Bad debts are an inevitable problem in business. No doubt you will have
your own credit control procedure, but from time to time you may get ignored.
Sometimes, it only needs a “Solicitors letter” to prompt payment. We can help with this.
Occasionally it may be necessary to start a Court claim to compel your
customer to pay. Again we can help.
Now and again however your customer may simply not have the means to pay
and you will need to give careful consideration about whether to bring a claim
though the Court, in case you are just throwing good money after bad. After all it doesn’t matter how strong your
case is if your customer has no money.
We can also help with debts owed to private individuals.
How can we help?
If you send us a copy of your unpaid invoice (or details of the amount of
money outstanding) together with a copy of any correspondence you have sent
chasing payment we will send a letter to the debtor demanding payment. This will usually give the debtor between 14
and 30 days to settle their debt. We
charge a fixed fee for this.
If your case is a little more complicated and a meeting is required so you
can explain how the debt has arisen we charge an additional fixed fee for this.
If our letter results in payment of the money due that will be the end of
the matter but if it doesn’t you will need to consider whether to bring a claim
at Court. We are able to deal with this
for you and to help you enforce any County Court Judgment if the debtor fails
to make payment even though the Court has ordered him or her to do so.
Typically an uncontested debt claim will take between 28 and 42 days from
the date on which the Claim is lodged with the Court to the date of the County
Court Judgment. Enforcement of the
Judgment may take considerably longer and we will advise you about the likely
timeframe as and when we reach that stage.
Sometimes a debtor will say that they do not owe the money claimed which
can make things much more lengthy, complicated and expensive but we are able to
advise you as to your options.
Debt recovery work is carried out by either Jonathan Hardiker or Suzie Fisher at our Kendal office. Their details can be found in the Our Team section of the website.
What will it cost?
STAGE 1
If a meeting is required before we write a letter we will charge a fixed
fee of £75 plus VAT for that meeting.
STAGE 2
When we write our first letter we will charge you £50 plus VAT.
STAGE 3
If, despite our letter, the debtor still doesn’t pay and you decide that
you want to start a Court claim we will charge a fixed fee of £150 plus VAT to
prepare the Court documents, lodge them with the Court and arrange for them to
be served on the debtor. In addition
there will be a Court fee to pay as follows:-
|
Claim amount
|
Paper form fee
|
Online claim fee
|
|
Up to £300
|
£35
|
£25
|
|
£300.01 to £500
|
£50
|
£35
|
|
£500.01 to £1,000
|
£70
|
£60
|
|
£1,000.01 to £1,500
|
£80
|
£70
|
|
£1,500.01 to £3,000
|
£115
|
£105
|
|
£3,000.01 to £5,000
|
£205
|
£185
|
|
£5,000.01 to £10,000
|
£455
|
£410
|
|
£10,000.01 to £100,000
|
5% of the claim
|
4.5% of the claim
|
|
£100,000.01 to £200,000
|
5% of the claim
|
You cannot make a claim online
|
|
More than £200,000
|
£10,000
|
You cannot make a claim online
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
STAGE 4
If the
debtor defends the Claim you have lodged with the Court we will advise you as
to your options but any further work will be charged on an hourly rate
basis. How much it is likely to cost to
be represented in a defended claim very much depends on the circumstances of
the individual case and we will provide you with an estimate of likely costs at
that stage. Please be aware that if your
claim is for less than £10,000 a defended case is likely to be heard in the
Small Claims Court in which it is extremely rare for your legal costs to
be recovered from an opponent, even if you win. It is not usually
economic to be represented by a solicitor in the Small Claims Court.
If, however,
the debtor does not defend the Claim we will enter Judgment against the debtor
for which we will charge a further £50 plus VAT. There are no additional Court fees to pay at
this stage.
STAGE 5
If, despite
a Judgment being entered against the debtor he or she fails to pay the amount
ordered we can help you try to enforce the Judgment. The various options are as follows: –
- Writ of Control which instructs a High Court Enforcement
Officer to seize goods belonging to the debtor.
Our costs will be £100 plus VAT, there will be a Court fee of £66 and a
High Court Enforcement Officers fee of £90.
This step normally takes between 8 and 12 weeks and success clearly
cannot be guaranteed - the debtor may have nothing of value.
- Attachment of Earnings Order whereby the Court will order
the debtor’s employer to deduct money from the debtor’s salary and pay it to
you. Provided the debtor can be easily
found, his or her employer is known and we do not have to attend a hearing
(which will take place if either you or your debtor object to the order made in
the first instance) we will charge £150 plus VAT for this. In addition there will be a Court fee of £110
to pay. This normally takes between 8
and 12 weeks to obtain.
- A Charging Order which puts a charge/mortgage on property
owned by the debtor or on the debtor’s share in the property if it is jointly
owned. We will charge £350 plus VAT for
this work, there will be a Court fee of £110 to pay, a Search fee of £11 to pay
and a fee of £40 to pay when the charge is registered at Land Registry. If it is necessary to attend a Court hearing
(because the debtor objects to the Charging Order) we will charge an additional
£250 plus VAT. This process normally
takes about 8 to 12 weeks if the debtor does not raise an objection.
- Third party debt order which is an order whereby the Court
requires someone who owes the debtor money to pay to you. We will charge £250 plus VAT for our work,
there will be a Court fee of £110 to pay and an agent’s fee for attending the
hearing which will depend on where the case is heard. We will provide you with more details about
agents’ likely charges according to the specific circumstances of your case. This process normally takes about 8 to 12 weeks.
1.
If you do
not have sufficient information about the debtor’s financial circumstances you
can apply to the Court for an order that the debtor attend Court to be
questioned. Our charges for this will be
£250 plus VAT, there will be a court fee of £55 to pay and you will have to pay
a Process Server a fee of up to £150 to serve the order on the debtor requiring
him or her to attend Court.
You may also
take steps to make the debtor bankrupt or, if it is a limited company, to wind
it up. Bankruptcy or winding up are very
much a last resort because they don’t usually result in the recovery of the
money owed but we will advise you about these options and the costs involved if
it becomes appropriate to do so.
