Adding debt recovery costs to Money Claim Online form

Although this is say enough to add when sending a late payment statement, there's no field to add it on the MCOL claim form. And, presumably, you can only add interest on the original amount owed from the due date, not on the amount + the debt recovery cost?

So, is it only possible to demand and include debt recovery costs before starting a claim?

Thank you very much. Just so I'm clear:

- In the 'Claim amount' in the fields above the short statement field I need to state, for example, £400.
- My short statement should include a sentence to say I'm adding late payment compensation of £40.
- In the 'Amount claimed' beneath that, I need to state a total of £400 + interest amount + debt recovery fee? The court fee is then added automatically.

I also meant to ask: my client is a sole trader and provided a UK business address on my signed terms, which is also on his website as his business' London HQ. I have since discovered is a virtual office. I can't trace a UK residential address and he is currently living in Spain but without a fixed address. I hope the virtual office address will be acceptable to MCOL as point 6.8 in the Service of Documents states:

'(a) the defendant may be served with the claim form at an address at which the defendant resides or carries on business within the UK or any other EEA state and which the defendant has given for the purpose of being served with the proceedings;'

Have you encountered this situation before?

I understand - and I was rather stupid for accepting that the address was a proper office, which he led me to believe when we discussed where he was in London. I always check limited company addresses but took this sole trader address in good faith.

It's not a huge debt, thankfully. At best, it may prompt him to cough up.

I know I can't enforce various options but I might still be able to issue a court order to attend for questioning, which I've done before and usually shakes up naughty payers.

Fingers crossed ...