Draft it here at your own pace · paste it into the real service when it is ready
DRAFTING SPACEAn independent drafting space for people using the Money Claim Online service. Not connected to, or endorsed by, Money Claim Online, HM Courts & Tribunals Service or any court service. Nothing here is submitted anywhere.
Claim number:
Claimant:
Defendant:
Directions Questionnaire — small claims (Form N180)
For claims of £10,000 or less on the small claims track, which covers most tenant claims. Fast-track claims use Form N181 — see the next tab. Laid out to match the N180 (11.24) section by section; draft here, then copy into the official N180 form on GOV.UK.
A — Settlement/Mediation: for money claims of £10,000 or less you must attend a free mediation appointment with the Small Claims Mediation Service, usually a one-hour phone call. Not attending can lead to costs against you or the claim being decided against you. B — your contact details go on the form itself.
If No, say why not and which track you think it should go on.
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If No, say why: for example a factual dispute where the judge needs to hear from witnesses (name the dispute and the witnesses), or issues too complex to decide on paper.
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If you leave this blank the appointment may not happen, and you can be penalised for that.
Appointments are usually Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
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If yes, the language or type. Contact the court straight away if you need one.
A physical, mental or learning disability or long-term health condition, and what support or adjustments you need.
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A designated money claim usually moves to the claimant’s preferred court or the defendant’s home court, but there is no guarantee.
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If yes: why, the expert’s name if known, their area of expertise and likely cost. The most you can recover for an expert’s fees on small claims is £750.
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If yes, the type of interpreter.
Explain in what way, and what steps, support or adjustments you would like.
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G1: whether you were told of your right to give evidence in Welsh or English. G2: the language you and your witnesses will speak at court. G3: the language your documents are in.
Sign the form, return it to the court at the address on your Form N149A (notice of proposed allocation to the small claims track), and send a copy to every other party. Note the return date and court on the form — it may not be the court that issued the claim.
Directions Questionnaire — fast track (Form N181)
Draft your answers here in plain English, at your own pace, then copy them into the real form when you are ready.
State any physical or mental health needs that require adjustments from the court manager or judge.
4000 characters remaining
Anything the court needs to know about how you will take part, or any application you are making alongside the claim.
2000 characters remaining
Summary Judgment Application (Form N244)
Draft your grounds here. Summary judgment is dealt with under CPR Part 24 — check the rule and the current form before you rely on this.
Set out the evidence you rely on and why you say the other side has no real prospect of succeeding.
8000 characters remaining
How a small money claim works for renters (England and Wales)
What it is for
Claiming money a landlord or letting agent owes you: a deposit or holding deposit that was not returned, rent you overpaid, the cost of belongings damaged by disrepair, or fees that were banned. A claim for compensation because a deposit was never protected is made a different way, through the county court rather than the online money claim service, so get advice first for that one.
Before you claim
Write to the landlord or agent first: set out what is owed, why, how you worked it out, and a reasonable date to pay by (14 days is common). Keep proof you sent it. A court expects you to have tried this, and can hold it against you if you skipped it.
Making the claim
The claim is made online through the government’s money claim service. There is a court fee, which depends on how much you claim; you get it back from the other side if you win. You can also claim interest at 8% a year under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 — the interest calculator works it out.
After you claim
The landlord or agent has 14 days to respond, or 28 if they first acknowledge the claim. If they do nothing, you can ask the court for judgment without a hearing. If they defend it, claims of up to £10,000 normally go on the small claims track: you fill in a Directions Questionnaire, most cases are first referred to the free Small Claims Mediation Service by phone, and if that does not settle it there is a hearing. Hearings are informal, and each side usually pays its own costs.
Evidence to gather
The tenancy agreement; the deposit certificate and the deposit information you were given; the check-in and check-out inventories and your own dated photos; bank statements showing what you paid (redact them first); every letter, email and text, in date order; receipts and quotes for any costs; and a short timeline of what happened when.
If you win and they still don’t pay
The court can enforce the judgment, for example through bailiffs or by taking money from the other side’s earnings or bank account. Each method has its own fee, which is added to what they owe.
Savvy Renter — savvyrenter.co.uk · free tools for renters ·
Not connected to, or endorsed by, HM Courts & Tribunals Service or any court service.
This page drafts text for you to copy; it submits nothing. Check the current form and rules before you rely on anything here.
* Untested, unverified and possibly incomplete. This workspace has not been checked end to end against the live service. Treat everything it produces as a draft, and check it against the real form before you rely on it.
Found a step we have not covered? If the real service asks you something this page does not, send us that page — but save it before you type anything into it. An empty form has nothing personal in it to take out, which makes this safe and easy: press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac), choose “Webpage, complete”, and then carry on and fill it in as normal. Do that at each new step, and when you are finished put the saved pages in a zip file and email them to us. If you only think of it after filling a page in, run it through our web page data scrubber first — it takes out your answers, your contact details and your claim number, shows you every change it makes, and never uploads the file anywhere. Worth doing even with a blank page: your claim number is usually in the web address at the top, which gets saved with it. We aim to have a missing step written and on the site within a couple of days, so the next person through gets an easier time of it — but this is a volunteer project run in whatever spare time there is, so that is an aim and not a promise. Real life very often gets in the way.