Claim for veterinary cost after dog attack

[Georgey48]

Asking on behalf of friends of mine. Their dog was recently attacked by another dog and sustained some quite serious injuries. The subsequent veterinary costs have now run into thousands; the dog has luckily survived but, as you can imagine, they are looking to recover the cost of this event from the dogs owner.
The Police have informed my friends that the individual does not have any insurance for the animal and so there is little chance of her being able to pay, at least not willingly. I should add that the animal in question has some form for this kind of thing and the owner has been warned on more than one occasion by the dog warden. The dog has now been destroyed and the Police are looking to prosecute the owner for ABH as I believe there were quite a number of people and dogs injured in the attack with one lady being bitten on the face.
So, the question is: what is the best route to handle this ? Im guessing that they should send a pre-action letter requesting payment within a time period otherwise they would have to begin legal proceedings ? Would there be any value in spending money on a solicitor or should this be a straight forward enough Money Claim Online process ?

[Peridot]

Hi Georgey48,

How awful, I hope your hound is on the road to recovery?

You're correct a letter before action would be the first step. This will be a civil matter. You can do this yourself although there are also some specialist lawyers out there who are used to dealing with these sorts of issues. It may be worth getting some free or reduced fee initial advice?

Before going down any route however you need to know whether the person has any way of paying, even if you're successful. If possible can you check what asset the person has, or do you know? You could do a search at the HM Land Registry to see if they own their property here:- https://www.gov.uk/search-property-i...-land-registry

My concern would be, does the person have any funds to pay any claim, if you were successful? Any information about whether they work, own their own home etc would be helpful in assessing whether pursuing them is worth your effort. There may be little point in setting the wheels in motion and increasing your own stress levels, if the person has no means of settling any successful claim made against them.

Do pop back if we can help any further.

[Georgey48]

Thank you Peridot, I will pass this on.
I think this is their concern; whether they will be able to recover any money if she doesn't have anything or if it's only going to increase their expense which is already approaching £3000 !
p.s. the dog has made a very good recovery considering he's 14, bless his cotton sox.

[Georgey48]

Another post I've been remiss in not updating (apologies):- The claim was successful and my friend was awarded the full claim. The defendant was a bit of a thing and claimed that they didn't have any money and could only pay a few pounds a week... Bailiff was able to extract the money with a little effort and all was well. Dog made a good recovery and was able to live out the remainder of it's life but has sadly since passed (I believe it's passing was more due to old age than the incident and had been quite ok up until it's rapid deterioration).
Many thanks for replies.

[paulajayne]

Thanks for the update.

[Celestine]

Thanks - good to hear the system worked well in this case. RIP to the poor dog who was attacked and also the dog who had to be destroyed due to its idiot owner.

[Nokkerboff]

Hi,

I wonder if you could help?

In May 2019 our pet dog broke his leg and was operated on by some specialist vets in Manchester. We thought we were insured but the insurers didn’t pay out.

The vets subsequently instructed solicitors to pursue the debt (£5,900) with solicitors costs added. I wrote to them explaining we could only pay x amount per month. They would not accept this (although we paid it monthly anyway).

In March 2021 they offered to us to pay 50% of the balance in full and final settlement. We were not in a position to do this at the time so offered them £1000 which they rejected.

We then received no correspondence for a month. I contacted them to see what was going on and they had issued court proceedings without warning to the amount of £7200. They said we had been issued with a 14 day notice of intention to start legal proceedings but in no uncertain terms did we ever receive that letter

I have since been back to them and offered to pay their proposal of 50% of the balance which they have now refused.

I have filed an acknowledgement of service. Should I just accept the claim or should I defend on the basis that a. They are being unreasonable as they were willing to accept 50% of the balance until recently and b. that I did not receive a 14 day Letter Before Action

Thanks in advance

[ostell]

Why have you hijacked this thread when you have answers on your original thread

[Nokkerboff]

Sorry. I want getting replies re the offer from the creditor. Sorry

[Georgey48]

Hi,

I wonder if you could help?

In May 2019 our pet dog broke his leg and was operated on by some specialist vets in Manchester. We thought we were insured but the insurers didn’t pay out.

The vets subsequently instructed solicitors to pursue the debt (£5,900) with solicitors costs added. I wrote to them explaining we could only pay x amount per month. They would not accept this (although we paid it monthly anyway).

In March 2021 they offered to us to pay 50% of the balance in full and final settlement. We were not in a position to do this at the time so offered them £1000 which they rejected.

We then received no correspondence for a month. I contacted them to see what was going on and they had issued court proceedings without warning to the amount of £7200. They said we had been issued with a 14 day notice of intention to start legal proceedings but in no uncertain terms did we ever receive that letter

I have since been back to them and offered to pay their proposal of 50% of the balance which they have now refused.

I have filed an acknowledgement of service. Should I just accept the claim or should I defend on the basis that a. They are being unreasonable as they were willing to accept 50% of the balance until recently and b. that I did not receive a 14 day Letter Before Action

Thanks in advance

Im sorry Nokkerboff, I'm just a lucky amateur and as such can offer no advice. Sorry to hear about your animal though and I hope you're able to come to some mutually agreeable arrangement with your vet.