No business or person has a right to retain plant, goods or documents that you own, or that you are entitled to be in possession of, without lawful authority.  That lawful  authority may, for example, come directly from you or from an agreement which you have entered into. If a person or a company in possession of your goods has no lawful authority to hold your goods, you are entitled to request their return. 

If they refuse to return your goods or plant, you can apply to the Court for what is called an Order for "Delivery Up”.  This is a Court Order which requires one party to  deliver goods, plant, or documents to another party. 

To secure such an order, you will have to prove to a judge that you own the goods etc, and that the other party are holding them without authority. As with all litigation, evidence will be vital, as it is on evidence that a judge will base his decision. Many cases can boil down to one person's word against another's, but documentary and hard evidence can be much more valuable. Key in this area are contract terms - under the contract, even though you have passed goods etc to someone else, did you retain ownership until you were paid in full?

Once the Order has been made by the Court, the party holding the goods or plant will have to return them within the timescale dictated by the Court.  If they do not do so, the holder of the goods will be in contempt of Court which can ultimately lead to their imprisonment.

If you are successful in persuading the Court that it should make an Order for Delivery Up,  the Court is also likely to order that the party wrongfully holding the goods should pay the costs you incurred in bringing the Delivery Up proceedings. As with all litigation, you will not recover all of your costs but, in normal circumstances, you should recover the majority.

As we say, we are always there for businesses who are in our BLUE LAW scheme, so we invite you to join BLUE LAW now. Once you have joined, we try to answer any legal enquiries that you have, free of charge. If legal work is needed, we give you a price, and you are then free to "shop around".  If you wish to speak to us now, please click on "Please Contact Me Now” or call us on 0800 084 3256. We look forward to always being there for you.