Court is the last rung of the ladder, and for disputes under £10,000 it’s a far less frightening rung than most homeowners imagine. The small claims track was built for people without lawyers: plain forms, informal hearings, and costs rules that stop the other side’s solicitor being a weapon against you.

Is your claim small-claims shaped?

  • Value: up to £10,000 in England and Wales (different limits apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland).1 Claims can be trimmed to fit, claiming £10,000 of a £11,300 loss to stay on the track is legitimate and often wise.
  • Time limits: broadly six years from the breach of contract; latent defects can engage longer regimes covered in our construction law pillar.2
  • Defendant: sue the entity you contracted with, the limited company on the paperwork, or the individual sole trader. Check Companies House first: a dissolved company is generally not worth suing, and a company with three CCJs already tells you about the enforcement road ahead.
  • Pre-action done: complaint, letter before action, a genuine ADR offer. Courts check: the court expects the parties to have followed the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct and can take an unreasonable refusal of ADR into account.3

Issuing the claim

Most money-only claims start online via Money Claim Online or the newer Civil Money Claims service: you set out the claim in plain English, the fee is paid, the builder is served. Issue fees are fixed by band: £205 for a claim of £3,000.01 to £5,000 and £455 for £5,000.01 to £10,000.4 If the claim goes to a hearing there is a further hearing fee, £346 for a small claim over £3,000.5 You may be able to claim the fees back if you win.4

Describe the claim simply: the agreement, the price, what was defective or unfinished, the remedy sought. Attach nothing yet, evidence comes later, by direction.

What happens next

  • No response in time → the defendant has 14 days after service of the particulars of claim to file a defence, or 28 days if they acknowledge service; if they file nothing, you can request judgment in default.6 A surprising share of claims end exactly here.
  • Admission → judgment, sometimes with instalments ordered.
  • Defence filed → for a claim of £10,000 or less, the court first books a free one-hour telephone mediation appointment, which you must attend: the judge can sanction a party who does not.7 If that fails, the court allocates to the small claims track and sets directions: both sides exchange documents and witness statements by set dates, then a hearing is listed, often 6–12 months from issue.

The hearing

Usually an hour or so before a district judge, often in the judge’s room rather than a courtroom.8 No wigs, no jury, no cross-examination theatre. You talk the judge through: agreement, breach, evidence, loss. Your file does the work, contract, chronology, dated photos, the correspondence showing your reasonableness, remedial quotes or an expert report pricing the loss (get the court’s permission at directions stage if you want to rely on an expert).9 Costs recovery is limited to fees and modest expenses on this track, which is precisely what protects you from the builder’s lawyer, too.9

Winning is half the job: enforcement

A judgment is an order to pay, not a payment. If the builder ignores it:

  • Warrant of control, county court bailiffs ask for payment and can take goods to sell (a common first step; the court fee is £96, added to the debt);5
  • Attachment of earnings, for employed individuals;10
  • Third-party debt order / charging order, freezing bank funds or securing against property, for larger sums;10
  • An unpaid judgment stays on the public register as a CCJ for six years unless it is paid in full within a month, real leverage against any business that wants credit accounts to survive.11

Enforcement reality is the reason to check solvency before suing, and the reason Section 75, retentions and staged payments, protections that don’t depend on the builder having money later, sit ahead of court in every guide in this series.

This guide is general information for homeowners in England and Wales, not legal advice.

References (11)

Figures in this note were checked against the sources below on 30 September 2026. Superscript numbers in the text point to them. Every source the site cites, by topic.

  1. 1technicalstrong locallyMinistry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), guidance.RN-D9CGJSCPR rule 26.9 sets the scope of each track, with the small claims track as the normal track for claims up to £10,000.
  2. 2technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-L5C0B9Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980: an action founded on simple contract cannot be brought more than six years after the cause of action accrued. This is the six-year limit on suing a builder over a contract that was not executed as a deed, and it runs from the breach, not from when the defect was discovered. The single most important date in a dispute about defective work.
  3. 3technicalstrong locallyMinistry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), guidance.RN-H37RZLThe Civil Procedure Rules practice direction on what parties should do before issuing a claim, including the content of a letter before claim and a 14-day response time in a straightforward case.
  4. 4costvery strongHM Courts and Tribunals Service (GOV.UK), guidance.RN-A531DSA price, true at 2026-09. The issue fee table for a money claim in the county court, based on the amount claimed plus any interest: 35 pounds up to 300 pounds, 50 pounds for 300.01 to 500 pounds, 70 pounds for 500.01 to 1,000 pounds, 80 pounds for 1,000.01 to 1,500 pounds, 115 pounds for 1,500.01 to 3,000 pounds, 205 pounds for 3,000.01 to 5,000 pounds, 455 pounds for 5,000.01 to 10,000 pounds, 5% of the claim for 10,000.01 to 200,000 pounds, and 10,000 pounds above 200,000 pounds. If the amount claimed is left blank on a paper claim the fee is 10,000 pounds, so an unquantified claim must be estimated. Help with fees is available on low income or certain benefits using form EX160, alongside form N1 for the claim, returned to the Civil National Business Centre in Northampton. Further fees follow later, for example a hearing fee.
  5. 5costvery strongHM Courts and Tribunals Service.RN-ANZYWBA price, true at 2026-09. HMCTS's list of civil court fees (EX50A, July 2026), including small claims hearing fees by claim value; £346 for claims over £3,000.
  6. 6technicalstrong locallyMinistry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), guidance.RN-7K5XOLCPR 15.3 and 15.4: a defence is due 14 days after service of the particulars, or 28 days if service is acknowledged, and default judgment follows if none is filed.
  7. 7technicalvery strongGOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), guidance.RN-A9L3H7Government guidance for claimants explaining that a disputed claim of £10,000 or less goes to compulsory mediation organised by the court, and that this HMCTS service is free.
  8. 8technicalvery strongGOV.UK, guidance.RN-SUZ71LGOV.UK guidance on money claims, explaining that claims under £10,000 are heard informally in the county court.
  9. 9technicalvery strongMinistry of Justice, a government page.RN-53VCSFCPR Part 27 is the procedure that applies once a claim against a builder is allocated to the small claims track under Part 26. The track normally takes claims of no more than £10,000, with personal injury damages capped at £1,000 and housing disrepair claims where the repairs are valued at £1,000 or less. The costs rule is the point homeowners most need to understand: the court may not order one party to pay another's costs, fees and expenses except for the fixed issue costs, court fees actually paid, witness travel and overnight expenses, a capped sum for a party's or witness's loss of earnings, a capped experts' fee, and costs awarded against a party who has behaved unreasonably, assessed summarily. Those restrictions survive a later reallocation off the small claims track unless the court orders otherwise, so winning does not usually mean recovering solicitors' fees.
  10. 10technicalvery strongGOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), guidance.RN-7ZGJFQThe gov.uk enforcement guidance: an attachment of earnings order takes payments from the debtor's wages through an order sent to the employer.
  11. 11technicalvery strongGOV.UK, guidance.RN-SQZGVGThe gov.uk guide to county court judgments: a judgment is recorded for six years unless paid in full within a month, which affects the debtor's credit.

  1. Civil Procedure Rules, Part 26: Case management, preliminary stage, Ministry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), accessed 30 September 2026. justice.gov.uk

  2. Limitation Act 1980, section 5: Time limit for actions founded on simple contract, legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives), accessed 30 September 2026. legislation.gov.uk

  3. Practice Direction: Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols, Ministry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), accessed 30 September 2026. justice.gov.uk

  4. Make a court claim for money: Court fees, GOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), accessed 30 September 2026. Priced at 2026-09 and left there. gov.uk

  5. EX50A: Civil and family court fees, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, accessed 30 September 2026. Priced at 2026-09 and left there. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

  6. Civil Procedure Rules, Part 15: Defence and reply, Ministry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), accessed 30 September 2026. justice.gov.uk

  7. Make a court claim for money: Resolve your claim through mediation, GOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), accessed 30 September 2026. gov.uk

  8. Make a court claim for money: What happens at the hearing, GOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), accessed 30 September 2026. gov.uk

  9. Civil Procedure Rules, Part 27: The small claims track, Ministry of Justice (justice.gov.uk), accessed 30 September 2026. justice.gov.uk

  10. Make a court claim for money: Enforce a judgment, GOV.UK (HM Courts and Tribunals Service), accessed 30 September 2026. gov.uk

  11. County court judgments (CCJs) for debt, GOV.UK, accessed 30 September 2026. gov.uk