Client wont pay - whats the next step?

kelou

Hello, some advice needed please, my husband is a plumber and has done 2 lots of work for a lady who rents a flat out locally but lives in Australia. She has paid for the first lot of work, but 6 weeks and several emails later still no payment has been recieved for the second lot, and now she has stopped replying to messages. Any suggestions from where we go from here?
Many thanks.

antioola

Give her 14 days notice of intention to take her to small claims court, get the small claims court forms filled out now.

file in 14 days and inform her as per spec in the forms.

Get yourself a legal to represent you in court but do not ask him to take her to court for you they will drag it out and make it take forever just get them to stand up in the court for you. The forms take 10 minutes to fill in for small claims

Small claims court is fairly cheap and easy.

If she is defaulted she will be given a few days to pay, if she doesn't the bailiffs will collect the amount of stuff needed to get your money back when sold

she can be sued in absence. sue away!

crazyguy

antioola wrote: »

Give her 14 days notice of intention to take her to small claims court, get the small claims court forms filled out now.

file in 14 days and inform her as per spec in the forms.

Get yourself a legal to represent you in court but do not ask him to take her to court for you they will drag it out and make it take forever just get them to stand up in the court for you. The forms take 10 minutes to fill in for small claims

Small claims court is fairly cheap and easy.

If she is defaulted she will be given a few days to pay, if she doesn't the bailiffs will collect the amount of stuff needed to get your money back when sold

she can be sued in absence. sue away!

Bailiffs cannot collect any goods as it is a rented property, so if you issue a small court claim here then you need her address and the rented one although owned by her is not an actual living residence so therefor you may struggle with this !

antioola

crazyguy wrote: »

Bailiffs cannot collect any goods as it is a rented property, so if you issue a small court claim here then you need her address and the rented one although owned by her is not an actual living residence so therefor you may struggle with this !

No.

Bailiffs can collect anything from a rented property as long as the things are not rented, if they belong to her they can be taken.

Bailiffs can only seize goods that are yours. Rented items, hired, or owned by someone cannot be seized from your house.
Normally, you do have the right not to let the bailiff come in. However, If this is the case they will return with a Police Officer.

What can Bailiffs take from you?
In order to recover any outstanding debts, bailiffs will seize goods such as;

TV’s, Hi-Fi’s and electrical equipment
Good not owned or co-owned by the debtor, i.e. you friend property if it is in your home (this would be classed as co-owned)
Hired goods
Rented goods
Bailiffs can only seize goods that are owned and co-owned by the debtor.

crazyguy

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5966461_file-claims-persons-out-country.html

antioola

crazyguy wrote: »

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5966461_file-claims-persons-out-country.html

This is silly.

You can sue someone whilst they are out of the country and get access to their local property with bailiffs.

But she will pay up when you take her to court so this is all speculation.

Otherwise she will get a CCJ.

crazyguy

antioola wrote: »

No.

Bailiffs can collect anything from a rented property as long as the things are not rented, if they belong to her they can be taken.

Bailiffs can only seize goods that are yours. Rented items, hired, or owned by someone cannot be seized from your house.
Normally, you do have the right not to let the bailiff come in. However, If this is the case they will return with a Police Officer.

What can Bailiffs take from you?
In order to recover any outstanding debts, bailiffs will seize goods such as;

TV’s, Hi-Fi’s and electrical equipment
Good not owned or co-owned by the debtor, i.e. you friend property if it is in your home (this would be classed as co-owned)
Hired goods
Rented goods
Bailiffs can only seize goods that are owned and co-owned by the debtor.

Like the debtor will state to the bailiff that anything in the rented property is hers anyway, common sense will say that she lists this place as an unfurnished property !

crazyguy

Its not silly the person being sued is not based in the UK so therefor if you make a small court claim it then needs to go to a court in Australia and this is all time and extra expense !

crazyguy

The best thing to do is send them a letter of notice prior to a legal action in the hopes that they might pay up in full !

antioola

I remember when I took my landlord to court for owed deposits.

That was funny.

He ignored the CCJ, he didn't attend. He left on holiday.

When he came back his front door was boarded up after the bailiffs had sneakily broken the door at night, come back 3 hours later, taken all his stuff, and called the police to say they found an open door and had taken as per spec.

This is pretty much standard. Your bailiff gets commission, her house will get broken into by the bailiffs then they will leave, come back and pretend they just found an open door.

I recommend you get a person to represent you, I annoyed my judge by not following procedures.

antioola

crazyguy wrote: »

The best thing to do is send them a letter of notice prior to a legal action in the hopes that they might pay up in full !

Yes, as I said, give them 14 days notice of intention to take them to court.