Statutory Interest

babycakes_3

Hello,

Just wondered if anyone is able to confirm whether or not a consumer can claim stautory interest on money which was due to be paid to me by a company and they haven't paid yet? I am going to have to take this matter through a small claims court and wonder if claiming interest on top of monies owed is a possibility?

Sorry so vague, but don't want to give out too much of the details.

I do live north of the border so any help with Scottish law, consumer rights and horrible people not doing what they agreed to do in the first place would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Widelats

Yes you can, is the answer to your scarcely detailed question.

babycakes_3

Thank you widelats for your speedy reply! Any idea where I can find a rate at which to charge for?

I'll try and give a brief breakdown of what's happened - but am wary the person in question will be reading these pages, hence my secrecy...

In Jan 2008 I had a piece of jewellery which I took to a shop for them to sell on my behalf, commission agreed.

For personal reasons I hadn't managed to chase up the sale of the item and when I finally did in May 2009 contact the lady to find out if any sale had taken place and if not, to take back my piece, I was met with quite a hostile response, and basically she denied having the piece stating that I must have came to pick it up as it was no longer in her shop.

A few letters have passed back and forth, the woman claims to have tried to contact me without success. I know this is not true as my phone nubmer hasn't changed in over ten years (this was the number she was left with to contact me) and have moved twice since this began, however I know that there has be no written contact as I am still best friends with the girl whom I used to live with so any letters would have been passed on to me, in fact some mail still arrives there and I have received it.

This whole sorry saga has grown arms and legs and I believe that I have enough evidence from the letters she has written to me which are quite bizarre and contradictory; there's also smokescreen now over the state of the item I gave her to sell - totally wavering off the matter in hand which is that I gave her something to sell on my behalf, regardless of the condition.

Trouble is I googled the item and found it was sold on ebay in May 08 (she has no idea that I knew of this). She has lied to me in that she offered to pay me the sums due, minus commision (this did not happen when she states it did) and she has offered an amount which I find to be less than satisfactory, given the time that has passed since the sale.

I am seeking through the small claims court the amount owed to me in full, plus interest as the lady in question can see no error in her ways when I believe it to be the case that she chanced her arm as so much time has passed since our last contact and thinks she could keep the money herself.

Once again, any help or information would be appreciated as I'm completely incensed at the injustice of all of this! I have no idea what my chances are in a small claims court but on point of principle, am willing to take my chances.

Equaliser123

Sounds quite complicated - good luck!

The "Judicial Rate" is currently 8%.

Hintza

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Sounds quite complicated - good luck!

The "Judicial Rate" is currently 8%.

Thankfully this was posted before I had a chance to reply. I would have thought it was base rate plus a bit.

8% !!!! Gosh


But OP do you have a contract? Do you know how much it was worth? etc etc

babycakes_3

Thanks Equalizer123 and Hintza.

I don't know how much the original item was but am aware of the price it was sold for on ebay, just waiting to get documentation from them confirming sale and then it's off to court.

Hintza is 8% higher than you would have expected?

Equaliser123

8% is quite high but it has been that rate for some years now. In England and Wales it is the County Courts Act 1984 and Scotland has an equivalent piece of legislation but with the same rate.

Equaliser123

Oh, and if it was a business to business transaction and there was no contractual rate, it would be 8% above Bank of England base rate.

isplumm

Hi,

I think you need to be a bit careful here - you left it over 16 months before getting back in contact - so when are you trying to charge interest from .... how many attempts did the business try & contact you - why would it be up to them to contact you? When you left the jewellery with them, what was the arrangement about contact - who was meant to do it - what about payment - when were you meant to be paid?

I am not sure that a small claims court is going to be that happy about you charging 8% interest from Jan 2008, especially as you didn't make contact until May 2009.

Mark

Hintza

babycakes wrote: »

Hintza is 8% higher than you would have expected?

My original reply would have been along the lines of:--

With interest rates close to zero any interest would be virtually nothing so why complicate matters pushing that point. I still think it might be relevant in that it might just be the straw that makes them say no way.

I'm slightly concerened that you have nothing very tangible by the way of a contract. It all feels a bit airy fairy which will make proving anything quite hard.

babycakes_3

Thanks isplumm & Hintza.

I do have her 'version' of a contract but there are no T&C's on it, at the time I hadn't ever thought it would come to this. I simply presumed my piece would be sold, commision rightly taken as agreed and I would have my cash from the sale minus commission. It's the fact that no contact whatsoever was made that leaves me feeling a little conned!

isplumm I don't intend to claim interest from Jan 2008, I intend to claim interest from the date the transaction was made and she received money from the item.

As to the reasons that 16 months passed, I had an awful lot going on personally with living situation etc which was extremely stressful, however I would never give someone something of mine to sell and then call them every single week to check on progress, I rather stupidly presumed that the onus would be on her to contact me when a sale was made. According to the Consumer Advice people I phoned, she could have had this piece for up to six years and it is still legally mine - I'm quite shocked that I would be questioned for the length of time taken to query the progress, rather than someone who made a sale and then pocketed the cash and made no contact whatsoever, rather banked the money and kept quiet!

Thank you all for your replies.