Small claims - chasing money owed

SoSue

Hi, we are currently chasing payment from a small claims counterclaim ruling and the builder has replied to say he owes us nothing as his business is a Ltd company. However, *he* took us to court, not his business. We counterclaimed in response. Is this right?

Details (if you want them...) : a year ago the builder of our craft room (outbuilding) didn't finish the job, then demanded final payment (1/3 of the cost). Despite him taking us to court (he didn't send us a letter of intention) he never submitted any of his paperwork; the court struck out his claim.

We submitted our counterclaim for the extra it cost us to get it finished and, again, he never submitted any paperwork; the court ruled he owed us the money.

This was before Christmas, so we have sent him a letter advising him that he has 14 days to pay, or we are going back to the court to request enforcement (including cc). His reply: have received the letter regarding “monies owed” and I’m disgusted. However I must refer you to the original quote as this was issued by a Ltd company and not me! I will also be sending a copy of this to the court as I’m amazed that they have ruled i owe YOU money!

We are going to reply and say we take that as a refusal to pay and we will follow this through the court.

Basically, he messed us around, threatened us, then didn't follow through with his scare tactics.

waamo

What is the name on the court papers? The person or company named is the one who owes you the money.

Is his company name similar to his own name? If they are totally different he couldn’t argue it was a typo in the names.

steampowered

Do you have judgment from the court?

If not, you need to request judgment.

If so, the judgment is the end of the matter. Once the court issues a judgment that is the end of the matter. The court has already made its decision.

Any background issues such as what name is on the invoice etc. etc. should have been raised by the builder at court BEFORE the court issued judgment. It is far too late for the builder to start raising legal arguments after the court has made its decision.

If the builder did not agree with the court's judgment, he had the option of appealing it. But as this was all before Christmas I suspect he can no longer appeal as he will have missed the strict timeframes for appealing. Even if he did appeal, he would not be permitted to raise new legal arguments that he failed to raise at the time.

I would get on with passing the judgment to bailiffs. If the CCJ is £600 or above, pass it straight to HCEOs. If it is less than £600, pass it to county court bailiffs.

SoSue

Thanks for your replies waamo and steampowered.

We have a "general form of judgement or order" from the court - I assume that is the judgement. It is his name, not his company name.

He never submitted any paperwork at all. His original claim against us was 3 lines of text, our defence was 5 pages. We think it was scare tactics that he didn't bank on us being willing to actually defend and follow through. Which is ridiculous, really, as he admitted he hadn't finished the work, yet never sought to remedy the situation.

steampowered

Yes, that is a judgment. It is a CCJ.

I would go ahead with passing the CCJ to bailiffs. There is no need to write further letters or ask him nicely to pay, unless you want to.

He has already been through the court system and lost, probably because he didn't submit any documents. You are now at the enforcement stage.

hollydays

If you think his communication borders on harassment at any point , ask him not to communicate with you directly, but through the court legal processes.
If he continues to contact you, you’ve given him the initial warning.

Gavin83

SoSue wrote: »

Thanks for your replies waamo and steampowered.

We have a "general form of judgement or order" from the court - I assume that is the judgement. It is his name, not his company name.

He never submitted any paperwork at all. His original claim against us was 3 lines of text, our defence was 5 pages. We think it was scare tactics that he didn't bank on us being willing to actually defend and follow through. Which is ridiculous, really, as he admitted he hadn't finished the work, yet never sought to remedy the situation.

This guy really is an idiot as had he bothered to actually submit some paperwork the ruling would never have gone the way it did.

I think this topic is a great example of why it's never a good idea to bury your head in the sand and ignore county court cases. If you do pretend it's not happening you get screwed over.

steampowered

Gavin83 wrote: »

I think this topic is a great example of why it's never a good idea to bury your head in the sand and ignore county court cases. If you do pretend it's not happening you get screwed over.

Indeed. Particularly when this gentleman was the Claimant, and started the county court process in the first place!

DoaM

He's even more stupid in that he paid both sets of fees ... filing and hearing! If he was using it as a scare tactic then he should have realised that it wasn't working and would be defended when the OP acknowledged the claim ... so why on earth did he pay the hearing fee and then do nothing else?

Idiot.

Blondetotty

I hope it's not the Dudley courts. My boyfriend got a judgement against someone last January as he turned up at the court and the guy didn't bother turning up or defending so my boyfriend won by default however, the guy then sent in a letter to the courts asking for it to be overturned because he'd been busy with a sick wife and they overturned the decision and he had to go back to court in May.
In May they both turned up and the judge decided to send it to trial so in December just gone he finally got his judgement after the guy settled at the last minute. The judge told him he had two weeks to pay or he would revert to the original judgement and he paid at 1 week 6 days!
So based on our experience, just because you have a judgement it seems to mean nothing. I will say though if you've got the judgement, get the bailiffs in as quickly as you can, go to the high court bailiffs if you want to, just get them on the case. My bf had already had them geared up and ready to chase last January if it wasn't for the ridiculous delays and playing the system that our defendant used.
Good luck.