Please Help not sure what to do next

[denmorred]

Hi Please Help !

I have submitted a Money Claim on line against a local garage :-

You submitted a claim on 02/09/2015 at 14:04:25


Your claim was issued on 03/09/2015


xxxxx Motors filed a defence on 23/09/2015


A bar was put in place for XXXX Motors on 23/09/2015


DQ sent to xxxx Motors on 23/09/2015


DQ filed on 14/10/2015


General sanctions order was made on 19/10/2015


The defence was struck out on 04/11/2015


The bar in place for xxxxxx Motors was removed on 04/11/2015


Not sure what my next move is, do I send a letter to them asking for full payment otherwise I ask
for judgement? Please note that the garages defence was that it has now gone bankrupt, but started to trade in a different name.

Please Help

Thanks

[wales01man]

Re: Please Help not sure what to do next

If they are bankrupt were they a Ltd company and is the bankrupt company the defendant you sued?

If the new company is Ltd you probably have no claim against them

[Amethyst]

Re: Please Help not sure what to do next

Well, the defence was struck out - did you apply to strike it out or was it off the court's own motion? The General Sanctions order may have been something to do with remedying errors in their defence and they failed to comply, thus rendering their defence struck out, and the bar being lifted, which means you can now request a judgment in default from the court. I'd do that before contacting the defendant.

However, when you get the judgment it will be against the bankrupt company and you will have no one to enforce against. If they are still in administration etc then your judgment may get you onto the list of creditors. Have you looked into the company name on Companies House, Gazette or made other enquiries about them and their current status ?

[denmorred]

Re: Please Help not sure what to do next

When I first looked at taking the garage to court, I checked Companies House and they were still trading. We only found out that they had gone bankrupt when they filed the defence. The garage is still trading using virtually the same letterheads, the same email address etc..
When I go onto the Money Online website and go to the judgement section it says that I should have a repayment agreed before asking for judgement, not sure what I should do from here, the garage is still holding my car and has now sent me a bill for storage.

[R0b]

Re: Please Help not sure what to do next

Well first of all they cannot charge you for any storage as the contract was between you and the other limited company. You are therefore entitled to your car back.
On the other hand, it sounds like guy who ran the previous company is deliberately evading his liabilities and the fact that he is trading on the same premises, using same letterheads and email addresses goes to show this. But also the fact they're trying to charge you for the storage of the car also indicates that the owner of the previous company used the limited liability of the company to evade any liabilities.

You could put that to the judge and attempt to obtain judgment against the director personally but this type of argument is very rarely used and very hard to obtain. Although from the above it seems like there could be a case.