Small claims court

[MyPatronusIsAnOrca]

Hi, I’m hoping someone can advise please.

I paid a company to prepare some paperwork for me so that they could be submitted to an institution. I paid nearly £800 via bank transfer.

However, a few weeks went by I didn’t receive any confirmation paperwork had been submitted so I chased the company. The first time I got through I was simply provided a holding statement saying the institution had a back log etc but forms had been submitted.

Another few days went by I called the institution asking for confirmation as to whether the paperwork had been received. They conducted some searches and stated no paperwork had been received.

Cue lots of phone calls and emails to company advising what I had been told and requesting a refund. I also at this point informed by bank but they tried to put a recall but money had been taken out.

The bank raised a scam notification against their account. The company must have received notification of this as they suddenly got in contact stating paperwork had been submitted. I asked for proof that it had been submitted at which point I was told I would receive it shortly. I never did and requested a refund again. We’re now back to radio silence.

I’ve had to pay another company again which has been a struggle as I’m on statutory maternity leave.

I need to get that £800 back. Is small claims the only option?

I feel so stupid that I made this mistake.

Any advice please?

Erm, this is very bad but you need to consider carefully whether you'd be throwing good money after bad by pursuing them.

Even if you get a court judgment, unless you can enforce it (mainly if they have a reputation to give a damn about or it's enough money to make it worth getting a further court order) then it's just a piece of paper.

Maybe not what you want to hear, but could just cost you lots more time and money to pursue a claim.

Thank you for your response.

My understanding is that I would only have to pay the initial court fee (no more than £100) and would simply ask to recover what I’m due back.

And that neither party can claim for legal costs.

It’s just such a long winded process I was just wondering if there was any other way of getting my refund

Initial court fee. They might defend or might not - I think there's a fee to get judgment if they don't enter a defence. If they defend there will be further fees not to mention the paperwork and hassle.

If you get judgment, there's no magic fairy that forces them to pay. If they do business terribly then they won't care about the impact on their credit rating. The judgment would likely be against the company and they could just start another one up.

You could pay more to try to enforce an order (bailiffs etc) but if the company has no assets, there's nothing for you to take back.

Look into the company a bit. Like I say this is shit but think carefully about whether further action will improve anything.

I used to handle small claims for an insurance company, sadly more often than not there was no point pursuing them. If you have legal expenses insurance they might be able to help (or even pay off the claim).

Once again thank you for your response.

Seems like it’s best to just swallow the loss then.

Am so mad at myself