CC judgement letter sent out after deadline to pay

[dandeliondandy]

Hoping one of the legal eagles here can help please. I took someone to county court for a housing matter and won the case with judge awarding the maximum penalty. However, the actual letter with the judgement only arrived this morning, was dated yesterday and that is a full week after the deadline that the judge ordered the defendant to pay by (He gave the usual 14 days).

Obviously the defendant is only likely to have got this letter today as well so could you tell me

1. How long the defendant has got to pay this sum of money even after the dealine ordered by the judge has passed.

1. As I was a litigant in person, would it be appropriate to send a polite and professional email attaching a copy of the judgement with my bank details for ease of payment and alerting them that I can inform the court that the debt has been discharged upon receipt of payment?

Not sure what to do at present.

Thanks!

IMHO the date for payment has past and if you've not had your money you could send in the Bailiffs , GArnishee their bank or whatever.

It's not your responsibility to mitigate for the court being behind with admin. OTOH if the defendant had good reason not to attend and that an order sent late was first inkling he had then he might have grounds to ask for enforcement to be set aside or stayed while he sells assets or whatever to pay you.

Thank you. I agree that the court has let me and the defendant down. I am sure the judge would not be impressed for sure especially as the payment deadline in the judgment order is very explicit and precise about the date it must be paid and even a time. It is the court's fault that they sent it out after the dealine expired but I am not sure what the remedy is?

@dandeliondandy

In view of the post from @Bromptotoo I would suggest an application to the court along the lines on "In view of the fact that the written judgement was sent after the date for payment had passed I apply to vary the terms for payment to the [DATE]." I'm assuming that this is simply a money matter and not - for example - an eviction.

You will no doubt have been advised that simply having a judgment does not guarantee the payment and of all the steps needed if they do not pay.

If - as suggested - the defendant did not attend they may also make application to have the judgment set aside [for some "good reason"] and have the matter reheard

I most certainly would not send any bank details etc unless directed by the court

No need for you to do anything. simply enforce the order.

The court staff have let no one down. Less than 3 weeks for an order to be drawn up, printed, and then posted out (usually second class) is damn efficient these days. You need to adjust your expectations perhaps.

That rather makes a mockery of the judges insistence upon a precise date and time for the amount to be paid and as @Thelittleweasel says, could open a whole heap of issues by the defendant. My expectations are not unreasonable if unreasonable is expecting the defendant to be given the amount of time allocated by the judge to sort their side out before any further action.

Thank you. This is really helpful. I did not know that I could ask for a variance on the original order because court admin has been slow. I know what can happen next just not what happens when everyone has been issued late. It is a money matter - failure to protect deposit and give prescribed information.

It has all totally stressed me out as the landlord was abusive and harassed me so badly the police were involved so I was hoping to have it all settled after the case. I was a litigant in person and the judge wasn't making any allowances for that so I was a nervous wreck. I suffer from anxiety badly anyway and knew that if he didn't pay up, it would just be admin to fill out. Just super anxious about it all again now.

This is a nonsense and a waste of court time.

The defendant must pay now. If they had attended court they would have been made aware of the deadline at the time the order was made. It's not your fault they failed to attend court (or did they?).

If you want to extend THEIR time to pay you would have to pay a fee. To be honest the judge will think you're mad.

If they aren't paying now they won't pay if they are given a further 14 days.

Are you under the impression that if the deadline has already expired then no longer have to pay?

Hi Collaborate, I really appreciate everything you are saying as I am totally new to this and am taking on board everything people are saying. The defendant did not turn up. They had asked for the case to be moved to another court but I assume that this was refused as it remained under the auspuces of the court I lodged the claim at. The court did change the venue a couple of days before but only about a mile down the road. As far as I know, the defendant did not contact the court or offer apologies for non-attendance. They also never submitted a proper defence, regardless, I had the paperwork from all agencies involved to show that they had never done what they were supposed to.

I definitely don't want to pay more money out but I think what is worrying me is that they should be given enough time to pay (the regular 14 days) and then go for the enforcement otherwise they can claim ignorance. They could even say they have not had the judgment and did not know.

This is why, despite the fact that the court has been late, I wondered if I should email and send a registered 'letter before action' type correspondence with a copy of the judgement and to say they have until X date to pay before I take further action?

I know what you are saying about going straight for enforcement but just worried they will say I didn't give them the chance/court changed venue/they were 'blindsided' etc.

Also, this is why I wondered if writing and giving them details of payment would be appropriate as though they were my former landlords, I doubt they kept my banking details.

I'm a trainee solicitor (civil litigation). We always send an email/letter with copy of the judgment and our payment details.

Yes - send them a letter or email telling them you are giving them a further x number of days, and they can satisfy the judgment by paying in to your bank direct.

Make it clear that non-payment will result in you taking enforcement action, the cost of which will be added to the debt. If the judgment is over £5k then you get to add simple interest at 8%.

Thanks so much @Collaborate. The amount is under 5K. For me it was about the principle. Does this affect the interest amount?

@anywherehollie I really appreciate this. Are there any specific phrases that you could recommend that I use about enforcement?

I really am so grateful for everyone's help.

No automatic interest if under £5k.

Thank you 💐

Thanks Collaborate. Unfortunately tonight I received an email response claiming that they intend to have the judgment set aside because
a) the court case wasn't moved to where they wanted it
b) they claim they have heard nothing from the court since their acknowledgement of service was submitted
c) they had no idea about the hearing.

The case was a Part 8 claim. There was no defence submitted despite me repeatedly contacting HMCTS to ask.
They have 'form' for claiming they haven't received letters when it doesn't suit them.
The judgment was not a 'default judgment' as I was not allowed one under Part 8 procedures. I had to attend a hearing and explain my case to the judge.
My evidence was all in black and white from the deposit schemes showing they had never protected my deposit and even when I asked them several months before I moved out about my deposit, she made no attempt to protect it then.

This landlord has been prosecuted by the council and other bodies for breaking housing law and I have emails from other tenants stating that they never protected their deposits either.

I just had a feeling that they would pull a stunt like this and seems to think that just a letter to the court is enough to get a judgment set aside. Back to square one....

They can apply but there's nothing to say their application will succeed. Oppose it.
Also, apply to enforce the judgment immediately.
It's really normal for the court to take a month or so to get orders out, sometimes it's a lot longer.

Thank you very much for replying @Oysterbabe. As I already gave them 14 days to pay, does the fact they have put it in writing negate that now? Can I apply for enforcement straightaway as they have indicated they won't pay? I am worried about doing something that could prejudice it when I go for enforcement. They can't claim ignorance of the law as I have evidence that they are paid members of a national landlord website that covers everything from speculation on property prices to providing helplines and services for evictions. They did forum posts (which I printed off, timed and dated) and you can only do that with membership. It is amazing that they 'didn't know the law' about deposit protection penalty procedure but know about setting aside judgments! The claim that they never had the chance to have their say in court is nonsense as that is what the defence would have been and whilst I can accept that one letter from court might go astray, I don't believe that 3 would. Also they could have called the court helpline at anytime as I have had to do. I just hope a court sees through their games.