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Debt Recovery For Businesses

Before issuing a claim to recover monies due a letter should be sent to the debtor(s) providing the current position and allowing 30 days for contact or repayment to be made. At this stage you may consider offering an instalment plan. If no response is received then a further letter should be sent out granting a further 7 days to allow for contact or repayment to be made before the issuing of proceedings. These are letters before action and inform the debtor that court proceedings will begin if no agreement is reached and the debt remains outstanding. If you do not know the debtor’s residency address then we can arrange for a debtor trace to be carried out in an attempt to obtain the new address. If the result of the trace is negative the tracer’s fees are reimbursed.

If payment is made to fully satisfy the debt within the given timescale then you will only be responsible for payment of our fees for opening your file with us, sending out the letters before action and a debtor trace, should the same have been required. 

If the debt remains unpaid then we can assist you in issuing a claim in the County Court Money Claims Centre for a County Court Judgment (“CCJ”). At this stage we can look to add the cost of applying to the Court for a CCJ, the recoverable amount of our costs and interest onto the total amount you are claiming. We draft the paperwork for the claim and a copy of the same will be served on the debtor(s). The debtor(s) must respond to the claim within 14 days from the date which the Court deems to paperwork to have been served on the debtor(s).

Within the given 14 days the debtor(s) may:-

  • File an Acknowledgement of Service – Allowing the debtor(s) a further 14 days to respond
  • Pay the debt in full
  • Make payment in instalments 
  • Defend the claim – If a claim is defended then a Junior Barrister may need to be instructed to proceed with the civil action as this is out of the normal scope of debt recovery
  • Not respond – We may then apply to the Court for the CCJ for the monies owed
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If required we will be able to apply to the Court to enforce the CCJ as follows:-

  • Apply for an Order to obtain information from a judgment 
  • Instruct a High Court Enforcement Officer (“HCEO”) (for debts over £600.00) – The High Court Enforcement Officer’s fees are paid by the debtor and are the same are sought from the debtor(s) before the monies owed to you. If this proves unsuccessful you will be responsible for payment of the HCEO’s fixed fee
  • Seek an attachment of earnings – This is an Order that the debtor’s employer must pay a contribution of the debtor(s) wages into Court and this will be done until the arrears are paid in full.

Time Scale:-

  • The business court center can take can take up to 6/9 weeks to serve a notice of issue.
  • The timescale of the claim could take up to 4 months from the initial letter before a claim was submitted, this is due to high volume of claims at the business court center

Before you decide to pursue monies owed to you it is important to take into consideration the debtor’s financial position – if they have filed for bankruptcy, have liquidated or have inadequate assets to appease the claim then it is unlikely that the debt will be recoverable.

Our Debt Recovery Team consists of Forqan Miah. 

The Supervisor for all Debt Recovery matters is the Managing Director, Caroline Sutherland.

 

Forqan Miah graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at Sheffield Hallam University in 2018.

Forqan has worked in Conveyancing departments at Solicitor Firms in Sheffield PM Law, and
Aurthur Jackson Wickersley in Rotherham.

Forqan has practical experience in Residential Conveyancing, he is currently in his third year with Sutherland & Co Law Limited. His current role is undertaking Landlord & Tenant disputes and Debt Recovery claims,

Forqan has broadened his knowledge and skill set with industry led training courses, mentoring and supervision from Caroline, to further enhance his competences and personal development has enrolled on the SQE (Solicitors Qualifying Exam) committing to a further 2 years of study and exams

 

For further information please contact us.

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