I'm in the process of generating a claim in the small claims court to recover my deposit from my ex-landlord. He has given no reason for withholding deposit and not responded to our letters/phone calls.

My main concern is getting the correct address for my landlord on the claim form. I believe the contact address he gave during the tenancy may well be his parents address (whether he lives there or not) and I gather that he has already sold the property we previously rented. He spoke about selling up and buying another property, so he may well be living elsewhere.

I strongly predict that he will ignore the claim and that bailliffs will be required to reclaim the debt. If I give his what I believe to be his parents address, would bailliffs be able to recover the debt from this address, even if he doesnt live there? Or is this going to make it very difficult to get my money back?

Do I have any other options? Is there anyway to find out for sure where he is living? I think I may have worked out his business address but using this didnt seem like a good idea.

Any advice appreciated, particularly from anyone who has been through the small claims procedures before. Or even any general advice about claims for deposits.

Been ther, done that!

Muttley's Story

We found our LLs address from the electoral roll, which is available online. It cost about £5, and you can claim it as an expense on your Small Claims. We sent it recorded delivery to make sure he got it.

Thank God for the new TDS... probably the only decent thing NuLabia have done.

This will never be a problem again. Landlords will have to prove any dilapidations via a professional third party inventory or they're stoofed.

Congratulations Muttley on finally getting your deposit back I was following your story a while back and it's good to know things turned out well.

Thanks for your electoral roll suggestion. I just tried it but unfortunately, the LL doesn't appear after 2004 so he's probably on the private register. Looks like I'll have to choose between his parents and business address. Think I'll go with the parents as he gave the address during the tenancy.

Couple of other questions:
Is the wording of the actual claim important? I know there's particular recommended wording for claiming interest but does the rest matter as long as you give the general picture?
What are the rules about claiming loss of earnings? I earn a salary so if I go to court, I wont actually lose earnings but will have to use hard-earned holiday. Can I still claim?

The online claim form is very easy to fill in. You don't need to use legal jargon. The burden of proof lies with the landlord, not the claimant. In your case your landlord has not bothered to give a reason for witholding your deposit. The court won't like that.
If you win the court has the power to award costs against the landlord. You can include loss of earnings, but there is probably a cap on the amount you can claim (sorry, I don't know what it is). You will be able to include travel too. I made the mistake of not asking for costs, which encouraged my ex LL to drag his feet.

Thanks. Decided to write one last warning letter to LL - although doubt it will work. Then if no reply in a couple of weeks, i'm firing the claim in.



Do you have an option to get the claim sent recorded? It looked like they automatically send it first class when you claim online.

I can't remember! Our LL never gave his address, not even to the letting agent. We were advised that sending the claim to the letting agent was not sufficient, so we tracked him through he electoral roll. It turned out he lived within half a mile of us at the time. It helped that we knew the name of his partner, as he had a fairly common surname, whereas his partner didn't.

Muttley, I admire your tenacity, but the system can be played by a cunning landlord. I'm fearful that my landlord will do the same, although I have no evidence to support this (gut feel because he's a cheapskate). I suspect the legal system is painfully slow for all types of civil cases (e.g. custody battles) and needs a serious overhaul. I mean, a court hearing to determine the next court hearing? How ridiculous is that!

Simple. Claim costs. My LL was able to drag things out for months because I didn't claim costs. At the time I thought I was doing the decent thing, as all I wanted back was my deposit. With hindsight I would have claimed costs (and would have got them). I'm sure the LL would not have been so keen to drag it out if he had been slapped with a hundred pounds costs each time he forgot to turn up at court.

The reason I was tenacious was because I believed I had been wronged. If someone had come up to me in the street and stolen 300 pounds from me I would not have let it go. Why should I let the LL get away with it? I didn't gain financially, but it felt that I had done the right thing. Next time the LL will be less likely to rip off his tenant, who might not be in the position to defend himself.

I expect my LL will try to be as obstructive as possible even though am I claiming costs. I expect this will be a lengthy process and will end up causing me more inconvenience than it will my LL. However, I am determined to see this through mainly because of the way my LL has lied throughout the tenancy, while we went out of our way to help him. I am more angry about his behaviour than about the money but by the time the claim goes in he will owe into four figures.

Well, he still has a few days to reply to my latest letter before I submit the claim form but I'm not holding my breath!

been there too. several comments - have a very detailed paper trail - as much as possible. follow the process and submit to the court and landlord. keep copies of everything. print out emails. make a log of calls.

research your facts, get the dates in chrono order.

take photographs!

be polite when in front of the judge, respect his position (I believe there is a formal form of address - but cant remember)

(and remember you are in the right!!)

Let's win this one - we are going to see more and more chancers. In fact, I am 1/2 expecting a "withheld deposit" nonsense from my current LL - but at least I am prepared and tenacious. Also the inventory clerk on moving in was v.v thorough!!

go tiger!!

The correct form of address for a county court judge is "Your honour". There's lots of useful information here:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabo...ounty/index.htm

If this is the address he gave you for your contract then the court will consider this address to be effective for service.

Before suing this man you need to ask yourself one question - if I win can he pay me? It's pointless suing someone who's got no money. If he has money (or has a chance of getting some in the future) e.g. he works for someone else, or has property, or has a business, or someone owes him then you need to ask yourself another question - if I sue him have I a reasonable chance of winning? If the answer to this is yes then go ahead and issue your claim.

You can issue your claim for the money owed, your reasonable costs (i.e. costs which you can quantify and have been incurred), and interest. If you're not sure what the total is at this point you can issue a summons for the amount owed and costs and interest limited to x. e.g. Interest is set at a rate determined by the court.

Amount owed £300, costs and interest limited to £300. Total claim £600. Court costs (fees for issuing summons etc.) are separate from your costs and are added to the summons.

If the defendant defends your claim and it goes to hearing and if you win the case the judge will want to know what your costs are (this might include time off work to get legal advice, prepare summons, appear in court etc. The judge will not look favourably on trivial claims for costs, and may not award all your costs, but can award for time appearing in court - bring along a payslip to prove your hourly earnings rate. There is a maximum cost which the judge can award - probably something like £30-£50 per hour - the court staff will know.

It is immaterial that you use your annual leave to appear in court - this is a cost to you as you can't take that day off work another time.

Once you sue your ex-landlord the onus is on him to defend the action and justify why he is withholding your deposit. It's not sufficient for him to say that a carpet was damaged if you can show the damage is incurred through normal wear and tear i.e. everyday use. If on the other hand you've been playing rugby on the carpet and shredded it then you have no claim.

You should view suing someone as a series of hurdles on a cross-country race - it's not a sprint. It can take several months from start to finish - a steady pace will win.

You should send your letter warning of legal proceedings by recorded delivery - that way you have proof of receipt and the other party can't claim they didn't know about your intention. Give them plenty of opportunity to reply and settle e.g. 21 days, tell them that if they don't settle in the 21 days you will issue a summons without further reference to them after that time has elapsed.

The court somewhat oddly considers all post which it sends by first class post as good service. The onus is on the defendant to show they didn't get a summons: consequently all court documents are sent by normal first class post and not recorded delivery - you therefore have no option to send a summons by recorded delivery.

For £3 you can download the LL's title register which will tell you his/her name and address on the property you were renting.

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/

I've never seen a title register but wouldn't this just tell me the LL's address at the time he bought the property? Don't think this would be any help as he lived in the property for a time and I believe he has moved to his parents and maybe moved again since.

Well, that's my claim form submitted. Gave the LL a very generous period to respond and no response received.

Thanks all for the advice. I actually took the precaution of contacting a solicitor who advised using the LL's last known address (i.e LL's parents) for the claim. The court would think it a feeble excuse if he tried to argue that he never received the claim form. If the claim is successful and he doesn't pay up, he advised using a tracing agent to find out his true address.

Anyone have any experience of using tracing agents or know of any particularly good agents?

In your case you are may find it difficult recovering the money, and as I said in my first post you need to think carefully about throwing good money after bad. Forget about the wise-guy Rumpoles who post on here and tell you it's easy as they've won 3 simple cases. In your instance the case may be straightforward but recovering the money may prove a more long-term proposition.

For now, you need to focus on getting judgement. Once you've done that you need to think about enforcement. And, as I said, you may get a judgement easily but actually getting the money in your bank account is another matter. Tracing agents may work but equally he may fly again, and you're simply left with their costs as well.

If you can track him down, some enforcement options are more effective against such individuals but none is guaranteed.


Assuming you get a judgement in your favour:

Garnishee proceedings - does someone else owe him? - this person can be compelled to pay money into court. The debt can be for anything - for example if he's a coalman (unlikely) and he delivers coal to someone's house that person has to pay the money they owe him for the coal into court. Similarly if he's an architect and does drawing work for someone the fee for his services has to paid by that person into court.

The most common garnishee is a bank (they owe you the money in your account). So, if for example you paid your rent by standing order into his bank account then you can issue proceedings against his bank as you know the account details - timing on this is everything though as if there's no money in the account at the time you serve the garnishee then you get nothing. Similarly, does he rent the property to someone else through an agent? the agent owes him the rent minus their fee - a garnishee order against them is another possibility.

AE - If he's employed by someone else then an attachment of earnings order is a practical possibility.

Warrant: If he has goods of value somewhere these can be seized. However items on HP/lease do not belong to him so often cars turn out to be a poor target as mostly they're on HP. Furniture at the property he rented to you is not exempt - but unless they're valuable antiques it's probably not worth the cost of removal.

Bankruptcy - an unlikely option as it can be complex for someone who isn't familiar with the process.

Charging Order - if he owns the house you rented you can have a charging order registered with the Land Registry. You can do the search online to establish who owns it. The bank or building society will have a first charge but your interest can be registered and assuming there's money left over when it's sold, your interest has to be satisfied next. This is clearly a long-term option but if all else fails it's there to be considered if the debt warrants it.


If you can establish where he is and he doesn't move around much, often with such characters you are better getting an order for small amounts payable regularly rather than for the full amount at once. This is because part warrants can't be issued. This may sound both confusing and paradoxical but is best explained by example.

Suppose you are owed £500 and you get judgement for this. You ask for payment in full forthwith, and send a bailiff straight round to get your £500. The bailiff comes back with nothing because the guy hasn't got anything worth £500 (most people's property is worth bugger-all despite what it cost them) and refuses to pay.

Now suppose you get an order for £500 with £100 payable forthwith with further payments of £100 fortnightly thereafter. The bailiff goes round with a warrant for £100 (because this is payable forthwith and you've issued a warrant), sees the guy's nice new plasma telly and levies on it - knowing that at auction even a £1000 telly will clear the cost of transport, auction, and get you your £100. The guy now has a choice - pay the £100 (plus warrant fee) or lose his telly. A fortnight later he either pays the next installment or you send the bailiff round again and he levies on the telly again. In two months you'll have your money whereas the person who got judgement for all the money forthwith has nothing.

You can issue any number of enforcement proceedings (you pay a fee for each one, but this is recoverable against the defendant). In the case of a warrant you can ask for bailiffs to go around several times and to different addresses all for one fee, thus if the bailiff fails at one address one day you re-issue the warrant another week - or to another address. Equally, you could issue a garnishee proceeding one time for one amount owed, and a warrant the next time for the next installment.

Lastly you may not get your money for sometime. However, all debts in excess of £10 unsettled one month from judgement are registered with the Register of County Court Judgements. All the main credit-rating agencies (Expedia, Experian, etc.) buy this data - if at some stage in the future he needs to borrow money your debt will appear on his record and lower his credit rating - little comfort when money's sloshing around but sub-prime lending is tightening up and sometime a lender he needs money from may refuse him credit until your debt is repaid.

Dizzy, the "good money after bad" is £30, and you'll win hands down. Your LL has witheld your money and given no reason, so what's his defence? He's stolen money from you. Sue him.

There is no anecdotal evidence on these boards to support happy?'s claims that the tenant can be made to pay costs if he loses.
Don't worry that he may not be able to afford to pay you. Did he worry that you might not be able to afford to lose your deposit?

Just remember, it is NOT about the money. It's about the principle.

This sums up your limitations in a nutshell. It's entirely about the money.

It's pointless suing someone if there's no reasonable prospect of recovering the money - Dizzy has a straightforward claim but difficulty recovering the money.

It's obvious that you've reached the limit of your experience and have opinions but little or nothing of practical value to add to the thread

I don't see how having principles is a limitation. How do we know that the OP will have difficulty recovering the money?

Put the claim in, chances are he will bottle it before the hearing date and pay you out.

If the worst comes to the worst and a county court claims is awarded in your favor but you don’t recover funds from him – at least you can take satifaction in the fact you have screwed up his credit record thus ensuring any finance he tries to raise in the future will cost him addtional money.

Rich men can buy principles and poor men can afford nothing else, the rest of us take a risk when going to court. A sensible person ignores whether they have been wronged and attempts to minimise the risk of further loss.

In any civil claim, it's always tempting to sue "on principle". But suing costs money as you know - so does enforcing.

The only good decision to sue follows two cool-headed questions:

1. Do I have reasonable prospect of getting my money back if I win?
2. Do I have a reasonable prospect of winning?

Everything else is gambling.


You also asked why I think the OP may have difficulty recovering the money and my answer is based around his original questions - i.e. because the only address for service the OP has is the defendant's parents' address which was given when the original contract was formed.

The problem with this address is twofold:

It's possible that service may not be made here - as the defendant may no longer be at this address. Without good service judgement cannot be entered (see Q2 above).

Secondly, if this is the only address we have for the defendant we need to ask is he likely to have property of value there? As it's the parents' house it's my bet that the defendant has little or no property there - it's possible but not probable. (see Q1 above).

County court bailiffs are not permitted to levy on tools of the trade or bedding, any other property is fair game. But most items of furniture have little value and cost more to transport to auction than they subsequently would sell for - so bailiffs levy on them only as a last resort, if at all. Anything on HP or lease doesn't belong to the defendant until the final payment is made - so bailiffs can't levy on these (most cars fall into this category). Bailiffs are mostly left with small items of value, and this usually involves electrical items, antiques, jewellery.

Suddenly, your suggestion to sue because it's easy to win looks more than a little optimistic. Winning but getting nothing back is a pointless exercise.

The OP has a straightforward claim, but getting his money back requires more consideration than I'm betting you've got experience of to date. The OP has to consider alternatives to a warrant of execution and face the possibility that it may be a while before he sees any money from the defendant, and then because the defendant gets turned down for credit because he has a CCJ he long thought he'd escaped.

Dizzy may post on here in a week and say the defendant's caved-in, but equally don't be surprised if you hear no more for a while and in 18 months he posts saying his money's arrived out of the blue.

Well I guess that depends on the claimant. Personally, for me it's about both. On one side, it's a big hole in the pocket to lose the best part of a grand. On the other, would I sit back and do nothing even if I only had a small chance of seeing the money? No, probably not. I want my ex LL to face up to his actions, to know that I'm chasing him, to think twice about doing it to the next victim and, if all else fails, to get a CCJ so that he struggles to get a mortgage for his latest BTL. True, I'd be much more satisfied if I saw my deposit again but I know there's a risk I won't. I weighed up claiming or doing nothing and there was only really one option for me.

Anyway, the claim is already submitted, so I guess that's the simple part over. My ex LL is now running out of time to respond before I force a judgement. I never expected the claim to prompt him to refund me or even to issue a response. Expect he will lie low and think he will get away with it - all I have to do is turn into Columbo and track him down!
That's why I think that my claim requires much more in terms of the value of my own time than the monetary value associated with processing the claim. By the way, Muttley, this depends on the value of your claim, so for me it was £80. I've already checked through the edited electoral roll and now the unedited electoral roll without success. Obviously my ex LL is much more into stealing than he is into democracy!

I'm suing my amateur BTL ex-landlord right now for the deposit back. Quite frankly I hope he's in deep financial trouble right now. I'd be worth not getting the money back just to see his face when his last chance of not going bankrupt is taken away from him by the court.

Sadly it doesn't look like that's the case as he's hired a bunch of solicitors to represent him. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing he can't reclaim the cost of them if I lose

Dizzy,

You're right to take a cautious approach as it's not always plain sailing when it comes to small claims procedures. If the other party fails to respond you'll know by now from what you've read that you're entitled to get judgement. It's very tempting to get an order re-paying all the money owing in full forthwith (immediately) but as I posted previously this may not be in your best interest.

It's often easier with some debtors to get small amounts regularly than it is to get the whole lot at once - clearly this best applies if the person doesn't move around and has a regular income.

If the person has property which you know about which will cover the whole debt immediately and/or there's a possibility that they are likely to do a runner then in full forthwith is likely to be the best option.

From what you've posted this character seems to be elusive and is unlikely to respond to the summons. It's in your best interest to get a judgement as soon as possible but you need to weigh the pros and cons of the various types of re-payment options before asking for judgement as this has to be done at that time.

My gut feeling is some sort of re-payment schedule will give you most flexibility with enforcement e.g. £200 per forthwith and 4 x £200 monthly thereafter. You can then issue a warrant immediately for the first £200 which is due forthwith (you pay a fee for this, and this fee is added to the debt) and send a bailiff to his parents if you think he has property there to this value. This may put the frighteners on him and get him to re-pay the rest as well. The downside is that if he has no property there you lose the warrant fee as well until you can locate him and get it re-issued. If he pays this warrant and then defaults on the next payment (due in a month's time) you issue another warrant and so on.

You need to take an educated guess at how much you can squeeze him for each month - set it too high and a bailiff will return with nothing - set it too low and it takes for ever to get your money back.

If you can track him down he can also be compelled to attend court to disclose his full financial position. This is worth considering as it may open-up your other enforcement options. Don't forget you can choose more than one method of enforcement, and you can come back for a further bite of the cherry if things change. So, if the first time you send a bailiff round you end up with nothing, you can send him back in six months under the same warrant without paying a further fee if you think he's now got cash or something worth levying on. You can send the bailiff to another address in the court's jurisdiction for no additional fee. Warrants can also be sent to other courts - so for example if your case is in Birmingham and you find out he's moved to Cornwall you can issue a warrant in Birmingham and the court will transfer it to Penzance county court (or wherever).

In the meantime the other payments become due each month and you could for example issue garnishee proceedings on one (or all of these) if you think he's likely to get money in the bank. Similarly, if he gets a job somewhere in three months an attachment of earnings becomes available to you. There are lots of permutations and with some debtors you have to be creative and learn the system.

One other advantage of payment by installments: if he has several creditors and they enter judgement for the full amount forthwith (because most people do) and each of these is a large debt your £200 is a much more practical sum and he may pay it just to get one of his creditors of his back for a while - repeat and rinse as they say.

Accept it as a challenge and play a long game. In your case, I think you're running a marathon, and you're much more likely to win as a tortoise than as a hare.

Happy?, just a point of confusion here. You say that service may not be made at the address as the defendant may no longer be there and without good service judgement cannot be entered. However, in your earlier post, you state that the court would consider the address he gave for the contract (i.e the same address) as effective for service.

My feeling is that it ought to be effective for service as you are supposed to be able to use the last known address of the defendant. Also, the advice from a solicitor I consulted was that the court would think it a feeble excuse if he argued that he had not received the claim because it was sent to his parents.
Well, in all honesty, I actually don't know that the address is his parents but I have concluded this because an acquaintance told me that the parents lived in that area and because the signatures on my recorded delivery receipts share the same surname as my ex LL.

So in this case, how do you know whether you have got good service or not? Neither the court nor I know whether he is living there or not. I guess you will only find out when he doesn't pay up and the baillifs return empty handed?

You should trust the advice you have been given by your solicitor (I have lots of opinions but don't pretend to give advice).

I am in my postings covering several scenarios (which may not arise) and this has led to the confusion - my apologies.

Suffice to say the procedure is this:

The court will post the summons to the defendant. He has 14 days from the date of service to reply. If he doesn't reply you can enter judgement by default - and you should do this without delay. The court deems it good service if the summons isn't returned by the Royal Mail.

Sometimes, the summons is returned by Royal Mail with 'gone away' (or something similar) written on it. In this case you cannot enter judgement because good service is deemed not to have been made. If you think the defendant is at that address and is avoiding service you can pay a court bailiff or a private process server to serve him there.

Sometimes, a person has a genuine reason why they didn't get a summons and they may wish to defend it (even though you previously got judgement by default some months before). Natural justice requires that such a person get a hearing and the court can set aside the previous judgement.

In your case I don't think this applies - though matey may try to argue this at sometime in the future.

The reasons I would suggest why it doesn't apply are:
He's a businessman (a sole trader) who gave this address to you when he made the contract and he hasn't subsequently told you of a new address. As a businessman it's up to him to make proper arrangements for his mail. If he doesn't a judge is likely to conclude he was deliberately trying to avoid the summons and allow the judgement to stand.


All of the above is an aside:

Your next move is to get judgement by default (if he hasn't defended or admitted). You should contact the court 14 days after the date of service, and get judgement without delay. Decide whether you want the defendant to pay the whole lot in one lump sum, or whether you want him to pay by installments. My gut feeling is you'll get more success with installments (see previous post) but you need to decide for yourself.

If you have questions about enforcement I'm happy to give my views.

Well, have to admit wasnt expecting this. Just had notification that LL has part admitted to the claim
Quite what this means, I dont know. I guess it could almost mean anything in terms of the financial value of the claim but his defence will make very interesting reading nonetheless!

I suppose that at least I now know that the claim has been served and he has not fallen off the edge of a cliff! Although there still maybe address related issues down the line, depending on his circumstances and whether he has notified the court of his actual address or not.

Sounds good to me!

You will be sent a copy of the admission/defence and asked whether you wish to settle - you will be told by the
court how long in which you have to respond.

A partial admission has to be judged on its own merits.

Clearly if someone's admitting 5% of your claim it's quite understandable if you reject it outright and pursue the whole claim. On the other hand if they're admitting 85% of your claim then you'd need to think carefully before rejecting - good claims are lost everyday and it may cost you more to take time off work than you would gain from pursuing the other 15% of the claim - remember you're pursuing the principal not the principle.

Generally, a partial admission is accompanied by a payment in satisfaction. This has two benefits to the defendant:
1. It shows goodwill (rather than just a delaying tactic).
2. It can limit their further costs in the event the case goes to trial.

Because the defendant has responded, the question of service has been eliminated - good service has been made and it's the defendant's responsibility to notify the court of any further change, it only becomes an issue for you if he does a moonlit flit and you need to send the bailiffs in.

You need to see the response and weigh the merits of what's on offer.

Well done Dizzy.


Worth the £80 already

Thanks for the pat on the back Chris_86 but unless I see 100% of the amount owed back in my hand, I´m not going to be 100% satisfied. If it´s a derisory offer we are almost back to square one except that we know that good service has been made. As I understand it, a part admission can even include a counterclaim. So as happy? says, I will just have to wait to see what offer is on the table.

Does anyone know who is responsible for payment of the court fee, if the defendant is only admitting part of the claim? Is this split between claimant and defendant? For example, it would seem a bit harsh on the defendant if he had to pay the full £80 court fee and was only admitting to £100 of a £800 claim. However, if he admitted, say, £700 of the £800, you would think he should pay most, if not all, of the court charge.

If I remember correctly the cost is rolled into the claim, thus you would effectively be getting £20 back from a £100 payment (it's unlikely that the court would think that this was a reasonable offer to settle).

Received the documents from the court. My claim was for £850 plus fees, interest and costs.

1) LL has admitted to £800, being equal to the deposit.
2) LL has disputed £50 which it was agreed he would pay us for cleaning when we first moved in.
3) LL has offered to pay £50/month.

4) LL disputes £50 because he claims he already "gave £50 from the rent direct to the agent" and also (rather confusingly) states that he only "received £750 one month instead of £800" for the rent. So which was it??!
In fairness, he has always claimed that he gave the money to the agent. However, the agent says they never got it. What he doesn't do is deny that he agreed to pay us. What is for sure is that we never got the money we deserved!

5) LL has also written a defence (not sure why as he has ticked the admit box). LL claims the following:
He had to get the property professionally cleaned after we moved out (which is a joke, as it was spotless) and used the £50 to clean it.
We left before AST ended (true but only after we received an eviction date from the lender because he wasnt paying the mortgage and after numerous attempts, failed to confirm that he had sorted it out) so he kept the deposit. (he also failed to explain why he kept it)

So, what to do now? Obviously I'm happy about the £800 admission, although not so much the rate of payback but his claims about the cleaning have really wound me up.
Property was dirty when we moved in (we have photos), was spotless when we moved out (we have photos and witnesses) so I am really tempted to reject the offer and go for the full claim. Although the cleaning money agreement was not written down, he has not denied that it was made and we have a letter from the agent confirming that there was an agreement. Also there was no inventory.

LL has admitted £800 but what about the court fee? Can I just add that onto the amount owed? And interest too or is that added on automatically?

Please be happy with what you have, dizzy. I sued for my deposit back and got counter claimed for £2.5k. I would die to be in your position.

Remember what I said in the first place: the only good reason to sue someone is to get your money - forget principles. This man clearly has financial troubles (eviction notice from lender) and you are likely to be in a race with other creditors.

He has made an admission in respect of the large majority of your claim and although my bet is you would win the other fifty quid you have to consider will he pay any of it without enforcement. You could go to court, take a day off work, win the full claim and get your costs awarded for your time off work and still find this bugger doesn't pay.

As it is what's on offer is £800 of £850 this sounds like a very high rate of recovery (c95%). What's not satisfactory is the rate of repayment. This is clearly not a reasonable offer from a businessman with assets and income from a rental property (and even less satisfactory from a man with other creditors chasing him).

My thoughts would be to accept the admission but advise the court that you require a much higher rate of payment - I would suggest £100 in fourteen days with further payments of £100 fortnightly thereafter. Remember - if you need to send a bailiff in he has to be able to find goods to this value - this is much more likely for a warrant for £100 than it is for a warrant for a higher amount.

Accepting £800 at £100 per fortnight means that the overwhelming majority of your money is back in your mitts by Christmas (if he meets the schedule). Also don't forget if more than £10 remains outstanding more than one month after judgement the debt is registered with the Register of County Court Judgements. This debt will then be picked-up by the credit reference agencies (Experian etc.) and will remain on his file for six years. Sub-prime lenders are getting scarcer and mainstream lenders will not be impressed (or charge him a punitive lending rate) when he next goes looking for credit.

Losing fifty quid isn't such a problem if you can recover the other £800 whilst he's being chased by other creditors. He thinks he's got one over on you for cleaning charges but you've effectively shafted this guy for the next six years as far as other credit lines are concerned and all for the price of a round of drinks.

One more thought - if he is being chased by the lender for repossession of the property a charging order as an enforcement technique may be just up your street. Courts don't enforce charging orders for small sums but if the bank are foreclosing this may be the best way to get your money if he doesn't pay you willingly.

I need to give this some more thought but I guess the sensible, unemotional decision is to accept the £800. Regarding the rate of repayment and the LL's financial situation (according to the admission form):

1) LL claims to have been unemployed for over a year.
2) LL claims his bank account is overdrawn.
3) LL claims to be lodging.
4) LL claims to be getting £50/week from others.
5) LL claims to have three loans requiring about £100/month.
6) LL also claims that he is currently trying to recover money owed to him by his company which is being held by customs and this is the reason he cannot pay immediately.

If all this is true, I struggle to see how he can even afford to pay back £50/month. So I would be reluctant to increase the rate of repayment for fear of getting nothing.

I now know he has sold the property we rented recently, at a significant profit. So you would have thought he would have some spare funds, although he previously talked about selling up because there was another property he wanted to buy. So I take his claims with a pinch of salt (see previous post) but maybe better to play safe.

I think that your caution is justified given what's been put in the admission form. I think you've come up against the difficulty which many people face when visiting the county court - namely the practicality of actually getting your money back. However, this is a setback not the end of the race. You need to be dogged, detached and determined. You may find that it takes some time to recover the money but a steady pace is appropriate.

In your circumstances I would consider the following:

1. Accept the admission for £800 and the offer of payment at £50 per month - with the first payment in 14 days (ask the court for judgement with interest at a rate to be determined by them - you might get lucky on this). If the man is true to his word he will make the payment - if not you have the opportunity to start enforcement without inordinate delay.

2. Details on enforcement options open to you are here:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabo...ement/index.htm


3. I would consider an Order to obtain information (which gives you the opportunity to find out about his personal finances in detail). You can also ask for him to be examined as to his means at any time - even if he's not in arrears with the current order. He may not have money at the moment but his circumstances can change - if they do you can ask for an increase in the order. You're looking for either inconsistencies in his story or the opportunity to get sufficient information to apply for another form of enforcement - any property is a target e.g. stocks and shares, money on a long-term ISA etc, if he mentions any accounts get the full details of the account but say nothing more.

4. If he does default on payments and you can get nothing at the moment be patient - he might get a job in a year from now and an attachment of earnings would then be appropriate.

5. Do some investigation of your own if you can - if he has property somewhere else (anywhere in England and Wales) a bailiff can levy on this.

He's banking on you giving-up early, but you're not playing limited-over cricket but the full five days. Keep your expectations steady and pace yourself accordingly. Remember the RCCJ is your friend.

Against my better judgment, I've decided not to accept the offer and to dispute the rest of the claim. It's not a common sense or unemotional decision and it wasn't easy to make. The disputed part of the claim is only a small fraction of the whole but, as I said previously, for me this is about both the money and the principle. I'm not being greedy, I don't feel greedy - I just wasn't prepared to accept some of the rubbish the LL wrote on the claim form. Besides, I don't think he's got a leg to stand on.

I've written to the LL and tried to persuade him to drop the dispute. Not sure if that will have an effect but the costs are likely to exceed the value of the disputed monies.

Never an easy call (and probably quite deliberate on the Landlord's part). Wish you all the best with it - keep us all posted on progress.

Well, I received the allocation questionnaire and it was returned to the court several weeks ago. Nothing back so far. Any idea how long it takes before a court date is confirmed? I guess it all depends on the local court and how busy they are.

The allocation questionnaire asks for your availability over the next 4 months! Hope it doesn't take that long to arrange a date!

Update - the judge instructed us to mediate. Waste of time in my opinion and we are still waiting to hear something from the court, six weeks after sending the forms.