Recovering XS by suing the thief?

[Psychobert]

Might sound a daft question, but mate of mine has just had his car nicked. Its been recovered and is an insurance write-off. Since its only worth a few hundred quid, the XS on the policy that he's loosing is significant.

Is it possible to sue the thief, (say small claims court) to recover the XS?

[DanL]

I hope it is! It'd make a nice change from the scroats suing the people who resisted their attempts at burglary!

Dan

[raceboy]

Nice idea, only problem is there's not much point suing someone with no money, i.e. most criminals

[johnelliott]

The other problem is that legally the excess is between you and the insurance company, nothing to do with the thief

John

[icamm]

I would suggest you ask the Police or a lawyer. I would assume that it is possible. You could even tack on the insurance premium increase if you have lost some NCD.

However, being able to do it is one thing. Getting a judgement is another. Even more difficult is getting the money. The crim will plead poverty - get to pay 50p a month - and then default on it anyway. When brought up for the default they will then plead poverty - get it reduced to 25p a month - then default..... The amount of money outstanding in unpaid fines and CCJ's is astronomical.

[funkihamsta]

About half of all fines are defaulted.

[gopher]

Ok not at all knowledgeable about this, but if you were to win would not the court costs have to be paid by the scroat (so not costing you to do it) and although unpaid fines appear to be the norm there is a chance that it will cause the sh1t to have some grief which has to be a good thing? - Dunno just thinking - cause them some pain only if it doesn't cost you.

Cheers

Paul

[Psychobert]

gopher said: Ok not at all knowledgeable about this, but if you were to win would not the court costs have to be paid by the scroat (so not costing you to do it) and although unpaid fines appear to be the norm there is a chance that it will cause the sh1t to have some grief which has to be a good thing? - Dunno just thinking - cause them some pain only if it doesn't cost you.

Cheers

Paul

My thoughts exactly. Think small claims court is about £40 so maybe worth trying. I'd have thought this was a well known thing to do if it worked, but you never know.. I'll let you know if it works..

[icamm]

Not sure about the costs of the small claims court but I don't think you can add the court cost to the claim.

Try here www.compactlaw.co.uk/smc.html for some more info. I haven't read it myself so can't summarise.

Edited becuase - I have just started reading this myself and found you CAN claim back the court fee for making the claim but NOT the costs of a solicitor etc.

>> Edited by icamm on Wednesday 15th January 12:24

[mel]

£80 now days

[icamm]

mel said: £80 now days

It actually depends on how much you are claiming for. There is a sliding scale. Please follow the link I posted earlier if you want to know what the scale is. the have a page with all of the costs tabled.