Need advice on money owed

well basically i sold my car to a car dealer for which he paid me by cheque,i lodged the cheque into my account and it bounced,i rang him to ask him what went wrong and he said that a sale didnt go through as planned and that i would be able to lodge the cheque in a couple of days which i did but the cheque bounced again,i rang him and he was very apolagetic and said he would lodge the money into my account as a matter of priority,then a few days later he lodged €9000 into my account out of €12000 that he owed me,now for the last month i've been ringing him again and again and he always has another excuse e.g a sale didnt go ahead,or he was fined for something,and that he'll have the last €3000 euro for me asap,but within the last week its gotten to the point here he wont even answer the phone to me,any help on what i could do or how i go about resolving the situation would be greatly appreciatedp.s i still have the original cheque as evidence

Initiate court proceedings. The bounced cheque on its own is sufficient evidence. Apply for the full amount, because that is what the law provides for.

The dealer might lodge a counterclaim for the €9000 you got. Concede that immediately.

Just FYI, you cannot go to the small claims court - as your claim cannot exceed €2,000. First port of call has to be your solicitor.

Padraigb said:

Initiate court proceedings. The bounced cheque on its own is sufficient evidence. Apply for the full amount, because that is what the law provides for.

The dealer might lodge a counterclaim for the €9000 you got. Concede that immediately.

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would i also be able to claim,compensation and solicitors expenses etc?compensation would be for the 2 months i've had to do without a car because the 9000 just about cleared my debt,now im just waiting on the last 3k so i can buy a cheap car,but until i get the 3k i have to make do with buses and taxis etc which can get awkward,inconvenient and pricey,thanks

Perhaps you could claim compensation, but that complicates my simple advice.

The point underlying what I said was that a dishonoured cheque is sufficient evidence to bring to court; it's pretty well an automatic win (amount of cheque plus cost of the action). But perhaps you should look one step past a court win: consider whether the car dealer has the resources to pay what is due to you.

You might concede a counterclaim for €9000 less compensation.

I am sure you would rather not have to go to court. In your position I would simply write to the trader telling him that if he did not make a satisfactory offer in settlement within seven days I intended to institute proceedings on the basis of the dishonoured cheque -- and I would mean it. I would make it clear that an offer in settlement would need to include interest and compensation for your inconvenience; I would not factor in the cost of buses and taxis because it could be reasonably argued that you were not paying the cost of running a car.