Recovering money owed

[Fred12_3187]

I did some work for a local surveyor who has not paid me the full amount he owes. I took him to court and won - the court said he had to pay me by 1 Feb 2011 but as yet he still not has paid a penny. I have already paid £130 to take this to court and he owes £530 including court fees. To have the order enforced it will cost me a further £100 for the bailiff although if I would get it back together with interest from February. I am just concerned that I will be paying out the extra money and not getting anything back. He is saying he is broke but he has a number of properties as well as his business. Is there anyway of guaranteeing to get the money back? Also someone suggested parking a van outside his house with Bailiff on the side - would this be legal?

[FindLaw_Miriam]

Hi Fred12_3187,

Thanks for your post. If you don't want to go down the bailiff route, you could perhaps petition for the surveyor's bankruptcy. These articles contain information that might be useful to you: Debt collection, Solicitor's help collecting debt .

As for the bailiff van idea, while enterprising, we would not recommend doing this as it could be interpreted as fraud, intimidation or harassment.

Best of luck,
-FindLaw Moderation Team

[ajaz05]

Agree with above reply

[Solad2b]

Try a "third party debt order", In essence what you could be able to do is "seize" money owed to him before he is paid it from the company / person that was about to pay him. For example: if his employer paid on the same date each month you could get an order effectively freezing the debtors monies from reaching him and it gets paid to you instead. Some rules include you must not warn him. and you must take action several days early ( This allows bank or employer to stop / redirect money in time ) . You could stop him getting money from any of income sources if you know them.

[thelegalstop]

I did some work for a local surveyor who has not paid me the full amount he owes. I took him to court and won - the court said he had to pay me by 1 Feb 2011 but as yet he still not has paid a penny. I have already paid £130 to take this to court and he owes £530 including court fees. To have the order enforced it will cost me a further £100 for the bailiff although if I would get it back together with interest from February. I am just concerned that I will be paying out the extra money and not getting anything back. He is saying he is broke but he has a number of properties as well as his business. Is there anyway of guaranteeing to get the money back? Also someone suggested parking a van outside his house with Bailiff on the side - would this be legal?

Hi there,

Here are some information about enforcing a judgment in the UK. Before starting anything and spending more money I would suggest you to make sure that the person in question has assets in his own name so that you can actually recover your costs.

Even if your legal action is successful, you may need to enforce judgement against the other party because they still fail to pay you.

You can apply to the court for an order to obtain information from the debtor about their financial circumstances, which involves them going to court to be questioned under oath. The type of information you can ask for includes:

details of employment status (such as employer and earnings) and any other income;
details of dependants and any outgoings paid from income;
whether they own any property which could be sold to meet the debt; and
whether they hold any money in bank or building society accounts.

This information will give you a clearer picture of whether it’s worth enforcing judgement against them.

If you decide to proceed with enforcing judgement, the following options are available:

Warrant of execution

This allows court bailiffs to take goods from your debtor’s home or business and the goods will be sold at auction.

Attachment of earnings order

This usually applies to an individual person in employment.The employer is ordered to make deductions from the person’s wages or salary.

Third-party debt order

This is where the court orders a ‘freeze’ on money held by a person, institution or organisation, which might otherwise be paid to a defendant against whom you have a judgement. The order will prevent withdrawal of the money until the court decides whether all or part of it should be paid to you.

Charging order

The court places a ‘charge’ on the debtor’s property which is equivalent to the amount you are owed. A charging order does not oblige the debtor to sell their property, but if they do, they must pay you before they can take the rest of the proceeds.

Receiver

If you believe that you can’t recover your debt using the methods above, you can apply to the court to approve a receiver, who you have selected, to conduct an ‘equitable execution’. This involves the receiver collecting money which the debtor is owed by other people, such as rent due on properties they own, in order to repay you.

Winding up or bankruptcy

As last resort you can apply for a bankruptcy or winding-up petition, to stop the individual or business from continuing to trade.