Client wont pay - whats the next step?

crazyguy

If she is living in Australia do you think she will be bothered in the slightest by a CCJ in the UK, me thinks not !

crazyguy

antioola wrote: »

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.

All of wich is unethical and illegal, good move if you want to end up in court yourself !

antioola

crazyguy wrote: »

All of wich is unethical and illegal, good move if you want to end up in court yourself !

I wouldn't end up in court myself for anything my bailiff did, contracted through the council on my behalf.

antioola

crazyguy wrote: »

If she is living in Australia do you think she will be bothered in the slightest by a CCJ in the UK, me thinks not !

If they wouldn't be bothered by court proceedings they certainly wouldn't be bothered by a letter asking them nicely. Don't let them walk over you, OP

kelou

Thanks very much both of you, what does the notice letter need to contain? Like the idea of sending the letter first in the hope it gee's her up into paying. Im not sure she is a willfull non payer as much as just very scatty!

Horace

Dear x

Please accept this letter as 14 days notice of our intention to lodge our unpaid invoices for work carried out at your property, to the county court."

Yours sincerely


Wait 14 days then use Moneyclaim online.

Having spoken to a Bailiff last week at a networking event. A bailiff can only enter a commercial property without the owner being present, they cannot just walk into a domestic property they have to be allowed in. If the debtor does not pay then a judgement is made at the court it is then up to the person who is chasing the debt to ask for (and pay the necessary fees) for a bailiff to go into the property to sieze goods.

Premier_2

Complicated, so seek independent legal advice.

The issue would be that you would find it difficult to serve a summons.

One possibility may be that the landlady would need to give a UK address to her tenants. If you can discover what this is from the tenants, then a legal adviser would be able to advise if you could use the same address to serve a summons.

Ultimately, though, the question would then be even if you serve a summons and get judgement, would the landlady pay up? It may be possible to get a court order to get any money from the rent the tenants are paying, but this would be more hassle and cost. Again a legal adviser would be able to say whether or not this is possible.

Depending on the amount involved, it may be best to just write the debt off and let the landlady find someone else to sort her plumbing out in the future.

crazyguy

They can only sue the landlady here and the process is quite long and complicated and also adds more expense.

The reason being is the landlady lives in Australia, so you serve a small court claim in the UK and then it can be picked up in Australia providing that they can see it as a valid claim they can then serve the paperwork through the Australian courts and issue a court hearing to sort out the monies owed, I would imagine as being that a UK case can take anywhere from 3-6 months depending on the amount of work at the particular court this case if heard in Australia would probably be best part of a year, also the court in the UK cannot issue a CCJ for someone abroad and also cannot as far as I am aware send a bailiff in to the rented property to collect any goods !

kelou

Again, thanks everyone. Got an email from her yesterday before I had a chance to send her one, and she said that sending the payment had slipped her mind, but she would send it very shortly! Fingers crossed that its genuine and hope to get it soon, if not I will be sending that letter asap :beer: