How to file a small claim via Money Claim Online

From registration to a served claim in about 30 minutes, assuming you have your facts and figures ready.

Free account at moneyclaim.gov.uk. You need an email address and a UK postal address. Five minutes.

Enter the defendant’s details

Full legal name (individual or company), address for service, and — for companies — their Companies House number if you have it.

Enter the claim amount

The principal sum, plus interest from the date the debt fell due (usually 8% per year under s.69 County Courts Act 1984), plus the court fee.

Particulars of claim

A short, plain-English statement of WHY they owe you the money. The Particulars Builder fills this in for you, but you can write your own.

£35 to £455 depending on claim amount. Pay by card on MCOL. The fee is added to your claim and you recover it from the defendant if you win.

You get an instant case number. The defendant is served by post within 5 working days and has 14 days to respond once they receive it.

How to file a small claim via Money Claim Online

The six-step MCOL flow

Common MCOL errors and how to avoid them

Wrong defendant name.

Sue the LEGAL entity — “Acme Limited” not “Acme”. For sole traders use the trader’s real name with “trading as Acme”. Get the legal name from Companies House (free search) before you file.

Particulars too short.

A one-line particulars (“they owe me £2,500”) can be struck out as inadequate. State the contract, the breach, and the loss. Two short paragraphs is usually enough.

Forgetting interest.

Statutory interest at 8% from the date the debt fell due usually adds 3–8% to your recovered total. The Particulars Builder calculates this; if you write your own, include the daily rate and the formula so the court can update it on judgment date.

The fee is calculated on the total amount including interest at issue date. Get the maths right before you submit — you cannot claw back overpaid fees, and underpaying means re-submission.