Taking a 'friend' to court for a small claim - advice please

olly300

Xbigman wrote: »

Another option is to accept the £10 offer and review it in a years time. If you can prove they even paid one payment it strenghens your hand in court.
Regards



X

I wouldn't do that without stating that the amount is open to review otherwise all you can do is go to court to get them to continue to pay the £10.

olly300

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Be aware if they defended and/or ask for time to pay the court could well force you to accept their £10 a month offer, especially if they are really on benefits.
Obviously as AO points out if they just ignore the claim and you win by default you can send the baliffs in, but are you sure they have anything worth taking to sell?

How far away do they live? May be worth a drive/walk by, by you or better a pal they don't know just to see what sort of life style they are living.

Instead of court action you could ask they to sign to agree to say £20 per month, but only for the next 6 months or they start work (whichever comes first) after which the amount would need to be reviewed? This is what most banks would do. You could also ask to see proof they are on benefits (do they live alone or have a partner who works?). Question how they finished work (if they were made redundant did they get a pay off?).

They are either in debt up to their eyeballs and in big trouble on benefits (in which case the chances of getting all your cash back quickly is low) and it may be worth just getting what you can back whilst they are offering. Or they are lying scumbags who just don't want to pay you back. If they were a mate you may well have an idea which is more likely.

You need to way up if the court action is worth it.

If you strike an agreement make sure you put some where on the documentation that if they are two payments in arrears you will take them to court to recover the entire debt. The reason I mentioned two is that you need to make it worth your while to take them to court.

Also be aware that if you both strike up an agreement and then you do have to take them to court, the court will now only enforce the agreement you have both agreed to unless it's blatantly unfair.

sp1987

People on JSA are I think deducted £5/week if they are to pay child support so I do not think £20/month would be unreasonably high, especially as the debt has gone so long unpaid at any level.

To be honest though I would go to court as they would set a payment plan if you won and at least you would have proof that they have had no redundancy payment/that they are actually on JSA and not just living the good life. You have no idea what savings they have if their JSA is contributions based anyway as there is no means test applied.

I cannot believe someone was dull enough to admit to the debt though, thank goodness for their ignorance!

billy_bulldog

sp1987 wrote: »

People on JSA are I think deducted £5/week if they are to pay child support so I do not think £20/month would be unreasonably high, especially as the debt has gone so long unpaid at any level.

To be honest though I would go to court as they would set a payment plan if you won and at least you would have proof that they have had no redundancy payment/that they are actually on JSA and not just living the good life. You have no idea what savings they have if their JSA is contributions based anyway as there is no means test applied.

I cannot believe someone was dull enough to admit to the debt though, thank goodness for their ignorance!

Indeed! And in writing too!!:rotfl:

Back to serious matters now. I have decided to write back stating that i will accept a one off payment to clear the debt of £1500 within 14 days, or else I may as well go to court. They can borrow this from family, other friends, whoever - its not my concern anymore. If it goes to court, like you say above, I will have a court endorsed and enforceable payment plan which can be reviewed in time ( I went to the court today and got lots of good advice from the helpdesk ) even if it is just for £10 per month for now, and for their arrogance and behaviour they earn a CCJ and this will linger on their credit record for years. £3k at £10 per month is 25 years :eek:

Also, it will cost me £80 to go to court but at this stage I just want justice to be done and the person to get what they deserve, i'll drip feed the monthly £10 into a savings account and forget about it for now.

Alias_Omega

^^

Small claims court fee is £25.? isnt it.

That should get things rolling, and you can claim for this as part of the claim.

So it would be £2000 + interest + £25 court fee.

Then if it goes to court, you pay the £35 allocation fee, again this is added onto the amount.

So it becomes £2000 + interest + £25 court fee + £35 allocation fee


I cant tell you how i know all this....ive signed to silence..

billy_bulldog

No, the fee in this case would be £80 for a MCOL or £85 if done via paper applications (the fee increases as the size of the claim increases).

Talking about interest, is this calculated on the time the debt has been outstanding so far (ie 30 months), or on the remaining time left to clear the debt (which could be xx% over a number of years? What nominal % do the court use, does anyone know?

billy_bulldog

Unless anyone has any specific advise to the contrary, I shall be following through with my plan (post 25 above) by the end of the afternoon so that it can be in the post tonight.

RabbitMad

Sounds like a good plan to me - If you do take it to court remember to just claim the original amount owed.

[Deleted User]

Would recommend doing it via MCOL as much much much much much easier than filling out all those paper forms.

Clive_Woody

billy_bulldog wrote: »

Unless anyone has any specific advise to the contrary, I shall be following through with my plan (post 25 above) by the end of the afternoon so that it can be in the post tonight.

In your original post you said your ex-friend owed £2000, you tricked them into admitting owing you £3000. If you take them to court claiming £3000 you would be commiting fraud, if this comes to light you could find yourself in very hot water.

I assume you can prove £2000 left your account on a certain date but not £3000?