Small Claims Court

[Lordbenny]

I need to take someone to the small claims court for non-payment of a £2500 bill. After many unsuccessful telephone calls & a threatening letter I have nowhere else to go. Is it easy? Does it cost? Anyone got any experience of taking someone to the SCC?

[princeperch]

is the debt disputed? if not do a statutory demand. It'll concentrate the mind...

[djmck30]

Lordbenny said:

I need to take someone to the small claims court for non-payment of a £2500 bill. After many unsuccessful telephone calls & a threatening letter I have nowhere else to go. Is it easy? Does it cost? Anyone got any experience of taking someone to the SCC?

Google small claims court for hm courts service site. You can do it online below a certain amount (can't remember).

You have to pay I think but if you win the other chap has to pay your costs.

A suitably worded letter specificaly threating court action may be enough to elicit the reaction you're looking for though. Again google is your friend here

[Munter]

It's supposed to be easy. Do it online here.

http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/

edit:to make link work....

Edited by Munter on Friday 17th October 21:32

[soprano]

princeperch said:

is the debt disputed? if not do a statutory demand. It'll concentrate the mind...

These tend to be quite effective in 'concentrating the mind' as PP says - just be a bit careful, it can be quite an expensive route to go.

[princeperch]

djmck30 said:

Lordbenny said:

I need to take someone to the small claims court for non-payment of a £2500 bill. After many unsuccessful telephone calls & a threatening letter I have nowhere else to go. Is it easy? Does it cost? Anyone got any experience of taking someone to the SCC?

Google small claims court for hm courts service site. You can do it online below a certain amount (can't remember).

You have to pay I think but if you win the other chap has to pay your costs.

A suitably worded letter specificaly threating court action may be enough to elicit the reaction you're looking for though. Again google is your friend here

small claims court will not make an order for costs (as you shouldn't be using a solicitor to pursue the matter for you...)

Edited by princeperch on Friday 17th October 19:31

[GJR]

The Small Claims route worked fine for me, though I found it all a stressful business.

You can start the process online as mentioned above, and this might shake the person that owes the money enough to pay up. But... if they dispute the claim the case is assigned to a court anyway.

At this point you need to gather as much evidence as possible to support your case which has to be submitted to the court.

G

[V12Les]

Piece of piss. Get and do it online, it usually put the sts up them.

[eldar]

V12Les said:

Piece of piss. Get and do it online, it usually put the sts up them.

Agreed I've used it once, and got paid as soon as the summons(?) arrived.

[princeperch]

eldar said:

V12Les said:

Piece of piss. Get and do it online, it usually put the sts up them.

Agreed I've used it once, and got paid as soon as the summons(?) arrived.

You still have to pay to issue the procedings, which is money you won't get back.

A stat demand (assuming the debt is not in dispute and you are being ignored) is a very cheap and normally a quick way of getting acknowledged, you can prepare it yourself.

[eldar]

princeperch said:

eldar said:

V12Les said:

Piece of piss. Get and do it online, it usually put the sts up them.

Agreed I've used it once, and got paid as soon as the summons(?) arrived.

You still have to pay to issue the procedings, which is money you won't get back.

A stat demand (assuming the debt is not in dispute and you are being ignored) is a very cheap and normally a quick way of getting acknowledged, you can prepare it yourself.

That is true, it was around £30, which seems good value as it had the desired result in 2 weeks. Equated to about 10 mins of a solicitors time.

No idea how much a stat. demand would cost.

[princeperch]

eldar said:

princeperch said:

eldar said:

V12Les said:

Piece of piss. Get and do it online, it usually put the sts up them.

Agreed I've used it once, and got paid as soon as the summons(?) arrived.

You still have to pay to issue the procedings, which is money you won't get back.

A stat demand (assuming the debt is not in dispute and you are being ignored) is a very cheap and normally a quick way of getting acknowledged, you can prepare it yourself.

That is true, it was around £30, which seems good value as it had the desired result in 2 weeks. Equated to about 10 mins of a solicitors time.

No idea how much a stat. demand would cost.

you can prepare it and serve it yourself - it's free.

[Lordbenny]

Thanks for your knowledge & advice chaps.

[princeperch]

Lordbenny said:

Thanks for your knowledge & advice chaps.

remember you can only do a stat dec if the debt is not disputed. If there is any indication that the debtor thinks he doesn't have to pay what you are seeking you will have to litigate..

If you do a stat demand, I would staple the invoice in question to the back for the avoidance of all doubt. Make a note of the time, place and date of service too...

[Toni896]

princeperch said:

You still have to pay to issue the procedings, which is money you won't get back.

Have the rules changed? I got all my costs back. Although it was a company i took to court.

[princeperch]

Toni896 said:

princeperch said:

You still have to pay to issue the procedings, which is money you won't get back.

Have the rules changed? I got all my costs back. Although it was a company i took to court.

Sorry - I didnt make myself clear. With the mention of solicitors being involved what I was saying was that in most small claims cases, the court will not order solicitors’ costs to be paid by the losing party and if you instruct a solicitor you will have to pay the costs yourself...

If your claim was worth more than £5k you'll get costs if successful, but normally not all of your costs - the norm is about 70%...

Edited by princeperch on Friday 17th October 20:33

[Jasandjules]

You get the cost of issuing the claim back, simply add it to the claim value when you issue proceedings. Also remember to add interest on the debt.

As for how many letters etc, two or three are fine, send them recorded delivery (you can add the costs of the recorded delivery letters to the claim as well).

[MikeyT]

If it is a company you're in dispute with - my old boss used to issue a winding up order on them - which usually resulted in a cheque being delivered soon after ...

Don't know if you can still do this ...

[Racingdude009]

A winding up order generates a Cheque a lot quicker than a normally County Court Judgement.

However the prospect of getting future business from the client might be limited.

[physprof]

we got alfa to pay up the price 2700 (2500?) quid of a new engine of our spider a few years back....

nice simple process - make sure to lodge your evidence

in our case alfa disputed our doubt that engine failure was to due to catastrophic materials falure - they said oil too low - we had RAC report counter acting alfa view. we won. uncontested in end.