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I am owed money by a company that no longer has any assets or income. It is a holding company and the trading subsidiaries have been liquidated. Filed accounts are overdue, and the last accounts showed huge debts.
There is no dispute that the money is owed, but trying to get payment has been ongoing for nearly 6 years so I am running out of time to take legal action.
The sole director/shareholder and his wife were long time personal friends, which is why I have tried to deal with this without taking them to court. Also, given that he is notorious for non payment of debt, I judged this would be the best approach to getting paid. I have received several small payments, but there is still £3k outstanding. I have detailed records of over 80 attempts to get payment.
They are no longer friends.
I wondered if I have grounds to take legal action against them personally (via MCOL) for these reasons:
A) The company has no assets or income, as confirmed to me by email from the wife.
B) I have already received 4 small part payments from the director’s own personal bank account, as evidenced by bank statements.
C) I have numerous emails from the director’s wife saying that they will pay me personally. She also details where the money is coming from, in the form of personal projects totally unrelated to the company that owes me money, eg. they had some land that was being developed for housing and I was supposed to be given £1k from every house sale.
A possible negative may be that she didn’t have the authority to promise payment. I would argue that she was employed by them as a Corporate Analyst (according to her email signature) so she was a company representative.
I have emails from the director himself (back in the early days of the debt) promising full payment by the company, but I only have my own diary notes of verbal promises of payments from his personal funds. I do have one from his wife confirming that he phoned me and had told me they would pay me off completely the following month though house sales.
Do I have a valid case to go the the small claims court against them personally?
Many thanks.
There is no dispute that the money is owed, but trying to get payment has been ongoing for nearly 6 years so I am running out of time to take legal action.
The sole director/shareholder and his wife were long time personal friends, which is why I have tried to deal with this without taking them to court. Also, given that he is notorious for non payment of debt, I judged this would be the best approach to getting paid. I have received several small payments, but there is still £3k outstanding. I have detailed records of over 80 attempts to get payment.
They are no longer friends.
I wondered if I have grounds to take legal action against them personally (via MCOL) for these reasons:
A) The company has no assets or income, as confirmed to me by email from the wife.
B) I have already received 4 small part payments from the director’s own personal bank account, as evidenced by bank statements.
C) I have numerous emails from the director’s wife saying that they will pay me personally. She also details where the money is coming from, in the form of personal projects totally unrelated to the company that owes me money, eg. they had some land that was being developed for housing and I was supposed to be given £1k from every house sale.
A possible negative may be that she didn’t have the authority to promise payment. I would argue that she was employed by them as a Corporate Analyst (according to her email signature) so she was a company representative.
I have emails from the director himself (back in the early days of the debt) promising full payment by the company, but I only have my own diary notes of verbal promises of payments from his personal funds. I do have one from his wife confirming that he phoned me and had told me they would pay me off completely the following month though house sales.
Do I have a valid case to go the the small claims court against them personally?
Many thanks.
