got pregnant, lost her job & began to get behind with her rent, she paid whatever she could afford, £100 here and £100 there, by the end of November she stopped paying altogether, my mother told her she had to move out and gave her notice, she was awaiting on council emergency housing, my mother was told by the council she had to give her 2 months notice which is a load of crap but did so, eventually she moved out owing £1100. There was no nastiness and my mother is unfortunately too nice so let it go on longer than it should have.
We put in a money claim online a couple of weeks ago and she has now responded stating she paid £800 to my mother after selling her horse but was given no receipt, this is bulls
t as her FB still shows she owns the horse and she paid nothing.
What happens now? She's lied on the paperwork, does she have to show proof of payment? My mother has pretty much written off the money but doesn't want her to get away with lying to get out of paying anything.
Anyone offer any assistance?
My mother had a lodger last year, to begin with was fine, paid every month no problem, she was a young girl (18 i think) who fell out with her parents and moved out. Fast forward to around September last year and she got pregnant, lost her job & began to get behind with her rent, she paid whatever she could afford, £100 here and £100 there, by the end of November she stopped paying altogether, my mother told her she had to move out and gave her notice, she was awaiting on council emergency housing, my mother was told by the council she had to give her 2 months notice which is a load of crap but did so, eventually she moved out owing £1100. There was no nastiness and my mother is unfortunately too nice so let it go on longer than it should have.
We put in a money claim online a couple of weeks ago and she has now responded stating she paid £800 to my mother after selling her horse but was given no receipt, this is bulls
t as her FB still shows she owns the horse and she paid nothing. What happens now? She's lied on the paperwork, does she have to show proof of payment? My mother has pretty much written off the money but doesn't want her to get away with lying to get out of paying anything.
Anyone offer any assistance?
If you want to roll the dice then get started on the money claim online process. Issuing the paperwork will incur fees and you might lose those as well as the lost rent if the case goes against you. A lot will depend on who the judge believes, he won't know who to believe so you might get awarded half, but that won't do you any good if she wriggles out of paying.
I've been in a similar situation with former tenants of mine.
In short, you need to do everything by the book in the run up according to Pre-Action Conduct protocols, such as Letter before Claim etc. If you slip up on anything, the courts can throw out the claim.
Luckily my tenants accepted the the debt without challenging it, because the costs of making the claim are somewhat restrictive in regards to costs if it does get challenged. They agreed a token amount which I begrudgingly accepted, however it did mean that the judgement was granted against them and the moment the missed a payment I was able to seek a warrant of enforcement and send the bailiffs in - I'm now getting a regular £100 per month as the bailiffs turn up to collect it each month.
I do have a friendly litigation lawyer that talked me through the process in advance, so I was confident that I was compliant, but it's easy to fall foul of the many rules, all written in legalese.
In short, you need to do everything by the book in the run up according to Pre-Action Conduct protocols, such as Letter before Claim etc. If you slip up on anything, the courts can throw out the claim.
Luckily my tenants accepted the the debt without challenging it, because the costs of making the claim are somewhat restrictive in regards to costs if it does get challenged. They agreed a token amount which I begrudgingly accepted, however it did mean that the judgement was granted against them and the moment the missed a payment I was able to seek a warrant of enforcement and send the bailiffs in - I'm now getting a regular £100 per month as the bailiffs turn up to collect it each month.
I do have a friendly litigation lawyer that talked me through the process in advance, so I was confident that I was compliant, but it's easy to fall foul of the many rules, all written in legalese.
KevinCamaroSS said:
Sounds to me like you may be on a hiding to nothing. If she has no money how can she pay? At best it could be £5/week or so.
This is my thinking, she's got a council house now, has no job and no posessions to speak of so even if we did win the case i don't see where the money would come from but my mother was insistant on trying for the sake of £70.Shame, she was quite fit
Markbarry1977 said:
If she owns a bloody horse she must have money from somewhere. Feed, stabling etc. I would imagine saddles etc aren't cheap.
Her parents originally funded the horse, she was living at home so i guess could afford it, they fell out and she walked out and ended up with my mother. It transpires she may have now sold it but certainly didn't give over any of the cash, sadly it's her word against my mothers, no way to prove either way. The burden of proof will be on the girl to prove she's paid. Get your mum to provide her bank accounts covering the period - presumably this will show payments going in regularly until she stopped paying. If there is no entry for £890 the judge should lean your way. Print off her Facebook pages showing when she still had the horse. If you have evidence stating she sold it but proof that she still owned it at the time this will allow the judge to firm an opinion that her evidence isn't to be trusted. Doubt it will get that far unless she's a real piece of work it would be hard to be a bare faced liar in court.
Please let us know how it goes.
Please let us know how it goes.
Pre-action protocol does not apply to the small claims track....
S11Steve said:
I've been in a similar situation with former tenants of mine.
In short, you need to do everything by the book in the run up according to Pre-Action Conduct protocols, such as Letter before Claim etc. If you slip up on anything, the courts can throw out the claim.
Luckily my tenants accepted the the debt without challenging it, because the costs of making the claim are somewhat restrictive in regards to costs if it does get challenged. They agreed a token amount which I begrudgingly accepted, however it did mean that the judgement was granted against them and the moment the missed a payment I was able to seek a warrant of enforcement and send the bailiffs in - I'm now getting a regular £100 per month as the bailiffs turn up to collect it each month.
I do have a friendly litigation lawyer that talked me through the process in advance, so I was confident that I was compliant, but it's easy to fall foul of the many rules, all written in legalese.
In short, you need to do everything by the book in the run up according to Pre-Action Conduct protocols, such as Letter before Claim etc. If you slip up on anything, the courts can throw out the claim.
Luckily my tenants accepted the the debt without challenging it, because the costs of making the claim are somewhat restrictive in regards to costs if it does get challenged. They agreed a token amount which I begrudgingly accepted, however it did mean that the judgement was granted against them and the moment the missed a payment I was able to seek a warrant of enforcement and send the bailiffs in - I'm now getting a regular £100 per month as the bailiffs turn up to collect it each month.
I do have a friendly litigation lawyer that talked me through the process in advance, so I was confident that I was compliant, but it's easy to fall foul of the many rules, all written in legalese.
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