Hello, new user who would like some advise - Claim against Car Dealer

[kingstonkhan]

Hello everyone

I've been lurking on the forums, trying to see if I could find someone who appeared to be in the same situation as me, but I haven't had much luck. I'll try and keep it as short as I can

I am the claimant in a case against a car dealer that I am claiming my money back for due to a faulty car. I used the Money Claim online service. I had a result of a hearing hearing this week, where the defendants application was dismissed. Neither of us attended the hearding, I didn't as I fell ill the day before the hearing and was sent home from work, I called the court to ask for advise and they advised to email my objeections for the judge to review. I assume his non-attendance went against him as he didn't even bother notifying the court he wasn't attending.

What forum should I be looking in? I would like to know what steps I take next, I have already had a warrant executed against him as he never responded to the original claim and this failed. He claims that his post was being stolen so had no knowledge of the claim, even though he was pretty clued up in his request for judgement to be set aside form about the details of the claim.

Any advise on what forum I should be posting in or where I stand would be much appriciated.

Thank you

[Amethyst]

I'll move you to the court claim forum

What was the Defendant's application ? I'd guess it was a set-aside following on from your default judgment and the bailiff brought the judgment to his attention. He applied to set it aside ( he may have got a copy of your claim and judgment from the court before making his application ) - and the Judge dismised his application - so your judgment remains. As you already have a warrant, you can reinstruct the bailiff to proceed with collection.

[kingstonkhan]

Hi Amethyst

Thank's for the quick reply.

Yes, it was just a request to set aside the default judgement.

Does it take a while to update the case details on the Money Claim online service, as I'm under the impression that I would have raise a new warrant as it returned with a "Debtor not known at address" code.

If I do proceed with the warrant to enforce judgement, would I be better off going for high court or stick with county court enforcement? Should I get some legal advice?

Thank you

[Amethyst]

How much is the judgment for? Presumably you have his current address details from his application ? has the judgment been amended to his new address ?

[kingstonkhan]

The orginal claim was for £1900, which has grown to £2097 from added costs and fees.

He hasn't moved from that address and is still trading from it. He had registered a new office as he is a sole trader, so the claim is against him, not a company, therefore the judgement did not need amending.

[Amethyst]

Oh, how did the warrant get returned with a "Debtor not known at address" code ?

You don't usually have a registered office as a sole trader, that would be for limited companies. As long as he was a sole trader when you bought the car from him you should be fine with the judgment against him individually.

[kingstonkhan]

I don't know, I had an alert on my Money Claim online account that the final return for the warrant had been received, but I had to email the bailiffs at Peterborough court to find out what that meant. They were the ones that gave me the "Debtor is unknown at address" result. I can only assume that he claimed that no one by his name was living at that address.

I think he registered a new office as an attempt to throw the process off as he still trades from his home address and he is still a sole trader.

[Amethyst]

Grrr. Sounds about right. Okay so do you want to continue with Bailiffs ( does he have anything worth taking at his address ? if he doesn't pay - does he buy and sell cars or sell them on behalf of other owners ? - I think High Court is likely to get more of a result, not take any crap about not knowing the person, and the judgment is over £600 so you could use them )

Or possibly look at getting him to court for means questioning ( http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.u...t_forms_id=547 ) -

The order also contains a warning to the debtor that failure to do what the order says may result in imprisonment.

which might get a response... that's £55 or £110 to be served by bailiff ( although if he's playing the ' don't know that person' game that might be tricky )

[kingstonkhan]

I do want to continue with the bailiffs, especially if I stand more of a chance to get payment with High Court bailiffs.

I've been doing some digging, I work in IT so I know about digging into "who is" records to find out about who owns a web domain. His website has been offline for about 2 months, but up until then, he was still trading with about 10 cars advertised on his site. He said he buys part-ex from main dealers and then sells those on to his own end customers.

Since his website went dark, I did further digging on Facebook and found that a week ago he listed 3 cars for sale on a local selling page, total value of all three cars are £12.485 so he has assets that can cover the debt. I've taken screenshots as well, just in case it helps the bailiffs.

I assume that if I cannot raise another warrant through Money Claim online, I would have to do it via the paper form?

[ostell]

As he seems to have assets that can be claimed then I would be very tempted to take this to the High Court Enforcement.route

[kingstonkhan]

I'm tempted by the High Court enforcement route as well.

The only issue I have at the moment, is that I have done the entire process through the Money Claim online service. This service has not been updated with the result of the hearing, so the online portal is still saying that there is a bar in place for the defendant while waiting for the hearing. This is preventing me from raising a new warrant, am I able to do this via form N293A or do I have to wait until my case details are finally updated on Money Claim online?

Thank you both for your input so far, its been really helpful.

[Amethyst]

You should get a written judgment from the set aside hearing and the barr should be lifted then, if not give the court a call and ask them.

[kingstonkhan]

Hi

Sorry I've been quiet, I had contacted the court and was waiting for a response. They sent through the leaflet in regards to enforcing judgement, so it looks like I'm on for High Court enforcement, I just need to send the application to Norwich County Court as the case was transferred.

Before I have a look into how to do this, is there any general advice before I steam ahead?

[ostell]

If you have a judgement and the paperwork you go directly to the High Court Enforcement companies. Your local court doesn't need to get involved.

[kingstonkhan]

Hello,

I know this one went quiet, but I have a good result! I instructed High Court Bailiffs to enforce the judgement and they collected in full! Result!

The car dealer now wants the car back, I asked the High Court Enforcement company how I go about returning the car before he asked for it back. They said that unless there is a court order stating that the car is to be returned on settlement of the judgement, I do not have to return the car. They looked over the paperwork and said that this order has not been made on my case, so I do not have to give him the car back.

The car has been stored in a secure location at a local scrap dealer, as I was ready to give up at one point, they want to charge the car dealer (not me) for storage as they have had it for over a year. Of course now that I've won, hes challenging this.

Am I right in believing that I do not have to return the car, unless he gets a court order, ordering the return of the car? Can the scrap dealer charge storage fees if they were not on the orginal court filing? (they amount to £400 +VAT at a rate of a £1 a day)

Thanks for all of your previous help :-)