Charging order against landlord, how to calculate interest

[sad-but-true]

So we had a judgment in our favour dated 13 Feb 2012, this was for £714.2 (£675 debt and £39.2 interest up to judgment date) and £175 costs.

 

We have since paid for a bailiff but this was unsuccessful.

 

We are now applying for a charging order against his property, how do we calculate the interest? I know it's 8% p.a. or 0.022 per day but is the interest on:

 

(a) The original £675 (675 x days since judgment x daily interest then add the original £39.2 back in)

(b) The total amount in the judgment £889.2 * daily interest rate * days since judgment

© The same as (b) but can we include the costs we paid to the bailiffs?

 

Many thanks

[sad-but-true]

Can anybody shed some light on this? We're hoping to get it sorted ASAP & don't want it to be rejected on a technicality like an incorrect interest calculation

 

Thank you in advanced

[mariner51]

Why not ring the Court and ask or post thread on LandlordZone 'Residential Lettings' forum?

 

I doubt you could add costs for a failed bailiff visit. Why did they fail, insufficient property value for seizure?

With a charge registered on his property, you could be waiting a long time for him to sell! For such a small sum you cannot force sale. What other recovery methods have you considered? Recovery order on bank account?

 

Welcome to the world of people trying to recover debt from non-payers!

[Lea_HTH]

You can claim for your costs involved in recovering the debt - so yes, you can ask for the bailiff costs to be included - this will be part of your claim when you seek the charging order, however if the defendant is of limited means the court may decide not to add these to the debt.

 

I do however agree with Mariner that there are other debt recovery elements open to you.

 

You can google 'judgment interest calculator' - I don't think one is supposed to post links to external sites. The above words will also throw up explanations for how to calculate the interest manually, as well as how to calculate simple interest (the 8% on the original judgment), plus compound interest (interest on the original judgment plus interest, plus the new interest). You can't add interest to the bailiffs fees until you have a judgment for that.

 

Bailiffs are pretty ineffective for recovering debt - you're better off using a high court enforcement officer. Benefits: they recover their costs from the debtor, which means they have a great incentive to take as much property as they can get their hands on!

[sad-but-true]

Thank you both for the replies.

 

Lea_HTH, I'm familiar with the maths behind the calculations, I'm just unsure at which costs I can apply them too. From your response it seems I should do the following:

 

Original judgment amount of £889.2 (675 debt, 39.2 interest, 175 costs) * .00022 * number of days since judgment - is this correct?

 

We have considered all other debt recovery options, but have settled a charging order as it is permanent and will cause him the most hassle (be it short or long term).

 

He's a very slippery character, is well off (goes on several holidays a year), but has limited assets. He runs/works for a second hand car business and the bailiffs saw him go to/from work in a different car every week (no doubt they won't be in his name).

 

Other options are:

 

- High court enforcement officer = same result as previous bailiff in my opinion

- Deduction from wages = I think he can wriggle out of this and we won't be able to get an attachment to earnings order

- Recover from bank account = a one shot deal and we'll just be pouring more money down the drain

 

We have spoken to him several times and even got as far as him trying to appeal the original decision, but we told him the wrong amount for the cheque so it the form wasn't processed. He genuinely thinks we are in the wrong, we feel if we get a charging order he will want to either appeal or pay up. If a court actually tells him he's wrong in person, he will pay.

 

Thanks for the landlordzone link, I will post there too.

[Lea_HTH]

Yes - to the first bit in bold regarding calculations - and if the costs listed were awarded at the judgment and not separately. You can't add interest to the bailiffs costs as yet as you haven't had a judgment for that yet.

 

HCEOs are unlikely to produce the same result as the bailiffs you used previously if those bailiffs were court bailiffs...they have different 'incentives' ultimately.

 

However, if you will be satisfied with a charge, go for it.

[45002]

For Reference

 

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?52568-Applying-for-charging-order-which-costs-can-I-add-interest-to