Make a court claim for money

Overview

You can take court action against someone who owes you money and won’t pay. This is known as making a court claim. It can also be known as taking someone to a ‘small claims court’.

You usually have to pay a court fee, and you may not win your case or get your money back.

A mediation service could be quicker and cheaper than going to court. Mediation is when an impartial person helps 2 sides work out an agreement.

How to take court action

If you still want to take court action you can either:

• use Money Claim Online
• download a claim form

It will be quicker and cheaper to make the claim online, which you can do in most cases.

Where to send the claim form

Send the claim form to:

You’ll need to include payment for the court fee.

What happens next

You may have to go to a court hearing if the other person or business denies owing the money.

You can get the court to order them to pay if they admit owing the money or don’t respond.

If they still won’t pay, you’ll need to ask the court to take extra steps to collect the money, eg using bailiffs. This is called enforcing a judgment.

Help making a claim

Contact the Money Claim Online help desk if you’re making the claim online.

Contact the court centre if you’re using the claim form.

Court fees

The court fee is based on the amount you’re claiming, plus interest.

Using Money Claim Online will be cheaper than sending a claim form to the County Court Money Claims Centre.

Claim amount	Sending form to court centre	Using Money Claim Online
Up to £300	£35	£25
£300.01 to £500	£50	£35
£500.01 to £1,000	£70	£60
£1,000.01 to £1,500	£80	£70
£1,500.01 to £3,000	£115	£105
£3,000.01 to £5,000	£205	£185
£5,000.01 to £10,000	£455	£410
£10,000.01 to £100,000	5% of the value of the claim	4.5% of the value of the claim
£100,000.01 to £200,000	5% of the value of the claim	You can’t claim using Money Claim Online
More than £200 000	£10 000	You can’t claim using Money Claim Online

Pay by credit or debit card if you’re using Money Claim Online.

If you use the claim form, pay with a postal order or cheque (payable to ‘HM Courts and Tribunals Service’).

You may be able to claim the costs back if you win the case.

Find out more about court fees.

Work out interest

You can claim interest on the money you’re owed.

If you’re owed money by another business, you can charge interest on a late commercial payment.

For other types of debt, the rate is usually 8%.

To calculate this, use the steps below.

1. Work out the yearly interest: take the amount you’re claiming and multiply it by 0.08 (ie 8%).

2. Work out the daily interest: divide your yearly interest from step 1 by 365 (the number of days in a year).

3. Work out the total amount of interest: multiply the daily interest from step 2 by the number of days the debt has been overdue.

After you make your claim

The person or business who owes you money must respond to your claim within 14 days of receiving it.

If you don’t get a response

Ask the court to order them to pay if they don’t respond to your claim.

To do this, you can either:

• use Money Claim Online (if you started your claim online)
• fill in a request for judgment form

What to do if you get paid

Tell them you’re withdrawing your claim if they pay you, or make you an offer you’re happy with.

You’ll also need to tell:

• the court centre, if you started the claim with a paper form
• the Money Claim Online help desk, if you made the claim online

How to take your claim to court

You may have to go to a court hearing if:

• the person or business says they don’t owe you any money
• they disagree with the amount
• you can’t agree on how the money will be repaid

The court will send you a questionnaire asking for more information on the case. Fill this in and return it to the court.

You will have to pay extra court fees.

Agreeing without going to court

You can still talk to the other person or business, and try to reach an agreement before the court hearing.

Use the court’s small claims mediation service if your claim is worth under £10,000 - contact your local county court.

You may be able to get some of your court fees refunded if you settle out of court before the hearing.

Going to court

You may have to go to court if the other person or business denies owing the money, and they defend the case.

Small claims

If your case is a small claim - under £10,000 - it may be dealt with using written evidence, without a hearing.

If there is a hearing, you can:

• represent yourself
• pay for a barrister or solicitor to represent you
• ask someone to speak on your behalf, like your partner or an advice worker - you must get the court’s permission

Cases worth more than £10,000

There may be a more formal hearing if you’re claiming for more than £10,000 and you should get legal advice.

After the hearing

The court will send you a letter giving you its decision and any actions you need to take.

You may be able to appeal the decision - you can ask the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for advice on appealing.

Enforce a judgment

You may have to ask the court to take steps to collect the payment if you win your case.

You will have to pay extra court fees - ordering someone to attend court costs £50, and the other steps cost £100 each.

Find out what the person or business can afford to pay

It’s worth working out what the person or business can afford to pay.

You can ask the court to order a debtor to attend court to provide evidence of their income or spending, like bills and statements.

If the money is owed by a business, you can ask for an officer from the company to attend court, to give details of its accounts.

You can then decide on what you need to do to get your money.

Send bailiffs to collect payment

You can ask the court to use bailiffs to collect the money.

To do this you can either:

• fill in a warrant of control form
• use Money Claim Online (if your original claim was made online)

The bailiff will ask for payment within 7 days.

If the debt isn’t paid, the bailiff will visit the person’s home or business, to see if anything could be sold to pay the debt.

Get money deducted from wages

You can ask the court to send an order to the person’s employer, to take money from wages to pay the debt.

Fill in an attachment of earnings order to do this.

Freeze assets or money in an account

The court can freeze money in the person’s bank or building society account (or in a business account).

Fill in a third party debt order to do this.

The court will decide if money from the account can be used to pay the debt.

Charge the person’s land or property

You can ask the court to charge the person’s or company’s land or property.

Fill in a charging order to do this.

If the land or property is sold, they must pay this charge before they get their money.