Money Claim from HM Courts & Tribunals

Just_Di

shellzebs wrote: »

when I look at the breakdown, she's added interest . . . . to the total amount owed.

Does the original "agreement" allow for interest to be added, or is this a retrospective 'amendment' to the contract (if it exists)?

Di

shellzebs

Just_Di wrote: »

It could have been worse - she could have sent your email to the court as an "Admission" of the sum claimed and asked them to grant her a CCJ based on her 'evidence' (i.e. your email to her).

Lawyers have a saying "we don't litigate through correspondence".

Mediation is always Without Prejudice meaning that anything said during the Mediation cannot subsequently be disclosed in court.

Di

Thanks so helpful! So I think I should go down the route you said about before and then hopefully it can be sorted out without the CCJ!

shellzebs

Just_Di wrote: »

Does the original "agreement" allow for interest to be added, or is this a 'amendment' to the contract (if it exists)?

Di

Her spreadsheet to me shows added interest. She's added the court costs though, so that's additional to what I knew about - I just wasn't sure if she is legally allowed to claim for interest?

RAS

Charging interest turns a friendly loan into money lending, which is regulated.

shellzebs

RAS wrote: »

Charging interest turns a friendly loan into money lending, which is regulated.

So should I mention this in my defence?

sourcrates

shellzebs wrote: »

So should I mention this in my defence?

You need Di`s opinion on this, my thoughts are, if you charge interest, you must have it written into an agreement, also you should hold a consumer credit licence, she has neither an agreement or a CCL, so legal advice is what you need.

The court costs are standard.

Naomim

Just a couple of things I thought I'd mention.

As someone who has claimed against a builder £10k through small claims fast track. Yes she can claim interest on the court claim and if she wins she can also claim for you to pay her fees.

You will be asked if you are prepared to go for mediation and even when we entered the room with the judge she asked if we all wanted to step outside and come to an agreement first.

We won our case £10k + costs. This was last year & not seen a penny yet. If you have to prove your earnings to the court, she would have to pay the court for you to do this. The judge did not mention to any of us on how payment should be made, when and how.

To be honest, worst outcome is you have a ccj against your name but are no worse off financially. We haven't bothered going with bailiffs etc because we know our defendant doesn't have anything to take and would cost us more.

Naomim

Just_Di

Naomim said:

As someone who has claimed against a builder £10k through small claims fast track. Yes she can claim interest on the court claim and if she wins she can also claim for you to pay her fees.

You will be asked if you are prepared to go for mediation and even when we entered the room with the judge she asked if we all wanted to step outside and come to an agreement first.

We won our case £10k + costs. This was last year & not seen a penny yet. If you have to prove your earnings to the court, she would have to pay the court for you to do this. The judge did not mention to any of us on how payment should be made, when and how.

I'm pleased you won your case against the builder

However you were awarded costs because your claim was allocated to the Fast Track which is for claims of £10k and above and/or with complicated legal arguments (relatively rare for this to happen).

"When and how" the judgment should be written on the Order made by the DJ which is likely to say "forthwith" (meaning now) or sometimes "in 14 days" unless anything else was discussed in court.

I hope you get your money, although even if the builder doesn't pay up at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing you were right and he was wrong.

You have up to six years to seek enforcement of that CCJ so there's still a chance you'll get the money.

Fortunately the OP's claim appears to be for approximately £3k so it would be allocated to the Small Claims Track where costs aren't awarded to either party win or lose, so their ex-friend won't be able to recover them from him.

Di