taken local garage to court and won and they won't pay

lynnsa

I took my local garage to court as they damaged my car. The court found in my favour but the garage owner won't pay and has threatened me. Bailiffs aren't interested as the amount is £210 and the court bailiff will charge another £100 and cannot guarantee he will pay up. What is the point of small claims if this can happen and why should I be threatened by a thug for standing up for myself. I'm a 55 year old woman and this creep has all my contact details and know I live alone. Any advice please.

tvfreek

If you have judgment against him have you considered garnishee order?

Enterprise_1701C

If you can prove what happened would the local paper be interested? If he is not going to pay anyway you might as well protect other people.

eddddy

lynnsa wrote: »

I took my local garage to court as they damaged my car. The court found in my favour but the garage owner won't pay and has threatened me. Bailiffs aren't interested as the amount is £210 and the court bailiff will charge another £100 and cannot guarantee he will pay up....

I expect the statement "cannot guarantee he will pay up" is a general warning that they give to everyone - in case, the debtor has no money and no goods of any value.

Is your judgement against a person or a limited company? Does the person or company appear to own goods which the bailiffs could seize and would sell at auction for, say, £500 or more (to allow for costs)?

If you think they do, maybe it's worth investing the £100.

As you probably know, the £100 will be added to the judgement debt - so you will get it back if the debtor has sufficient money, or sufficient goods to seize.

lynnsa

Thanks guys the debt is in the garages name. Spoke to a debt collector yesterday who said basically there is nothing I can do. He said if I could get their back details I could pay to freeze their account but how do I get this. He said paying the sheriff £100 would probably be a waste of money although I am a carer so will look in to see if I am exempt from payment. He told me that the ccj will stop them getting credit but they will pay to have it written off.

JethroUK

lynnsa wrote: »

What is the point of small claims if this [not enforced] can happen.

Im inclined to agree

So what is the need for small claims court?

If its just there to tell you what you already know you could come here cheaper

Thrugelmir

Tell the garage owner they have 7 days or you'll be contacting the local press. The bad publicity will cost them dearly, and cost you nothing.

lynnsa

I have contacted the local press and hopefully they'll get back to me. U can't understand why he wants such bad publicity for the sake of what is to him a small sum

Buzby

How did you pay him for the work done? A little bit of diligence can often give results when the bank freeze the account. A warning though, it is imperative you sued the correct entity. The garage may be a Ltd Company, the owner pay be an employee or director. Make the wrong choice and you might as well not have bothered, it would be invalid.

I'm assuming you won by default (he didn't turn up in court)?

lynnsa

I didn't pay him anything I put my car in for Mot an automatic and they forced the key out in reverse thereby jamming the whole thing up. He then said it was an automatic mot fail as the steering wheel was broken when in fact the lock was on. I asked him not to touch the car anymore and then paid for it to be towed to a decent garage where they fitted a new ignition lock and told me he would be liable. He defended claim but never turned up to court. I then had to persuade the judge that they were at fault for forcing the key out in wrong gear. He's obviously taken advice that there's not a lot I can do for the above involved. He is the company director and it is limited. I'm just so angry especially that he threatened me wouldn't if I was a bloke I'm sure.

lynnsa

The local press are coming around tomorrow and he is going to take the court order down to him. Also he is going to take my photo and do a story on this so some good news. Although my family are worried about this and think I should let it go. I don't like bullies.