How can I recover bad debts?

spyrothedragon_2

Hi all,

I'm coming at debt from the other angle here - instead of getting out of it, I'm trying to find a way to recover bad debts. I have my own business (sole trader, architectural services), and while the vast majority of my Clients have been fine, there is a minority who can't or won't pay. I've used a debt collection agency on maybe 15 cases in the past few years, with around a 50% success rate. It's often worth spending £30 for a legal letter to be sent, as it seems to help people remember where they left the cheque book.

In the other cases, people can get away without paying by simply ignoring letters and I am sick of the law protecting them and leaving me out of pocket. I'm sure that if I took the law into my own hands I would quickly find that the debtor had all the legal assistance they needed. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do in the future with any difficult Clients, but I have lost any faith I had in the legal system - it's got sod all to do with justice. Non-payment of invoices is theft, pure and simple. If you walked out of Tesco's without paying you'd end up in court so why can't I recover what's due to me?
For example, here are some previous attempts (Scottish Law):

1. Client eventually paid basic fee, but left me around £100 out of pocket by not paying expenses/printing etc, despite them being in our contract. I was advised it wasn't worth pursuing, so she gets a bargain.

2. Client refused to pay me, on the grounds that her husband had left her, she claimed not to know where he lived, and that she wasn't the Client anyway. After going to court (which I paid the collection agency for) I now get £10 every couple of months if she can be bothered. Because she is making an effort - and I use the term loosely - to pay, I can't take any further action.

3. Client ignored invoices, reminders and collection agency letters. Turns out he's wanted by the police, and has done a runner. The new owners of his flat are plagued with debt collectors trying to trace him. I'm advised not to pursue him as I'll be wasting my time, so have to accept the loss and pay a bill for an unsuccessful recovery action.

4. Client ignored invoices, reminders and collection agency letters. Based on previous experience I know I'll be wasting my time as he works abroad for long periods and would argue in court that he wasn't able to respond to letters. Again, I have to take it on the chin and pay for an unsuccessful recovery action.

5. After I'd set a debt collection agency onto him, a Client paid most of my fee but chose not to pay expenses. I was asked by the debt collection agency if I wanted to continue the action and did so, only to find out that because he had the nerve to turn up in court to defend himself (and lie!) I suddenly find any payout by a small claims court would be limited to £75, and it will cost me another £300 to get it, on top of the £300 I've already had to pay in legal fees. (Nice tip for anyone at the wrong end of a recovery action). What idiot came up with that rule?

6. After instructing the debt agency to recover unpaid fees, I found out that a Client had been declared bankrupt the previous year. Since then he has continued to instruct me to prepare drawings for a house extension(!), even paying Council application fees with company cheques! I've been in touch with his trustees to get my name added to a list of creditors, but I'm told there's little chance of getting anything back - and I'm looking at a 3 year wait. I could sue him as he's acted illegally, but what's the point if he's skint? Again I'm left out of pocket and with a legal fee to pay.

Taking into account the time I have spent on them or the fees I've incurred in chasing them, cases like this have left me over £7000 out of pocket, despite the fact that I have done nothing wrong and have pursued proper and legal methods of debt recovery. What else can I do? I don't want to break the law, but see others getting away with it by simply ignoring me. I can't and won't accept this, but the law seems to be against me. I've even been advised not to go knocking on any doors, as regardless of how polite I was, it could be seen by a court as intimidating behaviour on my part! Any helpful suggestions would be welcome.

Before anyone suggests it, I do try and get some money up front, but understandably this puts off a lot of Clients. This post is more to do with the lovely people in the above examples.

Any ideas for revenge would be welcome as well, as long as they're funny. There are already a few ex-Clients who are being plagued with junk mail, salesmen, and evening phone calls. Seems like someone (but not me obviously) has been replying to adverts using their names and addresses...

HEEEELP!

Thanks,
S.

Moneymaker

There should be some way to check a person's ability to pay, history of debt etc.

Revenge is tricky. Mostly it's illegal. I rather favour the baseball bat myself but it tends to splash blood and it's difficult to do quietly.

Having the debtor's address is handy if he definitely still lives there. You can arrange to sell his house, order a coffin, report a gas leak, poison his dog - heck, the possibilities are endless if you are ruthless and stupid. They'll catch you for certain. You have to be much sneakier. Whatever happens has to look like an accident that could affect anyone.

Interesting things can be done using his phone number and email address. I don't think I'd better go any further. Someone might think I'm serious.

I suggest a Google search for "getting revenge" might pull up some amusing ideas.

polybear

Hi,
are you familiar with aerosol foam - the stuff that dries hard like yellow polystyrene, used to fill holes in walls around piperwork etc.?
Works a treat up an exhaust pipe - if you can judge it just right so it fills the exhaust backbox without oozing out the end of the pipe then even better.
But wait awhile before doing it - if they have an idea it was you then you end up in tit-for-tat. Never tried it myself, though a friend has (the bloke deserved it, even the local police referred to him as victor meldrew). I laughed so much I nearly wet myself.

polybear.