If you own or manage a commercial property, you can use CRAR to recover rent but what can you do when there are additional fees and charges that are also due?

Because CRAR can only be used to recover rent, if you have additional fees that are outstanding you will need to obtain a County Court Judgment (CCJ) for this amount.

Obtaining a CCJ

Before taking steps to obtain a CCJ it will be worth undertaking some simple checks including the following:

• Is the company still trading?
• Is the individual still trading?
• Do they have assets?

You can obtain a CCJ by completing the online form that can be found here:  https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim

 The court fees for obtaining a CCJ are detailed below:

Once you have obtained a CCJ the debtor will have 14 days to respond by completing the paperwork provided by the court. County court judgments stay on record for 6 years unless the full amount plus costs is paid within one month of the court judgment being made, so hopefully this will expedite payment from the debtor.

Enforcement

If the debt remains unpaid, then the next step to recovering the money you are owed is enforcement.