Owed Money- What course of action to take?

bwlv1

Good Evening All,

Hopefully I have posted in the right place,

Myself and a friend are owed £4500 by another individual. There's not much doubting that we paid them the money as bank transfers and text conversations confirm this.

I have started a Moneyclaim online and the debtor has 2 days left to reply, my question is what is the best action to take if they dont reply.

I think the first point of call is to request the judgement straight away online, then i have various options. e.g bailiffs, charging orders, third party orders etc.

I dont know much about the individuals circumstances, I dont know where they work but I do know that they seem to have decent assets; very large house and nice cars but I can't be sure of the ownership.

Would anyone have any experience or advice they could offer me?

Thanks

arcon5

If they don't respond you apply for judgement by default.

You would need to know more about their circumstances first though. Can you search the land registry or something? If they own property then a charge on the house might be the way forward, but that's more of a long term strategy.

Or attachment of earnings if they earn a healthy salary - but you need to find out where they work.

Bailiffs is questionable. If he knows his rights he knows he can refuse entry and lock all windows and doors as they can only gain entry via peaceful means.

Or send it to the sheriffs office, I'm led to belief they have more power of enforcement.

bwlv1

Thanks for getting back to me,

I searched the land registry and the property that they live in is not registered in their name, so I don't know if they're renting or something else.

I will do an employment trace online, I think they are about £35 this sounds reasonable?

You mentioned the sheriffs office, I have come across their website and they sound good, why is it they are recommended over any other bailiffs?

Thanks again

bris

In England I believe your Sheriffs officers can only enforce High court judgements, you will need to transfer the debt to the High court in order to use them.

In Scotland they are used all the time as Scotland don't have Bailifs and the Sheriffs court is the court that handles debt cases.

simpywimpy

I tried chasing an ex tenant for unpaid rent and went as far as the bailiff stage which cost a further £100 if I remember correctly. They looked at her goods and told me there wasnt enough to take to repay the debt based on auction value so she got away with it and I was left being owed even more money than I started out with.

I guess its a case of making your mind up whether they are likely to have enough goods worth pursuing and unless they have a car or something of higher value, it is probably useless

bwlv1

In terms of goods, I genuinely believe he has assets, the car and property (although not owned by him apparently) are extravagant and I would imagine the goods in the house easily cover what we are owed, it is just a case of does he actually own the assets and can the bailiff get to them.

The Sheriffs office charge £60 to transfer up to the high court and they take it from there, with an abortive fee of £60, seems reasonable.

My options now seem to be get the employment trace done and go for an attachment of earnings, or the Sheriffs Office.

ILW

Why did you give someone £4500?
Can you prove it was not a gift?
Do you have any sort of agreement that it was to be repaid at any particular time?
Was it for supply of product or service that was not supplied?
Need a bit more info really.

bwlv1

Hi ILW,

Originally paid £6000 for a property finders fee, they couldn't make a property available. £1000 since returned by another partner in the business and £500 by debtor himself but nothing since that.

Emails and text conversations can confirm it was for a service and not a gift.

No agreements in terms of it being repaid but I have the person repeatedly telling me on a text conversation that they are going to pay the money back, but we just keep getting delays and excuses.

pmduk

Ignore the property, if he doesn't own it, it's just a red herring. The car may be leased. Unless you know the state of their finances (and guessing by their visible status symbols is inadequate) you could be throwing good money after bad.

I'm no expert in this field, do they have other CCJs? Have they been satisfied?

bwlv1

Their are no CCJ's or other judgements recorded against the individual from the check I have done online.

vaio

do you have bank details for either of the partners?