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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I have grounds to sue this company.

26 replies

raltheraffe · 18/10/2014 11:45

This is a long story. I used a website for a man and van service. Basically man and van picked up a fridge freezer which I purchased on eBay and brought it to my house. In the process the man and van managed to damage the item and damage our flooring. The case went to small claims and a CCJ for £300 was awarded in my favour.
I phoned man and van to ask when he was paying the cash and he hung up the phone.
The next thing I did was go round to his address which the website claim was verified by them. This was to make a quick assessment of whether or not he has assets which I can instruct a bailiff to seize. Turns out he gave his parents address and parents are not for telling me where he lives. I asked the website owners how they had verified the address and it turns out they had not done this.
The website also left defamatory comments calling me a liar and a con artist on there for a year and have only pulled them down now as I have the CCJ in my favour. Before that they claimed it was "my word against his".
The website owners state their T&Cs are they are not responsible for the actions of their self-employed drivers. However they have not refunded the deposit I paid them and so far I have had to spend an additional £35 getting background reports from 192.com to try and trace this guy.
I know I cannot sue them for the damage as their T&Cs are clear on this issue. However I am tempted to take them to small claims over the extra costs I am now incurring to trace this guy.
I should add that he became very threatening when I refused to pay him his fee for destroying the item and instead told him I would deduct it from the costs of the damage. In fact he was so scary we had to pay an additional £550 out on getting a burglar alarm as there were 2 attempted break ins at our house in the 48 hours after I told him to clear off.

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 18/10/2014 11:52

I'm not sure I understand why you rang/went to his house after the CCJ?

Surely the payment details are for him to agree with the court?

I'd be careful in case this is viewed as harassment.

Kookydooda · 18/10/2014 12:01

Crickey, you are spending all this money when you could just repair the floor and it was a freezer bought on ebay.?! Don't waste your time, enery or money and just chalk it up to bad luck. Is it really worth getting so het up over?

Original poster
raltheraffe · 18/10/2014 12:02

What I am attempting to do Worra is assess whether or not this guy is a straw man. If it turns out he is living in a council house, with no assets, my chances of getting any cash back are extremely limited and I would be better writing the debt off.
If he refuses to pay the next stage is enforcement. This is going to cost me more money, so I need to know whether or not it is worth it.
Legally harassment is persistent or unwanted attention which either causes distress or leaves the victim in fear of violence. I have not gone round to the house ballooning and threatening people. I just asked where does he live. Parents are entitled to call the police but police will not charge me with anything unless there is good reason.

OP posts:
Original poster
raltheraffe · 18/10/2014 12:05

Floor has already been repaired but the freezer which cost me £300 is not repairable. It works but it looks like someone has gone at it with a sledgehammer. I bought it for £300 and I estimated loss of value of £150.

OP posts:
FannyFifer · 18/10/2014 12:16

Honestly at this stage I would just cut my losses, is it really worth this amount of stress.

WorraLiberty · 18/10/2014 12:19

How could you possibly know whether he had assets, just by looking at the outside of his home? Confused

greenfolder · 18/10/2014 12:29

move on, i say. as you have already discovered, you can incur costs on getting a judgement that you can then not enforce. Dont do that twice.

WeAreEternal · 18/10/2014 12:29

If I remember correctly from when I took someone to the small claims court.

They give the defendant a certain amount of time to pay, either two or four week, if they don't pay by they you go back to court and they have to provide a breakdown of their finances to the court and the court will decide whether they can afford to pay the money or if they need to pay you back in instalments, and what the instalments will be.

I don't think you should just write it off, he owes you the money, you should do what you can to get it.

rallytog1 · 18/10/2014 12:36

I think you're on dodgy ground going round to his house yourself. Afaik it's up to the bailiffs to ascertain whether he has goods of value, and to find an alternative payment arrangement with him if he doesn't. I think you going round there yourself could be construed as harassment.

I think you need to let the bailiffs handle this.

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 18/10/2014 12:40

Let's be clear here. YOU don't believe you're harassing him. Harassment is taken from the viewpoint of the victim, NOT the culprit. Otherwise stalkers could say "oh, no, I'm not harassing them - this is perfectly fine to follow them everywhere they go and watch their house - that's not harassment to me!"

In fact he was so scary we had to pay an additional £550 out on getting a burglar alarm as there were 2 attempted break ins at our house in the 48 hours after I told him to clear off.

And did you report this to the police? I ask merely because you make no reference to it.

Original poster
raltheraffe · 18/10/2014 13:06

Yes it was reported to the police.

Worra it is very easy to make an assessment of whether someone has assets or not by looking at their house.

Cheap flat on council estate-probably straw man.

Nice house in nice area with BMW outside-likely to have cash.

OP posts:
AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 18/10/2014 13:09

Well, it started out I thought you were a bit.. um.. militant about it all. Now I'm coming to the conclusion that you're actually being rather unpleasant, as well as falling into lovely little stereotypical comments.

As the Dragons say, I'm out.

WorraLiberty · 18/10/2014 13:12

Rubbish!

Lots of people who live in council flats have assets. You're being ridiculous and very short sighted.

Nice house in nice area with BMW outside-likely to have cash

Neither the house nor the car may belong to that person.

Either way, we're talking about a few hundred quid here...not a few hundred grand.

PiperIsOrange · 18/10/2014 13:14

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Original poster
raltheraffe · 18/10/2014 13:17

No its not rubbish Worra. There are obviously exceptions to the rule (Susan Boyle is a multi-millionaire who lives on an estate) but by and large people who live in nice houses tend to have more cash than those on council estates.

OP posts:
Standinginline · 18/10/2014 13:21

Either way, even someone in a council house will be able to pay back a few hundred quid or whatever it is. I'm in a council house and very comfortable actually.

WorraLiberty · 18/10/2014 13:24

but by and large people who live in nice houses tend to have more cash than those on council estates.

Which would only be relevant if you were trying to get more than a couple of hundred quid out of them Confused

The Susan Boyle comment did make me laugh though.

Of course in order to live in a council home and have assets worth more than that, you'd have to be a famous millionaire...

paxtecum · 18/10/2014 13:45

The posh house man probly has his BMW on lease, his house mortgaged to the hilt and the wife's 4 wheel drive tank on lease, credit cards maxxed out.

Sometimes one just has to let go and get on with life.

Bulbasaur · 18/10/2014 14:09

Maybe it's different over there, but here in the US, you just file a form that says they aren't paying you and let collections take care of it. Why are you personally going after him?

Just file the paperwork to the appropriate venues and take the legal route.

Going to his house and calling him can be considered harassment.

Also, it doesn't matter if he has assets to seize or not. Again, maybe it works differently over there, but collections will not seize assets unless you made a loan on an item using it as collateral (mortgage). He can have his wages garnished and have what's owed taken out of his tax returns.

londonrach · 18/10/2014 14:14

Do not go around to his parents address. You risk being arrested for harassment. You could be in serious trouble for this. Tbh you need to police and courts to deal with it. You should not bring getting involved. The amount of time and money you spent on this it would have been better to have just accepted it was one of those things at the beginning.

WalkWithTheLonelyOnes · 18/10/2014 15:26

"I should add that he became very threatening when I refused to pay him his fee"

Yet you still went to an address you thought he lived at? Okay...

Either take it through the court again or drop it.

You won't get paid by pestering him or looking through his windows.

MagicMojito · 18/10/2014 15:34

Yanbu. Personally, I probably would have let it go, but you are not wrong to want and go after what you are owed. He damaged your property, has publicly called you a liar and you think he attempted to burgle you.

I think it's more the fact that he is going to get away with it that your mad about then the amount of money. That's the bit that would infuriat me.

Situations like this make me really hope that Karma is real

WorraLiberty · 18/10/2014 15:52

Karma isn't real

Courts and bailiffs are

Therefore the OP should let them deal with any missed payments.

mamma12 · 18/10/2014 15:54

I would bet money on you never getting a single penny off him. Even if you go back to court to enforce the debt, this would mean chucking more money away, a county court judgment is a non priority debt therefore baillifs have no right of entry in these circumstances. Also it doesnt even sound like he lives at this address. With all due respect you need to start getting it in your mind that you are going to need to let this go.Don't waste any more money on it and move on. No offence intended.

bloodyteenagers · 18/10/2014 15:57

Yes because it's a well known fact that you can tell from the outside if a person owns the property or not. It's well known that from the outside you can see the assets inside the property. You can tell if it's a council house or not... Oh wait. No you cannot.

but by and large people who live in nice houses tend to have more cash than those on council estates.
One of the council estates near me, properties go for over a million quid. One on the 33rd floor is currently going for 1.8. So kind of puts your ridiculous views out of the window.. Can give you several more examples of properties in council estates going for ridiculous amounts.

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