I need to make a claim against someone, the trouble is I think all it needs is for the claim to land on his desk and he will pay up. But this will mean I have paid 35 quid fee to put in my claim, if he has paid then how do I get my 35 back?

Add the 35 quid to the claim, plus reasonable expenses, (postage, time etc.)

Or, is 35 a big perentage of the claim? if not just suck it up and be glad you have back what you were originally owed.

If he pays the sum owed and not the court fees you probably don’t get the £35 back. Unless you are prepared to go to court for just the £35.

Does he actually have the means to pay? Beware that if he doesn’t you are wasting your time. If he does but still doesn’t pay then you then have an expensive process of getting a debt collection agency to collect for you.

I’ve seen it suggested that you complete the paperwork for the court, but don’t submit it, and send this recorded delivery to the person with notice that if payment is not received within 7 days the paperwork will be submitted – and this apparently will get more success than just threatening legal action.

Send a letter before action – essentially a letter saying I’m going to put in the claim in 7 (or 14) days or else. There are loads of templates for them online. Make sure it says that it is a letter before action and says that you’ll start court proceedings without reference to them.

Assuming they don’t pay it within the 14 days, then once you put in the claim and pay your £35, they owe you it, assuming they admit that they owe you the money in the first place, or you win the court case.

Assuming you’re a person not a business, then going to court is not the end of the world – firstly, if they pay you back the original money, they have admitted that they owed you it. This way they can’t defend the court claim. Then they have a choice of either a)paying you the £35, or having a CCJ against them, which is a pain both for a business or an individual (means you can’t get mortgages etc.). For £35, only an idiot wouldn’t pay it.

Also, when you say £35, is that for a claim on Money Claim Online – if not, it is cheaper to do it on there.

If he pays the sum owed and not the court fees you probably don’t get the £35 back. Unless you are prepared to go to court for just the £35.

Although, in these circumstances, he is very unlikely to be able to defend the case if you do ‘go to court’, because he clearly did owe the money, given he admitted it by paying it, so ‘going to court’ only means filling in some forms on money claim online, it won’t be a hearing or anything.

Joe

Joemarshall gets a big tick. Thanks mate, just got of the phone with money claim online and they told me exactly what you just said.

YOu are usually awarded your fee from the defendant, so he pays.