Yes, you can take someone to court for money they owe you, and the small claims process is specifically designed so you don’t need a solicitor to do it. Whether it’s a personal loan that was never repaid, an unpaid invoice, or money owed after a private sale, the courts provide a structured route to recover it.
Send a Letter Before Action
If a direct approach doesn’t work, the next formal step is a letter before action. This isn’t optional paperwork, courts can penalise claimants who skip it even where the underlying debt itself isn’t in dispute. Your letter should include:
- The exact amount owed and what it relates to
- A clear deadline for payment, usually 14 to 30 days
- A statement that court proceedings will follow if payment isn’t received
- Any interest or compensation you intend to claim on top of the original amount
Send it by both email and recorded post where possible, since a physical delivery record is harder for the other side to dispute later.
Is There a Time Limit? Statute Barred Debt Explained
Under the Limitation Act 1980, you generally have six years from the date the debt became due to bring a claim through the courts. Once that period passes, the debt is described as “statute barred,” meaning a court is likely to refuse to enforce it even though the money is technically still owed. There’s an important nuance worth knowing: if the debtor acknowledges the debt in writing, or makes even a partial payment, within those six years, the clock resets from that point. This is why keeping any written acknowledgment, even an informal text message agreeing they owe you money, can matter more than people realise.
How to Start a Court Claim?
Once you’ve sent a letter before action and the deadline has passed without payment, you can file a claim. Most people use Money Claim Online (or its newer replacement, Civil Money Claims), which lets you file electronically and pay by card, rather than posting a paper N1 form. Before filing, it’s worth knowing exactly what you’ll pay, since the fee depends entirely on how much you’re claiming. You can check your court costs using a calculator before you commit to filing.
What Happens After You File?
Once your claim is issued, the defendant has a set period to respond. They can pay in full, which ends the matter. They can dispute the claim, which usually leads to a hearing. Or they can simply not respond at all, in which case you can apply for a default judgment, effectively winning the case by the other side’s failure to engage rather than through a hearing on the merits.
What If the Debtor Genuinely Can’t Pay?
It’s worth pausing on this before committing significant time and money to the process. Winning a judgment doesn’t guarantee you’ll actually be paid. If the person you’re pursuing is already in serious financial difficulty, out of work, with no assets, or dealing with multiple debts, a judgment in your favour may end up being worth considerably less than the paper it’s written on. It’s not a reason to avoid pursuing a genuine debt, but it is a reason to think realistically about what you know of the debtor’s circumstances before spending money on court fees you might not recover.
Let’s Understand from an Example
Someone lends a friend £2,000 for a car repair, expecting to be repaid within a few months. Repayment gets delayed repeatedly, with the friend citing one excuse after another, until communication stops altogether. After sending a letter before action by recorded post and receiving no response within the given deadline, the lender files a claim through Money Claim Online. Because the friend doesn’t respond to the court proceedings either, a default judgment is entered in the lender’s favour, at which point enforcement becomes the next consideration if payment still doesn’t follow.
What to Do Before You Sue
- Gather written evidence of the debt, texts, emails, a signed agreement, or bank transfer records
- Confirm the debtor’s current address, since court papers need to be served correctly
- Check the debt isn’t already statute barred under the six-year rule
- Send a compliant letter before action and keep proof it was sent
Quick Answers
You’ll need a valid address to serve court papers. Options include checking the electoral register through a service like 192.com, or in some cases applying to the court for permission to serve papers by an alternative method.
In many cases, yes. Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998, businesses can charge statutory interest on overdue commercial debts, and courts can also award interest on personal debts in certain circumstances.
A judgment tells the debtor to pay, it doesn’t force them to. If they still don’t, you’ll need to use a separate enforcement method, such as a warrant of control or an attachment of earnings order, each of which carries its own fee.
No set minimum exists, though for very small amounts it’s worth weighing the court fee and the time involved against what you’d actually recover.
