Faulty car purchase and now got a CCJ against the seller. Exploring my next move.

Scorpio009

Hi everyone,
hope someone can help with this!!

I bought a car for my daughter in Feb 2025 for £2900 from 2W car limited in Bedford. Car was full of issues (timing belt, head gasket, solenoids, etc). Got repaired paying another £3400.

On 2nd September, I got a CCJ issued against the seller as no response from him.

I have options to enforce a CCJ after 30 days (which have passed). Now Im confused as to which one to go for as they each cost more money and could be easily fruitless. I can see on companies house that seller's company tried to strike off the company but got rejected by the registrar (so still active).
And he is still selling cars on autotrader website.

My question is:
1. If I send the bailiffs through court for £95 fee, it could be fruitless as the Company might not even have an assets on disposal.
2. If I opt for freezing their bank account for £135, they might not even have funds in.
3. If opt for freezing their land / property for £135, could be useless as the company might not even own anything.

Would it be worth exploring other routes like complaining to autotrader and writing negative reviews online?

I am clueless on what to do, even after winning the small claim court case by default! 

Any advice be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Mala

user1977

I would have thought it unlikely they'd have attempted to strike off the company if it still had assets.

Their last accounts (as at over a year ago) said they only had about £15k of assets, so obviously no property in that, possibly not any cash in the bank.

MyRealNameToo

95% or so of cases get a judgement by default, its by far the most common outcome. Unfortunately public data doesnt go on to say what percentage are ever marked as satisfied but suspect it will be an equally small proportion of cases as are defended. 

The balance sheet of the company is small but was positive when last reported. It's therefore unlikely that they own land. I also note the sole director and owner has a second company WW Cars Limited that they registered last year so could be they have a plan to move assets to the new firm thus depriving you. 

Were you the one that objected to the striking off? Certainly worth keeping your eye on the Gazette to see if the try again. 

molerat

A lot of these car dealers use smoke and mirrors to hide anything they have.  The cars they are selling belong to someone else - another company owned by them - etc so the entity you have a claim against doesn't actually own anything apart from a laptop.  All legal and above board.

Scorpio009

Hey, thanks for your reply. NO, I wasnt the one to object to the striking off. 

Scorpio009

Hi everyone,
Was looking through autotrader to see how the company is still trading and found out there were two parallel companies for that registered address dealing with the same business. 2w car ltd and ww cars ltd. On my invoice, it mentions both names as well. So 2w car is now dissolved and ww cars is active. Also, they changed registered address for both these companies in June on the gazette. Called the court yesterday and am given two options: 1. To re-serve the CCJ to new address at no extra cost OR 2. Amend the CCJ for another £123. 

My concern is the CCJ mentions 2w car as the defendant.

Any advice on how to take this further? Thanks for your help in advance.

user1977

You can't enforce a judgement against a company which is dissolved - it simply doesn't exist any more.

Isthisforreal99

There is of course a 3rd option, stop throwing good money after bad.

As you have discovered getting the CCJ was the easy bit, enforcing it against a Ltd company with little assets is not so easy especially when they just set up another Ltd and repeat.

People often cite 'it's the principle' which is fair enough but how much are you prepared to spend on your principles.

Woodstok2000

How did you oay for the car? Any of it on a credit card?

sheramber

The OP hasn’t said what he is claiming for.

He bought a car for £2900

He repaired it at a cost of £3400

Presumably,  the car is now fixed and being used?

SiliconChip

Woodstok2000 said:

How did you oay for the car? Any of it on a credit card?

I don't think S75 would apply anyway as the OP bought the car for his daughter.