WA Defendant has No Business Name or Assets - What to Do?

[AFA]

Our small business made a successful claim against a debtor. Through the process, we have discovered that the defendant's name is not a registered business name and has no assets under that name so our Property (seizure and sale) Order has yielded no property.

The business name has since been registered.

Do we need to start all over again using the individual's personal name or can we have the order amended to his name? Or can we still claim against the business name, even though it has no assets? How can we have his assets seized when we don't know whose name they are in?

We would really appreciate some legal help on the best next step to take.

 

[Sophea]

Not sure what the position is in WA, I presume its similar - in NSW the Civil Procedure Rules provide that proceedings in which a judgment has been given against a business name, the court may vary the order so as to make it an order against the person in the individual's own name.

For future reference normally proceedings should be instituted in the name of "[the debtor's personal name] trading as [the business name]" to avoid such a predicament.