What Happens if I Don’t Pay a Small Claims Judgement?

If you’re feeling concerned because you can’t afford to pay a small claims judgement, you’re not alone. Each month, our website is visited by over 12,000 people who are seeking advice on debt topics like this one. 

In this easy-to-understand guide, we’ll cover:

•  What a small claims judgement is, and if you must pay it
•  Steps to take if you can’t afford the payment
•  The way to lower your repayments
•  How to challenge or appeal a judgement
•  The impact and outcomes of not paying a small claims judgement

I know that dealing with financial issues can be tough; I’ve been there. But remember, there’s always a way out. This guide will help you understand your options and the steps you can take.

How does the small claims court work? 

When you can’t agree on a settlement with someone you owe money to, the case could go before a small claims court. The case is heard by a judge who listens to the evidence provided by both the defendant and the claimant.

The judge will then rule on who wins the case. If it’s the claimant and you’re the defendant, you’d get an order to pay what’s owed.

In short, there’s no getting out of paying the claimant!

A small claims court handles cases that involve individuals or firms where the amounts claimed are up to £10,000.

How does a court enforce payment?

A court could enforce a judgement made against you in several ways. For instance, the court could:

• Instruct court-appointed enforcement officers (previously known as bailiffs) to recover what you owe
• Issue an attachment order on your wages
• Freeze your assets
• Issue a charging order on your home

What can enforcement officers do?

Enforcement officers could seize some of your possessions and sell them at auction to recover the amount you owe. However, they must tell you of their impending visit before they come to your home.

You’d get a letter known as an Enforcement Notice asking you to pay the full amount within 7 working days.

If you don’t respond or pay within the deadline, the enforcement officers pay you a visit at your home.

What’s an Attachment on Earnings?

A court may issue an Attachment on your earnings to collect the money you owe. Your employer would be notified by the courts and would dock a specific amount of money from your earnings.

Your boss would send the docked wages directly to the courts and would continue to do so until the debt is paid off.

How does freezing assets work?

Although not very common, a court could decide to put a ‘freeze’ on your bank account and other financial products you have. 

After this, the court would decide whether the money you hold in a bank or savings account should be used to pay off your debt to the claimant.

What is a Charging Order?

Lastly, a court may issue a Charging Order on your home or other property you may own. When your home or other property is sold, some of the money is used to pay off your debtor.

It’s worth noting that you could be forced to sell your home so the debt is repaid quickly!

What happens if you can’t pay?

You should seek legal advice if you can’t pay the money owed even when a court has issued a judgement against you. Don’t ignore things just because you don’t have the funds to pay!

It’s far better to seek advice from one of the debt charities if you’re struggling with your finances. Also, you can ask the court to give you more time to pay. 

However, you’ll be asked to provide sufficient proof of why you can’t settle what’s owed.

Can you appeal an order to pay?

Yes. But you must get a court’s permission to appeal an order to pay! Also, you must file an appeal within 21 days. If you miss the deadline, you can’t appeal the judge’s ruling against you!

Moreover, the success of your appeal depends on whether the judge made a legal mistake in their ruling against you! Which, unfortunately, is highly unlikely.

Plus, if you win your request to appeal the first ruling, you can’t include any new evidence in your appeal. You have to stay with the original evidence you provided in the first case file against you.

Can a judgement be enforced?

Yes. A judgement can be enforced when the court issues an “order to pay” against you!

So, when you don’t pay, things escalate and you could end up paying more and having to deal with more stress!

The claimant can ask the courts to collect what you owe them. You’ll incur more fees if this happens, although if you’re on a low income or receiving benefits, the fee could be waived.

You’d have to fill out the relevant form to have the fees waived!

How long do you have to pay a small claims judgement?

You’ll have to settle what’s owed within 14 days of the hearing once a judgement is issued against you. However, you can ask for more time but you’ll need to provide details of your financial circumstances.

Moreover, the claimant could ask the judge to issue an order for you to disclose your income and liabilities.

Like this, they’ll see whether you can afford to pay or not.

If it’s found that you can afford to pay the amount you owe, but you still don’t, an enforcement order could be issued by the courts against you.

You should try to resolve things before this happens whether you pay or not. In short, stay in touch with the courts and let them know if you can afford to pay the full amount or not!

What if you don’t respond to a summons?

The claimant has the right to ask a small claims court to order you to pay if you don’t respond to their claim within a deadline.

You have 28 days to respond to a claim made against you in a small claims court. If you don’t respond the claimant could get a judge to issue an order for you to pay!

Once the court issues an ‘order to pay’ by default, you’ll have a legal obligation to settle what’s owed. Or face the consequences!

Check out what happened to one person who posted this message on a popular forum:

Source: Moneysavingexpert

How do claimants get judgements issued by the courts?

A claimant can ask a small claims court to issue a judgement against you in several ways because it depends on how the case is raised.

For example, the claimant may:

• File a case against you online. In this instance, when you ignore things, the claimant asks for a judgement to be issued against you online Use what’s known as an N225 Form to claim a fixed amount
• Use an N227 Form to claim an unspecified sum of money 

It’s worth noting that claimants can use the same online process and forms even when they admit liability!

Do you have to pay?

There are ways to have debt written off in the UK.

If you genuinely can’t afford your debt repayments then looking into whether you could have your payments lowered or written off might be just what you need. 

If you want to find out whether you qualify for having debt written off or payments lowered then fill out the short form below.

What happens when you contest a judgement?

You may have to attend a court hearing if you want to contest a claim made against you by a creditor, debt collection agency or another claimant.

The judge will hear both sides and consider the evidence before deciding whether to issue a judgement against you.

You should seek legal advice beforehand or you may find you lose the case from the outset. Why?

Because the legal process would likely be unfamiliar to you a simple legal mistake could see you lose the case on a technicality

Lastly, what happens when you don’t pay a small claims judgement?

Things will escalate and get harder to resolve when you don’t pay a small claims judgement levied against you.

It’s far better to stay in touch with the courts and let them know about your personal circumstances when you can’t pay!

Ignoring the judgement won’t make it go away.

You should seek advice from a debt adviser if you can’t pay the claimant what you owe them and you’ve received an order to pay!

Their advice could be invaluable more especially as you’re probably not aware of the legal process involved in the claim. It could make the situation a lot easier to deal with when you have a debt adviser in your corner!

Thanks for reading my post. I hope the information helps you decide how to deal with a small claims judgement so things don’t escalate out of control.