Letter to defendant telling them to pay..

[workmanmark]

Right, so...the next step on our somewhat tedious small claims journey - after putting a claim in and the other company not defending it - is that we have a copy of a letter from the court asking them to pay (the £7.5 approx).

From the advice I've been given here, there appear to be two routes to collection:

1. third party debt order (freeze their bank account, and so on) - I know their bank account details and I'm confident they have enough money in there..
2. high court enforcement. Reading HM Courts for EX321, it looks as though the county court bailiffs can't be asked to recover anything over £5k... I didn't realise that..

Two questions for anyone who has any advice/experience:

- which option would you choose?
- is the high court option relatively straightforward to follow for someone who has zero prior debt collection experience?

I'm wanting to see this through myself rather than use a third party, simply because I need this experience.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Charlie B ACS]

The HCEO is pretty Straight forward, they can email you the forms required.

To speed up the process you can go to the court to get the judgement "sealed" then send it to them for the Writ of FiFa.

The added bonus is that after the initial fee, the only other fee is about £60 abortive fee if they don't collect.

I can't comment on how easy a third party debt order is to get, but if you really are that confident there will be money in the account, it would be the most efficient.

 

[workmanmark]

Am grateful for you comments there, cheers, nice one. Just doing a bit of reading up on the high court enforcement officers (what they can and can't take) and come across something saying that they can't take 'tools of the trade'. I'm wondering..could it be that pretty much anything *at* a business address could be construed as tools of the trade..

The third party debt order is looking a more attractive option at the mo.

Cheers,

Mark

The HCEO is pretty Straight forward, they can email you the forms required.

To speed up the process you can go to the court to get the judgement "sealed" then send it to them for the Writ of FiFa.

The added bonus is that after the initial fee, the only other fee is about £60 abortive fee if they don't collect.

I can't comment on how easy a third party debt order is to get, but if you really are that confident there will be money in the account, it would be the most efficient.

 

[Charlie B ACS]

Am grateful for you comments there, cheers, nice one. Just doing a bit of reading up on the high court enforcement officers (what they can and can't take) and come across something saying that they can't take 'tools of the trade'. I'm wondering..could it be that pretty much anything *at* a business address could be construed as tools of the trade..

Is it a Sole trader, or is it a Partnership / Limited company?

 

[workmanmark]

Ltd company, trading well, established for decades.

The other thing I thought about third party debt order was...they're probably not supposed to, but could a bank, if friendly with their client, tip them off prior to an account being frozen...

Starting to get a little paranoid now...serves me right for overthinking it maybe..

Cheers,

Mark

Is it a Sole trader, or is it a Partnership / Limited company?

 

[Charlie B ACS]

In that case, the Good news is that Tools of the Trade have no relevance. Any property belonging to the Limited company can be taken, as the protection on TotT only applies to Sole Traders.

 

[Legalbeagle]

If the judgement debt is against a limited company in as good a standing as you suggest, then I know of three solicitors who would enforce that judgement using a winding up petition on a no win no fee. PM me and I will let you have contact details.

 

[AndrewEardley]

Apart from the obviously illegality of tipping the client on an order; they are usually dealt with by a central department; who apply the stop and then inform the relationship manager.

My guess is they do this to prevent the situation you described