I have just received advice from my UK counterpart that the County Court has sent them a cheque in settlement of my claim issued through the Small Claims Court on 13 November 2008.
We had to go through the entire process with Larkins dragging the process out to the bitter end. After Judgement was entered against the Defendant (given in my favour) on 3 December, I had to "enforce" judgement through the issuance of a "Warrant of Execution". In effect this means I paid for a court-appointed bailiff to go to The Real World Rental Company's premises in Fulham and ask for payment.
This he did on 19 January 2009. Larkins declined to pay him, but the bailiff "levied on the goods" belonging to the debtor. Having read of a similar exercise by another of Larkins's victims, I was very sceptical that I would receive any monies.
In the interim I assume that the bailiff has revisited Larkins, and has been furnished with the funds to settle the claim, including my costs.
Others, who may wish to follow the same procedure should go to this website. The cost involved has been GBP115, which has been covered in the claim.
I am willing to provide detailed information to others who wish to follow this procedure. If I had been unsuccessful in this pursuit I was exploring the option of filing a "creditor's petition" for bankruptcy - making Larkins bankrupt. Again, I can provide you information on this process.
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11 comments:
Congratulations, a job well done!
What a waste of time, these theives but it is good to know that the bad will have to pay for their crimes eventually!
Again, well done and good for your persistence!
Thanks. It's nice to know that the system works, albeit at a grindingly slow pace. I just would like to help any other unfortunate victims recover their money.
Too late - I have already paid a weeks rental to Real World and signed the agreement, but not yet paid the deposit. After reading your blog my preference would be to cancel but I fear I'd not get the rental back, and it would put me on wrong side of the legals. I'm reluctant to add to the issue by paying the deposit but that could lead to not being able to take up the rental and compound the legal issues. Heard from anyone in a similar position? Any advice?
Sorry to respond so late, but I've not been checking this blog recently. I think your best bet is to pay the deposit in cash and ensure that you receive it in cash before you depart. (I've heard of others doing this). This can be tricky if you are departing to catch a flight/train etc, but if you leave plenty of time for the handover, and are very very insistent, (making sure that whoever checks you in is aware of this requirement), then you should be OK. Otherwise you would have to follow the course of action that I and others have, (which I have documented). If they don't play ball on the refund, you can always report them to the local police, details of which I have provided in the blog. Good luck, and I hope things work out for you.
Plus ca change I see, nearly 1 year on:
Reviewed by Anthony_BBC on 24th August 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use The Real World Rental Company again? NO
I'm yet another in this long chain.... how can they keep doing it? I work for the BBC and in August 2008 I needed some temp accom and used The Real World Rental Company. One year later I am still being promised that they will return my deposit. He should not have even banked the cheque, I was only in for 7 days. Such a shame, he was very polite and the service was good. However, a year for the return of my deposit is too much. I have now submitted a claim to the courts.
I'm going through the same debt recovery process as you, but I'm stuck at the last step. A warrant has been issued but the West London magistrates court don't answer their phone and don't give any progress reports on executing the warrant. How long did you have to wait between warrant being issued and being executed? It has been 6 months for me...
I think it took a couple of months. I found the West London Court to be helpful, and it was quite easy to get through to them, and to get an update. The bailiff was persistent, and I got my money with costs in full.
Good day,
I wish I had found you before. I am in Canada, running after a 950 deposit since February of 2010. What do you suggest I do?
Nathaly
Hi Nathaly - sorry, I don't check this blog very much these days as my problem was resolved through the UK courts. But I keep the blog open, so that people Googling the company name or that of its proprietor will find this and other warnings.
As I've suggested, your best bet is to sue them through the online Small Claims Court. It takes about 4 months, but you should get your money back. I'm sorry to hear that RWRC & Larkins are still in operation and doing this.
I just got my money back. The process is fairly simple once you know what to do:
1. Lodge a claim online through the small claims court: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk It is easy to do and costs are fairly small.
2. Wait for the claim to be ignored by the Real World people.
3. Apply for a summary judgement from the court. Pay another small fee.
4. Don't bother using the small claims court to try and recover your money... they are hopeless. Instead, have your claim transferred to a higher court and use someone like these people: www.thesheriffsoffice.com
They were able to recover the total amount of my claim within 6 months. And every single cost I had with the courts and for the recovery process was added to the final claim, plus interest.
I got stuck at the local magistrates office for a long time until I was told about the sherrif. Very Robin Hood :-) but it worked.
I feel bad that the money I was paid was probably just someone else's deposit they ripped off. Shame the police can't be bothered acting on this.
Well done Ari, and thanks for the additional information about using the higher court. Mine took 4 months from start to finish, using the bailiff. But I'm sure others will find this useful, as they still seem to be ripping people off, which I why I keep this blog open, hoping that it will prevent others being trapped by these people.
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