Ex partner trying to take money from me

peachyprice

You are missing the point if you think it's going to cost you less than the £3k you are squabbling over to attempt to get a UK court to get your money back. You're willing to spend say £5k to get £3k back?

Why do you even imagine he's going to travel here to attend court, and what do you imagine the court will do when he doesn't turn up?

You would stand more chance taking him to court in his own country, where these legal documents were drawn up, that may not even stand up in a UK court, not here.

ValHaller

peachyprice wrote: »

You would stand more chance taking him to court in his own country, where these legal documents were drawn up, that may not even stand up in a UK court, not here.

In commercial law, the courts of most countries can be used to rule on disputes according to the laws of other countries. So I don't envisage this as a hindrance to getting a judgement here.

But when it comes to enforcement, a ruling from the local courts will be much more useful.

londonsurrey

If it's all signed and sealed as you say for the £15k, then simply instigate whatever proceedings are necessary locally for obtaining that £15k. In this country, you'd eventually be going down the bailiff route.

If he wants extra money for all the sundries that he's now "remembering", after signing the deal, he'll have to file for it separately.

peachyprice

ValHaller wrote: »

In commercial law, the courts of most countries can be used to rule on disputes according to the laws of other countries. So I don't envisage this as a hindrance to getting a judgement here.

But when it comes to enforcement, a ruling from the local courts will be much more useful.

Would this be classed commercial law?

As you say, I'm sure she can get a judgement here, but enforcing the judgement is another story.

Either way, whether she takes it to coutt here, or there, it's likely to cost more than the £3k she's losing.

ValHaller

peachyprice wrote: »

Would this be classed commercial law?

Obviously not - but I do expect that any civil matter could be dealt with in this way.

securityguy

ValHaller wrote: »

Obviously not - but I do expect that any civil matter could be dealt with in this way.

International enforcement of the civil judgements of domestic courts is, for practical purposes, virtually impossible, and extremely expensive where it is possible. If one of the parties has no presence in the country where the judgement was obtained, doubly so.

Commercial law tends to be about companies with business in two countries, and an agreed venue written into the contract between them. That's a different situation to the OP's.

peachyprice

ValHaller wrote: »

Obviously not - but I do expect that any civil matter could be dealt with in this way.

Commercial law and civil are two different things entirely. I couldn't understand why you bought it up, I though I was missing something!

UK courts are not going to enforce a civil judgement overseas, especially for 'only' £3k. If we were talking millions with the top lawyers involved maybe, but all that will happen is OP will get a judgement against her ex, at her expense, with no means of it being enforced overseas, it's a complete waste of money.

Which brings us back to the only way of her getting a judgement against him which would be enforceable is by taking him to court in his own country and that costing her travel expenses and lawyers overseas.

He has her firmly over a barrel, and he knows it.

ValHaller

peachyprice wrote: »

Commercial law and civil are two different things entirely. I couldn't understand why you bought it up, I though I was missing something!

UK courts are not going to enforce a civil judgement overseas, especially for 'only' £3k. If we were talking millions with the top lawyers involved maybe, but all that will happen is OP will get a judgement against her ex, at her expense, with no means of it being enforced overseas, it's a complete waste of money.

Which brings us back to the only way of her getting a judgement against him which would be enforceable is by taking him to court in his own country and that costing her travel expenses and lawyers overseas.

He has her firmly over a barrel, and he knows it.

Well, exactly. I wanted to make the point about a local judgement being more useful for enforcement and put to one side the notion that a judgement might not be possible here, because for others in similar situations a UK judgement might be more appropriate

securityguy wrote: »

Commercial law tends to be about companies with business in two countries, and an agreed venue written into the contract between them. That's a different situation to the OP's.

Specifying a venue for legal action - and the jurisdiction whose laws apply - is more a matter of precluding other possibilities than of enabling a venue. The choices are wider if venue and applicable law are not specified.

zzzLazyDaisy

InvalidUsername wrote: »

I've not missed the point at all, I'm aware that I will inevitably need a lawyer, I just wanted to know in advance if he would actually be allowed to do this to me.

I won't have travel expenses because if I start a lawsuit, it will be in this country, so if he wants to defend himself, he'll need to come here.

Thanks anyway everyone, I think I shall consult a lawyer on Monday and see what happens :-)

Sorry but it doesn't work that way. The debt/dispute arose in some other country. That means that any court action would have to be conducted in that jurisdiction. You are unlikely to find a solicitor in UK sufficiently proficient in the legal system of another jurisdiction to take the case, and even if they did, it would cost you far more than the money he is proposing to deduct.

But in any case, lets just say, for the sake of argument, that you were able to bring a claim against him in UK. The amount he is proposing to deduct is less than £10,000 so the case would be heard in the small claims court (new upper limit from 1st April). The chances are that he would not turn up and the court would rule in your favour. But the UK courts have no powers of enforcement outside the UK (the proceedings would have to be transferred to the foriegn jurisdiction for enforcement purposes - this is what happens when a defendent to a legitimate UK action has moved abroad and trust me, the costs of so doing would be way more than the money owed). So you would have a useless piece of paper granting you a CCJ against a foreign national who couldn't give a toss about our legal system. As many people will tell you, ccj's in these circumstances are very often unenforceable even when the person lives in the UK.

The simple fact is, regardless of the strict legal position, he has your money and is offering to return some of it. It could be a whole lot worse, he may be refusing to return any, after all he now has the property registered in his name, and you have little avenue of redress. At the very least, please make sure you get back as much as possible of the money you are owed before you take any further steps - and if/when you seek to recover the remainder, please think carefully about throwing good money after bad - you are in the right, but unfortunately principles can be expensive, and at the moment he holds all the cards.