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I'm wondering if anyone is able to help me with some advice on the small claims court.
Following the split from ex parter I was left with quite a large sum of rent arrears. To cut a long story short I always assumed I was paying rent, it turns out I wasn't and my rent was being saved away by the ex to fund her moving. Lesson learnt, don't trust anyone else with your finances and make sure if you do you keep an eye on your statements.
We had a joint tenancy, when she left she left a lovely debt of just over £2000. She remained on the tenancy for around another 8 months or so. So for this period although she wasn't living at the property she was still jointly liable for rent and council tax but didn't make any contributions. I put in a lot of overtime, cleared the arrears and kept up with all over payments.
What I want to do now is hold her liable for her share of the liabilities. It wouldn't normally bother me but the £2000 rent arrears was money I paid, it's money she took for rent and pocketed. It's £2000 of overtime I worked to pay rent I had already paid.
So I am going to make a claim to the small claims court. In short I will be claiming for half of all payments made from the date the relationship ended to the date she was removed from the tenancy.
It seems a pretty open / closed case. She was jointly liable, she didn't make any payments, I had to pay her share to keep a roof over my head and as such she owes her share to me.If she wanted to cease her liability she could have removed her name when she left, not 8 months later.
The question I have is that the small claims court requires an address to serve papers. I don't have this. However we're currently going through the family court. The Family Court we attend is a combined family and county court. Small claims are heard in the county court. Can I write a cover letter with my application requesting that it is heard in the same court as our family proceedings as they are aware of her address which is protected by a C8 then state the family case reference? That way it should take the court no more than 5 minutes to find her address to serve papers. If not it doesn't look like I can proceed.
Hi Woody,
You can complete a claim through Money Claim Online (google it). Be aware that there is a process you are expected to go through firstly:
1) by contacting the other party to try and resolve the dispute amicably and in a civil way (best bet is a formal letter). You can stipulate a 28 day time limit
1a) you need to keep proof that you have cleared arrears x 2 eg one from your bank proving this and another from the landlord would certainly benefit your case
2) once the deadline has passed, you will need to send another letter that informs of intended litigation through moneyclaimonline.
3) make your claim (pretty straight forward).
If she contests the case it will usually come before a judge. That's where the open/closed evidence comes in.
Please be aware that if there is a judgement in your favor it is no guarantee that you will get payments mind.
Thank you.
I looked at Money Claim Online but wouldn't be able to do that without her address. So I'm hoping to file an N1 probably tomorrow with a cover note stating I don't have her address but you do.
I have no means to contact her to attempt to resolve it out of court. From what I gather this isn't necessary but the judge can impose a penalty for not trying out of court resolutions. I would hope I would be expempt from this however as I can't contact her and that's through her choice.
Evidence wise I intend to file a statement of rent showing the payments made in this period. Then my bank statements which shows each payment came from my account. Other than that the evidence would just be the joint tenancy agreement.
I actually don't expect to get the money back to be honest. If anything it's just going to be small monthly payments which in effect she will just being paying out of my CSA anyway. It's more just the principle and getting that bit of paper stating that she screwed me over again.
...I think it might be better to wait until the contact case is concluded before pursuing this in all honesty Woody.
Any money you take from her you would also be taking from the children and it may be seen as malicious.... if she brings it up with the CAFCASS officer they may take this view and mention it in their report. If you can wait I would advise you to.
going to court on a point of principle is always a risky strategy - it can jeapordise your other matters, and if you do lose, then she would see it as permission to continue ot escalate.
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