Small claims for payment sent to UK account.

jacsll55

Can I make a claim against an individual for payment made to UK account from overseas bank account. Both parties live in UK.

user1977

Not sure what you mean - they've sent you money, but you want to make a claim against them?

tightauldgit

jacsll55 said:

Can I make a claim against an individual for payment made to UK account from overseas bank account. Both parties live in UK.

on the face of it, without knowing the details, probably yes. Although be aware that the 'UK' isn't a single legal jurisdiction - do they both live in England and Wales for example? Where the money came from shouldn't really matter. 

jacsll55

Both parties live in England, Say mr. John paid money from his overseas bank account to mr. Robert's UK bank account, mr Robert has failed to provide the service or return bavk the money. Does that make sense?

user1977

jacsll55 said:

Both parties live in England, Say mr. John paid money from his overseas bank account to mr. Robert's UK bank account, mr Robert has failed to provide the service or return bavk the money. Does that make sense?

Yes, you can sue him for failing to provide the service, but how the money was paid doesn't make a difference to that.

soolin

jacsll55 said:

Both parties live in England, Say mr. John paid money from his overseas bank account to mr. Robert's UK bank account, mr Robert has failed to provide the service or return bavk the money. Does that make sense?

Depending on the amount small claims might be an option but you would need a full geographic address for the person you are claiming against and of course evidence of what you paid for and some sort of agreement between you. 

jacsll55

Thank you for the responses.
The only evidence is the money transfer records. Most of the communication was verbal over the phone. The amount is £10,500.

soolin

jacsll55 said:

Thank you for the responses.
The only evidence is the money transfer records. Most of the communication was verbal over the phone. The amount is £10,500.

I think you might need a little more , do you any business details for the recipient , any original advert for the services you purchased? Where did you find the person , who recommended them or on what basis did your research say they were safe to basically hand a large amount of cash over to them? Assuming this was a business are they registered with any regulating body and have you checked google view to see if the business premises are where they are supposed to be. 

You will need to gather together as much evidence as you can about the other party , when you paid the money across did you have to confirm the name it was paid to, and was that the business or an individual name as that could make a difference with who you try and sue. 

Okell

If you are talking about recovering the full £10500 through court action then that is above the "small claims" threshhold and the danger of having to pay the defendant's legal costs comes into play if you lose.

None of my business but sounds an unusual transaction for a UK resident to fund a £10k deal (agreed over the 'phone) from a non-UK bank account...

RefluentBeans

jacsll55 said:

Both parties live in England, Say mr. John paid money from his overseas bank account to mr. Robert's UK bank account, mr Robert has failed to provide the service or return bavk the money. Does that make sense?

In this case are you Mr John, with an international bank account, and Mr Robert is your contractor who has failed to provide a service? 

In respect to the large amount of money paid, it seems odd that you a) paid outright and b) paid without the formation of a written contract. Was this money paid upfront for a service, or was this a part of a larger deal? Or was the £10k an accumulation of multiple bank transfers for various services? 

When you say failure to provide services, are we talking a whole failure to perform (they did nothing), a partial performance (they did some work but not all of it) or substandard performance (the work has been finished but is of substandard quality, or that you stopped the work part way through because of substandard quality)? 

Unfortunately, in these cases where there is ambiguity in the contract because it’s not written down, it’s always harder to prove anything. It tends to end in a he said she said thing. 

This also obviously depends a lot on what the services were. I am sort of assuming building, but it seems odd that a large project wouldn’t have a contract (for protection of both sides), but services can mean anything. 

In regards to your original question, the bank account (international or UK) doesn’t matter really. But there’s a lot of other issues especially with regards to breach of contract, and the fact that you likely won’t be able to proceed via small claims court for the full claim.

Personally, I would probably seek out professional legal advice on this. The claim is fairly large, and the contract is complex. So a solicitor in UK law could help. 

tightauldgit

jacsll55 said:

Thank you for the responses.
The only evidence is the money transfer records. Most of the communication was verbal over the phone. The amount is £10,500.

First question I would ask is how you plan to establish a breach of contract took place when there is no evidence of what service(s) were supposed to provided?