After suffering no end of customers going into liquidation, administration and bankcrupcy last year and never seeing a single penny of what I lost I thought I’d now go after the small fry that owe me.

I’ve got about five guys that owe me on average £1000 – £3000, but I know that they don’t have work or are in between jobs and some have gone home to mum.
If these guys genuinely don’t have a penny is it worth me pursuing court action or will I just be losing more money.

I’m totally pi$$ed off with the fact that I’ve paid all my debts, wages, VAT, taxes etc etc and keep having to take it on the chin.
If the MP for Luton North, Mr F Godwin and IWH crossed my path I might just go a bit mental.

Small claims is cheap to do if it is applicable to you. Can be done on line for £50 ish.

If it can result in a CCJ(?) or similar against the defendant then its worth it. Could someone clarify on that?

I would say that 5 or 6 debts of that amount are worth pursuing. They might not look like they have any money but if you can get CCJs against these guys then you can at least establish this for definite.

You could also press them into a reviewable repayment agreement, so they start off paying a small amount, but as soon as they’re earning again then the repayments can be upped accordingly.

go down the small claims route;

a) it means they won’t be able to walk away from the debt
and
b) even if you don’t get the whole amount up front you may get ‘x’ per week/month out of them which will help and when they do eventually get more work you’ll still be there as a creditor.

yes it is
you have done the work and they have nt paid
their problems are nt your problems – go get what your are rightfully owed oldgit!

A CCJ also means they have a sort of ‘record’ against them whether they pay up in the end or not. So at least its a form of retribution.

Well it’s about £100 on line to start court action, so that’s another £500.
I’m really only interested in getting the money, I don’t care if they have CCJ’s.
I would sell my debts to some heavies, but a few of them are living with their parents and I would never want muscle intimidating the wrong people.

you really need to decide what likelihood there is of them paying you back now/in the future really.

they won’t be paupers their whole lives I suspect but they’ll quite happily not pay you back in a years time when they have some money again…

Definitely worth it, I recently got £1400 plus costs from a customer.

However, not wishing to sound rude, but what the heck are your credit control people doing to allow debts like that to mount up?

That’s probably the average spend for a one man band electrician in one month, some of my guys walk out with nearer £20,000 a month, you just hope they pay you back.
I know in 2008 I bought someone Pauls Gasgoines ex-missus’s BMW convertable with my money And another bought himself a holiday home in Weymouth with my money, put it in his partners name and went bankrupt before the court papers were issued.

Tell you we live in a C*** culture. Then you get guys like that **** on the BIG thread says he has problems, try running your own business, getting robbed blind, bringing up two kids and caring for a very ill wife who is waiting to see if she has cancer.

Tell you we live in a C*** culture. Then you get guys like that **** on the BIG thread says he has problems, try running your own business, getting robbed blind, bringing up two kids and caring for a very ill wife who is waiting to see if she has cancer.

Hope all goes well for you wife.

Business wise I hear what you are saying, I’ve just had my last major customer on saying that he is being forced to go with preferred suppliers by his HQ, things are very bad at the moment, if I lose his business I’m ****.