What is a letter before action?

A letter before action (LBA) is a formal notice sent before starting court proceedings. It sets out your claim, the legal basis (e.g. Consumer Rights Act 2015, Housing Act 1988), the remedy you seek, and a deadline to respond — typically 14 days. Civil Procedure Rules require this step before most court claims, and courts take a dim view of parties who skip it.

Can I write my own legal letter?

Yes. You do not need a solicitor to write a legal letter. What matters is citing the correct legislation, stating your claim with precise dates and amounts, and giving a clear deadline. A well-drafted letter citing the right Act and section often resolves disputes without court proceedings — and costs nothing extra to send.

Does a legal letter actually work?

In many cases, yes. Most businesses, landlords, and employers respond when they receive a formally worded letter that cites specific legislation and mentions court or tribunal proceedings as the next step. It signals you know your rights and are prepared to escalate — which is often enough to get a resolution.

What UK legislation covers consumer complaints and refunds?

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the primary law. Section 9 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality; section 20 gives you the right to a full refund within 30 days if goods are faulty. For services, section 49 requires reasonable care and skill. For distance/online purchases, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you a 14-day cooling-off period.

21 August 2026

How to Take Someone to Small Claims Court (UK): The Money Claim Process, the Fees, and What Winning Actually Gets You

You have sent the emails. You have sent the letter. Maybe you have chased on the phone until you are blue in the face. And still — nothing. The good news is that the courts of England and Wales have a deliberately simplified route, the small claims track, built so an ordinary person can recover money owed without a solicitor, mostly online, for a modest fee. The bad news, which almost nobody tells you up front, is that getting a judgment in your favour and actually getting paid are two different things. Here is the whole process, honestly, so you go in with your eyes open.

General information for England & Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland use separate systems — see below). Not legal advice. Current as at August 2026 — court fees in particular change, so always check the figures on gov.uk before you file.

First: is this actually a “small claim”?

In England and Wales, a money claim is normally dealt with on the small claims track if it is worth £10,000 or less. That covers the vast majority of everyday disputes: unpaid invoices, a deposit that was never returned, a refund a trader refuses to give, botched building work, money lent to someone who never repaid it. If your claim is larger you can still sue — it just goes on a different, more formal track with different costs rules.

Two exceptions have lower limits even though the overall claim can still be up to £10,000:

Personal injury — the injury element must be modest (broadly £1,500 or less for most non-road-traffic injury claims, with different thresholds for road-traffic claims) to stay on the small claims track.
Housing disrepair against a landlord — only counts as a small claim if the cost of the repairs and any related damages are each £1,000 or less.

If in doubt about which track applies, the court decides when it “allocates” the case — but for a straightforward debt under £10,000, small claims is where you are headed.

Do the letter before action first — skipping it can cost you

Before you issue a claim, the courts expect you to have genuinely tried to resolve it. This is not a polite suggestion: the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols requires you to send the other side a clear letter before claim (also called a letter before action) that sets out who you are, what you are claiming, why, the facts, how any money figure is worked out, and what you want them to do — giving them a reasonable time to respond (often around 14 days for a simple matter).

This step has teeth. If you rush to court without trying to settle first, the judge can penalise you even if you win — by making you pay costs you would not otherwise have paid, or by depriving you of some of the interest on the money awarded. A proper letter before action also does something useful: it often gets you paid without a claim at all, because it shows you are serious.

How to make the claim

For most money claims under £10,000, the current route is the government’s online service:

“Make a money claim” (Online Civil Money Claims) at gov.uk/make-money-claim — the plain-English digital service for claims under £10,000. You fill in who owes you money, how much, and why; the defendant is served and can admit, pay, defend, or ignore it.
Money Claim Online (MCOL) at moneyclaim.gov.uk is the older service and still works — it is mainly used for fixed sums and larger specified amounts, and for some claim types the newer service excludes.
Paper form N1, filed at the County Court, is the route if you cannot use the online services (for example if you or the defendant is under 18, or the claim type is not eligible online).

You do not need a solicitor for any of this — the small claims track is designed to be used by people representing themselves.

What it costs to file

There is a court issue fee to start a claim, and it is banded by how much you are claiming — a claim for a few hundred pounds costs a small fixed fee; a claim near the £10,000 ceiling costs several hundred pounds. If your case goes all the way to a hearing there is usually a separate hearing fee on top.

Do not rely on a fee figure you read in an article — including this one. Court fees are reviewed and changed periodically. Always check the current “EX50” civil and family court fees schedule on gov.uk for the exact issue fee and hearing fee that apply to your claim amount before you file. As a rough guide only, at the time of writing the issue fee for a claim between £5,000 and £10,000 was in the region of a few hundred pounds — treat that as indicative, not gospel.

If you are on a low income or certain benefits, you may not have to pay the fee at all, or only part of it, under the Help with Fees scheme — apply for that before you pay. And remember: the fees you do pay can normally be added to your claim and recovered from the other side if you win.

Claiming interest on what you are owed

You do not just have to claim the bare debt — you can usually claim interest on top, but you have to ask for it, because it is not automatic. For an ordinary personal debt, the court can award simple interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at up to 8% a year. The standard wording people put on the claim form is something like: “The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year.”

Business-to-business debt is different (and often better). If you are a business chasing another business for an unpaid commercial invoice, you may be able to claim under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 instead — that carries interest at the Bank of England base rate plus 8% (a higher figure), plus a fixed compensation sum for the cost of recovering the debt. You cannot claim both regimes for the same debt — pick the one that applies.

The costs trap: you probably will not get your legal costs back

This is the single most misunderstood thing about small claims, so read it twice. On the small claims track, the winner generally cannot recover their legal costs from the loser. The court can order the losing side to repay your court fees and certain limited expenses (a bit of travel, loss of earnings for attending, limited expert fees), but not your solicitor’s bill. That is deliberate — it is what keeps small claims accessible — but it means paying a lawyer to run a £2,000 claim rarely makes financial sense. It is also exactly why the process is built for you to do yourself. (The one narrow exception: a judge can award further costs against a party who has behaved unreasonably, but that bar is set high.)

Winning is not the same as getting paid

If the defendant does not respond, or you win at a hearing, the court enters judgment — a County Court Judgment (CCJ). But a CCJ is just an official ruling that the money is owed. If the other side still does not pay, the court does not chase them for you. You have to take a further, separate enforcement step — and each one costs an extra fee:

Warrant of control — sends County Court bailiffs to seize and sell the debtor’s goods.
Attachment of earnings — deductions taken straight from the debtor’s wages by their employer.
Third-party debt order — freezes and takes money from the debtor’s bank account.
Charging order — secures the debt against the debtor’s property, to be paid when it is sold.

Before you sue, ask: can this person actually pay? A judgment against someone with no job, no assets and no bank balance can be very hard to enforce. There is one silver lining even then — if a CCJ is not paid within one month, it is registered publicly and shows on the debtor’s credit file for six years, which can be a powerful incentive for someone who cares about their credit to settle up.

The deadline — do not leave it too long

You cannot chase a debt forever. In England and Wales, under the Limitation Act 1980, you normally have six years from the date the debt fell due (or the contract was breached) to start court action. Leave it longer and the claim can become “statute-barred” and unenforceable. In Scotland the equivalent period is generally five years. Do not sit on a good claim.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: different systems

The online money claim service and the “small claims track” described above are England and Wales only. If your dispute is in:

Scotland — you use Simple Procedure in the Sheriff Court (run by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service) for claims of £5,000 or less. Different forms, different rules, different terminology — not MCOL or form N1.
Northern Ireland — there is a separate Small Claims process through the County Court (via nidirect), currently for claims up to £5,000, with its own list of excluded claim types.

Check the Scottish Courts (scotcourts.gov.uk) or nidirect (nidirect.gov.uk) site for the current process where you live.

Getting the letter before action right

Almost every successful small claim starts with a strong letter before action — and, as we saw above, sending one is not optional if you want to avoid a costs penalty later. A good one is specific: it identifies the debt clearly, states the exact amount (and how it is calculated), sets a firm but reasonable deadline to pay, and makes plain that you are prepared to issue a county court claim, with interest and costs, if you are not paid. Measured and factual beats angry every time — and only threaten court if you genuinely mean to follow through.

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Sources: Civil Procedure Rules Parts 26 and 27 and Practice Direction 27; Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols; County Courts Act 1984 (section 69); Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998; Limitation Act 1980 (section 5); Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973; HMCTS “Make a money claim” and Money Claim Online services; EX50 civil and family court fees schedule and Help with Fees guidance (gov.uk); Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (Simple Procedure); nidirect (Northern Ireland small claims). Current as at August 2026. General information for the UK, not legal advice.