Help!! Debt collection agencies required

Kerry75

Thanks Zax48! Will bear it mind.

Well after a day of much information gathering we have decided that solicitors will be the way to go. This guy is very slippery and there is no doubt in our mind that it will go to court before he pays a penny. From what I’ve learnt debt collection agency fees only apply up until this point anyway, so we would still incur court costs... but would have really just wasted time..... is that right???

Anyway, Ive also looked into credit focus (Barclays) who we used last year on a freebie. They refer the solicitors Lester Aldridge who would then act on our behalf. Effectively we would pay £10 for upgrade to credit focus pro a month... which would probably be useful now but maybe not a necessity. We would then pay £360 for court fees and £117.50 to Lester Alridge. However, if he is defended it goes into a whole new ball park and could cost £1000's. I’m hoping this is recoverable!?!?!

Does anyone out there have any additional advice,or alternative solicitors, or comments on credit focus?
We obv want sharks, but at a cheap rate!!

The pressure of making the right decision is unbearable!!!

Premier_2

I would be inclined to approach a locally based solicitor who specialises in commercial debt disputes.

It could cost you some money (they may be able to give an indication upfront as to likely costs, and also provide a regular update as to running total to date), but if they are succesfull then you will usually be awarded these costs in addition to the amount being claimed.

Of course, being awarded judgement and actually getting paid are two different things.
As you will be instructing the solicitor, the solicitor will ultimately look to you to pay their bills.

Hopefully, your attempts to date with the debtor to recover the money owed have given an indication as to why they haven't paid you and hence whether they are likely to defend a court summons.

If a defence is considered unlikely, perhaps a local solicitor would suggest you make the claim yourself using MCOL (so not incurring any legal fees) and revert to the solicitor in the event a defence is filed.

hippyadam

Kerry75 wrote: »

However, if he is defended it goes into a whole new ball park and could cost £1000's. I’m hoping this is recoverable!?!?!

If it's small claims then if he defends your costs if you issue via a solicitor are generally not recoverable. And your right most solicitors will charge between £150-£200 per hour to handle a defended matter...

If it's under £5k the easiest way to insulate yourself from extortionate costs is to use moneyclaim online and handle any defence yourself. Then if you get judgement you could potentially get a recovery agent to enforce it, but again they generally charge a percentage...

Premier_2

hippyadam wrote: »

If it's small claims ...

I think we've already established it probably won't be

Kerry75 wrote: »

...We’re talking around 28k ...

Kerry75

Thanks for the advise everybody. Ive found a solicitor locally (premier) who specialises in Contruction law and cover debt recovery. Will talk to them on Monday, see what the to have to say re MCOL!

hippyadam

Premier wrote: »

I think we've already established it probably won't be

I missed that bit

Kerry i see in another thread this guy is an established non payer? Did you invoice him as a sole trader or was it a Ltd company?

If he's a sole trader have you done a land registry & CCJ/Judgement search to see if he owns the property he lives in yet or if he has a mountain of CCJ's?

My fear is if he is as slippery as you say he is he's probably well adept at dodging creditors and hiding his assets...

zax47

hippyadam wrote: »

If it's small claims then if he defends your costs if you issue via a solicitor are generally not recoverable. And your right most solicitors will charge between £150-£200 per hour to handle a defended matter...

If it's under £5k the easiest way to insulate yourself from extortionate costs is to use moneyclaim online and handle any defence yourself. Then if you get judgement you could potentially get a recovery agent to enforce it, but again they generally charge a percentage...

Look at the pricing link from my previous post, for debt of £28K.

a) Costs to issue court action through the Claims Production Centre, non-recoverable costs £65

b) Additional costs to issue Judgment & Execution, non-recoverable costs £25.

It shouldn't, and doesn't cost a fortune to recover debts of even this magnitude. Most of them are "forward" costs added to the debt, only the actual court costs are non-recoverable. Last job they did for me was £12K.

Of course, getting judgment is one thing, execution is another and actually getting paid is something altogether different!

Kerry75

Thank you everyone for all your great advise and lessons learnt. He is a limited company and funny enough has a good credit rating according to credit focus! All the property he has in Spain and anything else is in his own name, but dont know the ins and outs of it all. Anyway, met a very good solicitor on Tuesday who specialises in Construction law. He thinks its very straight forward and has sent a pre action letter (we are going for the safer court route for the moment as he has not said why he hasnt paid). If he has a soppy excuse why he hasn’t paid then we are very tempted to go for a winding down order on him and get him by the balls. As he is part of a group of companies who we still have very good relationships with, the pressure will be on him from them also as they have 50% shares. We have also gone for interest, late payment comp, and conditional fee agreement with the solicitor. Be interesting to see how it all goes, and a relief to hand the problem over to someone else. If it had been anyone else i would def go down the MCOL route, but we are happy to leave it to the professional for now! Thanks again everyone!