Has anyone here any experience of the British small claims court?

[Peter Lake]

I find myself in no other position than to take the owner of a garage to the small claims court and as this is my first time, i wondered if anyone here has had to do likewise?

Lord knows i don't need the stress but i simply can't allow this cowboy to possibly do to another as he did to me.

Our car went in for a simple clutch change and i used a garage at the recommendation of a fishing friend. I'd just had the car mot'd at my regular garage and the certificate was just three weeks old. On getting the car back, i noticed a braking problem and the very next morning got it to my regular mechanic to have the brakes bled. On getting the car on the ramp he refused to let me drive home as the hub nuts were loose causing the wheels to move. It was rather frightening that the previous evening i'd put my friends wife and children in the car and had driven them up the motorway. My regular guy got on the phone to the garage who had fitted the clutch and the owner took full responsibility telling him he'd fitted the clutch but had left the finishing off to a junior who had not finished off properly and also he'd not bothered to check the car and sign it off. The universal joint had been damaged and needed replacing as well as the wheels made safe and there's no doubt my car was handed back to me in a potential lethal condition.

He offered to collect my car the very next morning saturday at 9 am from my regular guy and dispite the promise to do this and give it his priority, he didn't. The one thing that annoyed us most was the lact of contact or any communication. My wife e mailed him on the sunday evening as at this point we had no idea where our car was. On the monday he told us he didn't work weekends and the car had been left in my regular guy's compound.

We managed to get him on the phone and he promised the car would be finished by tuesday and we also insisted he delivered it back to us. We had to get hold of him again tuesday late afternoon and we were concerned because i had a scan at the hospital the next morning that it was vital i made. My wife also explained this to him in her e mail.

He offered no apology at all for damaging our car and claimed he had not been able to get hold of a universal joint from his supplier yet i phoned around suppliers in his immediate area who not only had one in stock but could get it to him within two hours. When i told him of this his excuse was that the suppliers i had contacted were £25 dearer than his supplier. He then promised the car would be back to us tuesday night getting me to the hospital wednesday morning. Tuesday night and wednesday morning came and went missing my appointment without even a call to let us know. When he finally delivered the car back late wednesday evening, we'd had so much of it we were just relieved to get our car back in what we thought was good condition.

On the friday evening and the first time the car got a good run, i broke down on the ring road. I had to wait two hours for the RAC to tow me to my regular guys house and the car had to be towed again to his compound on the monday morning. He had fitted the universal joint but again had handed me back my car in a potential lethal condition. The RAC took no time in identifying that the hub nut had been cross threaded on the stub axle causing the drive shaft to fall away from the universal joint costing us a few hundred pounds to put right.

I contacted trading standards who will be taking this up and detailed my out of pocket expenses in a recorded letter to this guy giving him fourteen days to pay me but we've heard nothing from him.

[G#Gill]

I personally, Peter, would get on to as many press outlets (National as well as local!), give them the full story, including your personal situation and the fact you had to miss that very important hospital appointment. Send an email to the garage responsible for this incredible series of dangerous actions, telling them you are going to the press and media (don't forget 'Watchdog'), possibly do that first before you actually go to the press. See what the guy does. Suggest he pays you all the expenses etc. immediately (max 7 days), or you will take the matter to the press. If he still has his hands up his arse and does/says nothing, then do the press bit. I would think the Sun may be interested in your story - they enjoy splashing that sort of thing and getting the kudos for sorting things out. If all else fails, then get your solicitor to write to him that you will be taking him to court unless he pays everything he owes to you within (set a date), and also include compensation for all the terrible stress you and your wife have been caused, particularly you with your personal awful illness. Bad press could well destroy his business. Going to court would also get him bad publicity, which could also destroy his business. If he settled out of court, fully, and very promptly, then he may avoid all the bad publicity that the case is bound to create. He deserves everything that you can throw at him.

[Peter Lake]

G#Gill;1319744 wrote: I personally, Peter, would get on to as many press outlets (National as well as local!), give them the full story, including your personal situation and the fact you had to miss that very important hospital appointment. Send an email to the garage responsible for this incredible series of dangerous actions, telling them you are going to the press and media (don't forget 'Watchdog'), possibly do that first before you actually go to the press. See what the guy does. Suggest he pays you all the expenses etc. immediately (max 7 days), or you will take the matter to the press. If he still has his hands up his arse and does/says nothing, then do the press bit. I would think the Sun may be interested in your story - they enjoy splashing that sort of thing and getting the kudos for sorting things out. If all else fails, then get your solicitor to write to him that you will be taking him to court unless he pays everything he owes to you within (set a date), and also include compensation for all the terrible stress you and your wife have been caused, particularly you with your personal awful illness. Bad press could well destroy his business. Going to court would also get him bad publicity, which could also destroy his business. If he settled out of court, fully, and very promptly, then he may avoid all the bad publicity that the case is bound to create. He deserves everything that you can throw at him. Thank you for your advice Gill and i can't agree more. My wife even stressed to him in the e mail that i was unable to travel by public transport to the hospital as well as stressing that i'd put children in the car on his first bodge job and driven up the motorway. The police say that had the wheels come off, he'd be looking at a manslaughter charge. He just didn't give a stuff and even when he delivered the car back to me there was no apology. He actually kept us waiting five days for our car because he didn't want to pay £25 over the odds for a universal joint from another supplier. My regular guy said that if it'd been him, he'd have been mortified that a scan was missed and would've offered to pay for a taxi as would the wife's father who was also in the trade.

These two jobs were text book that if i was in health, i could've done myself and it's not as if it was some obscure foriegn make but a British Ford car.

He really can't get out of it as i have my regular guy's report along with the RAC report for both sets of damage. It also had an extensive mot only three weeks prior where brakes, universal joints, wheel bearings and hub nuts were checked and it's a fairly new car.

The problem with the small claims court is that they can pass judgement but he can just refuse to pay although he will have a county court judgement against him. Since writing this, the wife tells me that once the judgement is passed, if he doesn't pay, we can enforce a winding up order on him forcing him to shut down.

The police deal with criminals who they can arrest but there's other criminals like this operating in a legal business on something that could kill someone's family. In my claim i've been most generous where i've only billed him for the cost to put the damage right and have not charged him for anything else such as loss of earnings.

My wife has a very good relationship with local press and one particular gutter hack at the Daily Mail who i'm sure would take the story up and she's waiting until i give him a further few days to pay and then, hell hath no fury.

[G#Gill]

Well done! I look forward to a satisfactory conclusion for you, and without too much delay!

[Clodhopper]

Small claims court is a great thing. Used it for non-paying lodgers. Worked a treat. Good luck.

[Peter Lake]

Clodhopper;1319839 wrote: Small claims court is a great thing. Used it for non-paying lodgers. Worked a treat. Good luck. Thank you for your reply and can i ask did you get paid in a reasonable time?

[Clodhopper]

Haven't had to use it for quite a while. What happened in my case was a Court Order to pay, which seemed to spur the lodger into action. I used an escalating process and kept the lodger informed throughout of exactly what I was doing. If a Court Order isn't going to scare them, then you will probably need to take it further, whch means County Court and solicitors etc, but at least you have the Court Order, which should mean something...

But in my case the lodger paid up iirc pretty quick. I certainly felt no need to take it further.