Small claim and order for oral examination.

unclebulgaria

Just wondered if anyone had used County Court Bailiff chasing an "Application for order that officer of debtor company attend court for questioning" or "oral examination" in short.
Its a £100 fee to have the bailiff serve the summons and I'm getting conflicting advice from court help desks and web sites.
Can I add the bailiffs fee's to the outstanding amount? The order will cost me another £50 and I can recover that.
I'm hearing the Bailiff's fee's aren't recoverable but I've read that I can ask for unreasonable fee's as the Defendant isn't making any attempt to reply to my correspondence hence the fact they are in default and now have a judgement against them.
p.s. I'm in Staffs the debtor is in Essex and this is the reason for the Bailiff instead of me doing the serving.

Wywth

unclebulgaria wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone had used County Court Bailiff chasing an "Application for order that officer of debtor company attend court for questioning" or "oral examination" in short.
Its a £100 fee to have the bailiff serve the summons and I'm getting conflicting advice from court help desks and web sites.
Can I add the bailiffs fee's to the outstanding amount? The order will cost me another £50 and I can recover that.
I'm hearing the Bailiff's fee's aren't recoverable but I've read that I can ask for unreasonable fee's as the Defendant isn't making any attempt to reply to my correspondence hence the fact they are in default and now have a judgement against them.
p.s. I'm in Staffs the debtor is in Essex and this is the reason for the Bailiff instead of me doing the serving.

Ultimately the judge will decide what fees an unsuccessful defendant should pay.

I wouldn't have thought a judge would award you unreasonable fees, but usually any reasonable court fees incurred in enforcing a judgement are allowed to be added to the amount owed.

Be aware though that some "professional" defendants will gladly see a claimant rack up fees attempting to recover a judgement in default.
Eventually, they will ask the judgement in default to be set aside, allowing them an opportunity to defend the original claim.
If they are successful in defending the original claim, it would then be most unlikely (although not impossible) for you to get back any fees.

unclebulgaria

The defendant is already in default and I've filled in the application for order to obtain information which has now gone.
It will cost £100 to use a County Court Bailiff and I have to because the debtor company is 200 miles away.
I'll see how it goes, next step is third party debt order.
Cheers Wywth.

YEOVILGOM

How much is the debt? And can you confirm - it is a limited company

Have you done a credit check as this will could tell you just as much as an oral exam (horrible expression!)

unclebulgaria

sorry for the late reply.
No I haven't done a credit check as the company has only been going since 08/12 and its accounts won't show enough, if any, information.
Yes its a limited comapny YOUR BUILDING MAINTENANCE LTD of Leigh On Sea, Essex. (text removed by MSE Forum Team)
The debt is now £340.00 with court costs. Yes some may say its maybe not worth chasing but he laughed on the phone when I mentioned small claims and that lit my fire!
Its no longer called an oral examination lol

Wywth

The company's registered office is not, and never has been, in Leigh on Sea.

You should have ensured you sent any legal notices (such as the original summons) to the companies registered office, otherwise they have another 'get out of jail free card'

bni

Wywth wrote: »

You should have ensured you sent any legal notices (such as the original summons) to the companies registered office, otherwise they have another 'get out of jail free card'

That is not true, service can be to (unless defandant has indicated another address, like their solicitor):

* Principal office of the company; or
* any place of business of the company within the jurisdiction which has a real connection with the claim.

according to CPR 6.9.

unclebulgaria

Wywth wrote: »

The company's registered office is not, and never has been, in Leigh on Sea.

You should have ensured you sent any legal notices (such as the original summons) to the companies registered office, otherwise they have another 'get out of jail free card'

Thanks for your reply Wywth.

Its business address is Dragon Enterprise Centre, 28 Stephenson Road, Leigh On Sea, Essex, SS9 5LY

(text removed by MSE Forum Team)

Leigh on Sea is the office address and as such is, according to companies house, the legal address for the business.

I am required by law to post any legal notices to the address that I can reasonably believe to be their correct business address, trust me I've checked with everyone, courts, Bailiffs and Companies House.

It isn't a get out of jail card it might slow things down slightly but I have a Judge as a customer who gave me advice.

There are so many addresses for this company and the directors that its hard to find the correct one but I'm 99.999999% certain its the correct one.

Cheers for your feedback though.

Wywth

Have you checked the companies house website for the company's registered address?

By 'another get out of jail free card', see the warning I gave regarding "professional" defendants in post #2

jenniemiller177

I went through this process recently and was told by the judge that the £100 would be added to the outstanding amount owed.

unclebulgaria

Wywth wrote: »

Have you checked the companies house website for the company's registered address?

By 'another get out of jail free card', see the warning I gave regarding "professional" defendants in post #2

Oh I totally agree.

Unfortunately there are other wheels in motion that I've been told to keep my mouth shut about. I'll say more when I'm contacted by these people.
It's a crying shame that our laws allow "professional" defendants to even exist! Hopefully the other people Ive contacted will block that route.

Yes I've spoken to them on the phone about the two addresses I know are definite and they have the same ones and gave me advice on which to use as well as the court advice.

Lets be honest, we're told that the smll claims procedure in this country is geared to make things easy for the claimant to pursue a money claim but, it is also way too easy for "professional" defendants to lead a claimant up the garden path and then liquidate leaving us with outstanding losses that are next to impossible to recoup.