Small claims court wwyd

[naturalbaby]

DH has submitted a claim for a builder/tradesman who was paid to buy materials for a job but then went awol, then was verbally abusive to DH when he tried to sort out the problem. The deadline has just passed and the partner has contacted DH asking to set up monthly payments to repay the money and avoid court.

We are aware that he has a family and are probably can’t afford to pay back the full amount at the moment. However, I feel like he’s had every opportunity to sort this out (over a month of communication/abuse and empty promises to DH) so part of me thinks it’s out of our hands now.

What now? I really don’t want DH to enter into any sort of arrangement after everything that’s gone on between them, but he feels guilty about potentially sending bailiffs round to the family home - part of the reason it all kicked off was his child was unwell. The money was initially paid into the partners account which is why I think she’s contacted DH.

The court may allow them to pay in instalments if they can't afford the full amount. It may be that the court would order quicker repayment than they are proposing but there is no guarantee. If it was me I would probably accept their offer provided it was reasonable and only go to court if they started missing payments.

Am unsure when a court action affects someone's credit rating, but think it's when they default, but in any case, would accept the offer and only go to court as a last resort.

The other issue is that things have changed in that the builder's partner seems to be dealing with the finances, so hopefully this will resolve it.

Thanks for the advice. My concern is how to we know they’ll stick to the repayment schedule - what do we do if they stop payments?

You don't know they will stick to the payments schedule. If they stop the payments you take them to court.

Ask for the repayment schedule in writing from her, this may help if you need to take them to court at a later date if they don’t pay.

I wouldn’t - he’s clearly not honest. As a PP said you can offer a repayment scheme after court. But I would ask for a lump sum before that.

Go to court OP. He's not honest, he had money to buy materials and took you for a mug.

Go to court but if you feel empathy, say you'll agree to instalments such as he's suggesting. Then at least it's forced by court.

As a PP said you can offer a repayment scheme after court

I don't think anyone said that. However, if the tradesman asks to repay in instalments within the court proceedings and the OP rejects the offer the court will decide whether or not to put instalments in place and the amount of the instalments. It is possible the court will allow the tradesman longer to repay than the instalments proposed by his partner.

Get the instalments agreement in writing. Begin getting instalments. If there's any messing around threaten court. If there's further messing around follow through on the threat. If they're offering instalments that's better than nothing which is what you have right now and won't affect the balance of the claim if it does go to court.