Small Claim Advice

terryw

As you know the bank account why not try a third party debt order?


Keep in mind that winning a judgement does not guarantee payment. Enforcing the judgement is often the difficult part particularly with a savvy debtor.

ease

terryw I'd try that but the statements they sent to the court showed only a small balance, so I'm guessing they keep most of their money elsewhere now. I'm aware they're still working and receiving payments from clients, just not aware of the bank account the invoices are being paid to unfortunately.

neilmcl

ease wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone but I feel they're mostly entirely irrelevant to the original question. I'm just looking to find out what my best option is to get my money back from someone who's flat out refusing to pay and who's claiming they can't afford to do so, but can.

Well that's not true at all though is it. By you own admission they've offered to pay £100 per month, may not be entirely satisfactory but you're still getting you're money back (eventually).

ease

neilmcl wrote: »

Well that's not true at all though is it. By you own admission they've offered to pay £100 per month, may not be entirely satisfactory but you're still getting you're money back (eventually).

Actually they offered £100, then dropped it to £50 when I asked them to prove their finances because I knew they could afford to pay more. Even if I took their offer I doubt they'd even keep up payments, considering their past and present behaviour, which I don't see the need to go into in order to defend a decision that's not even relevant to the question I'm asking.

gettingtheresometime

I worked as a credit controller and one of our clients was pleading poverty and after literally weeks, bordering on months, of me trying to get the money from him we agreed for the debt to be paid in monthly instalments.

Now I know he could have since probably paid off in one lump sum but it wasn't worth the aggro to restart the fight....he was making the agreed payments so I didn't have an issue with him not settling the debt.

Sometimes even when you're in the right it takes more energy than the result would be worth.

As a matter of interest how long ago is it since the offer of £100/£50 was made?

ease

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I worked as a credit controller and one of our clients was pleading poverty and after literally weeks, bordering on months, of me trying to get the money from him we agreed for the debt to be paid in monthly instalments.

Now I know he could have since probably paid off in one lump sum but it wasn't worth the aggro to restart the fight....he was making the agreed payments so I didn't have an issue with him not settling the debt.

Sometimes even when you're in the right it takes more energy than the result would be worth.

As a matter of interest how long ago is it since the offer of £100/£50 was made?

Thanks for the reply. She offered £100 per month which I think was around October or November. I then had her summoned to court to prove her finances, which she then lied about again (quite blatantly, information conflicting with what she'd previously told the court), and offered £50 per month instead, which was in December. She was told to bring certain things and disclose certain information which she didn't, very clearly in contempt of court. I then had to write to the court to get them to order her to send in the documents they originally asked for but didn't bring in December, which took another 4 months or so for the court to respond to.

The court wrote to me with a copy of what she sent them, and told me that if I thought she hadn't sent what they'd asked for (which was pretty obvious) then I had to send evidence and reasons why. Right now I'm waiting to hear back about the letter I sent to them explaining why 1 month's worth of statements from 1 account is not 6 months' of statements from 3 accounts, and why that's not what they asked for. They seem pretty incompetent to be honest.

The problem with accepting monthly payments is that this person has scammed quite a few people over the last few years, already has a CCJ she hasn't paid (the claimant gave up in the end), has refused to pay quite a few freelancers for work they did for her, and is committing benefit fraud. So quite understandably I don't trust her to make a year and a half worth of monthly payments.

gettingtheresometime

ease wrote: »

Actually they offered £100, then dropped it to £50 when I asked them to prove their finances because I knew they could afford to pay more. Even if I took their offer I doubt they'd even keep up payments, considering their past and present behaviour, which I don't see the need to go into in order to defend a decision that's not even relevant to the question I'm asking.

But why wouldn't they when it would clear the ccj that's against their name?

tbh it does sounds as if there's a personal vendetta against them

ease

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

But why wouldn't they when it would clear the ccj that's against their name?

tbh it does sounds as if there's a personal vendetta against them

Would you accept having a debt paid off in what could amount to around 35 monthly payments, when you know they're untrustworthy and are unlikely to keep it up?

There's no bloody personal vendetta. I don't know how to make that any more clear. I'm just trying to get my money back from someone who I don't trust to pay in monthly instalments, and who I know can afford to pay in full.

gettingtheresometime

well one of looking at it, if you've got the CCJ against them then that's on their record for 6 years whether they satisfy it or not.

If you'd accepted the £100/£50 then you'd have 1/3 or 1/5 of it back by now potentially. Whether they can afford more is irrelevant as it stands you've got nothing back apart from stress. I don't know the situation but what would happen if they stopped paying? Could you go down the route of the bailiffs then?

If you're adamant that you want the whole amount in one go then go down the route of the bailiffs but bear in mind the restrictions on the goods they can take.

ease

I did an online check and they have 1 CCJ but it's not mine, which is weird since I went to court and they judged in my favour, so I would have thought that would be on there now...

If I accepted the £100/£50 I would probably have had none of it by now, since they seem to be adamant that they don't want to pay me, hence all the lying to the court etc.

I was hoping there was an option other than the bailiffs, because I'd rather not have to send bailiffs to someone's house. I'm also pretty sure they've moved anything of value out of their house and put it in relatives' houses, in anticipation of bailiffs, since I did tell them that would be my last resort.