Debt Recovery Solicitors

We recognise the need for seamless, hassle-free services aligned to your individual and business needs.

Invoicing promptly and chasing your customers for payment helps to keep your cash flow healthy, but in some instances gentle reminders are not enough to make sure your business collects the money it is owed. We can chase your customers for payment, while protecting your reputation.

Our commercial litigation solicitors can also offer their specialist knowledge on any complex, corporate debt recovery disputes.

Debt recovery services we provide:

Pre-legal debt collection

We offer pre-legal collections on a commission basis, whether your customer is based in the UK or overseas.

Our debt recovery specialists will use different methods of correspondence to try and obtain payments from your customers, on both an individual and volume basis. Our team has a very high success rate in recoveries worldwide. We have the support of a worldwide network of local solicitors and agents who enable us to break down cross-border barriers to pre-legal debt collection.

Our pre-legal debt collection service, as with our debt recovery and litigation services, is tailored to meet your requirements at every level. This applies whether you are industry or customer-specific, and reflects your unique customer base.

Debt recovery litigation

Unfortunately, some debt recovery options don’t always result in success. If your other options haven’t worked, you might enlist the help of solicitors to support you with litigation action against your customers.

The litigation process for debt recovery can be a stressful concept for customers who owe money, and we recognise the need to support them on their repayment journeys. But, if other methods of debt collection aren’t working, it’s important that your business collects what is owed. This may mean legal action is necessary to help resolve a debt recovery dispute.

We can help to maximise your overdue collections and reduce your debtor days by taking legal action, obtaining Judgment and taking enforcement action through the County Court or High Court, when other options have been exhausted. We can obtain County Court judgments for your debt, plus interest on late payments and legal costs incurred.

These judgments allow us to take enforcement action, and we will advise you on the best solution in each case. That might involve:

• A visit from the High Court Enforcement Officer (or Bailiff);
• An Attachment of Earnings Order;
• A Charging Order over property, or;
• An Order to attend for questioning.

Bankruptcy (or “winding up” if the debtor is a company) may be appropriate in certain circumstances.

If your customer wants to avoid a CCJ or possible bankruptcy proceedings, we will work with you both to create a debt repayment plan that suits your needs. We will monitor the payment plan for you.

Enforcement of Judgments

We understand that securing a Judgment against your customer is only the beginning. Once judgment has been obtained, we can then advise you on your available enforcement options.

Our advice will vary depending on a number of factors, and we will suggest the method of enforcement most appropriate to your individual case. Although not strictly methods of enforcement, we can undertake bankruptcy or winding up proceedings against debtors, provided the debt meets certain criteria.

Debt collection enforcement against customer assets

Before you consider enforcement options, it’s important to understand whether your customer owns any assets, so that the judgment can be enforced against these.

When gathering information about your customers before taking legal action or enforcing a judgment, we recommend trying to find out the following:

• Is your customer employed? If so, what is their salary, and who is their employer?
• Does your customer own any goods of high or intermediate value?
• Does your customer have a bank account? What are the details?
• Are there any court judgments currently against your customer?
• Does your customer own a share of a business?
• What is your customer’s current debt situation? Do they owe anyone else?
• Do they currently have any debt repayment plans set up elsewhere?

How to access this information

If you are struggling to find out about your customer’s assets, there are some ways in which you can try and obtain the information. These include:

• Applying for an order to obtain information (more below);
• Check the Insolvency Register;
• Ask an enquiry agent for help;
• Check Companies House.

Other debt enforcement options

• High Court Enforcement Officers: High Court Enforcement Officers will attempt to recover the amount your customer owes, or remove assets to the value of the Judgment debt, together with any enforcement costs.
• Attachment of Earnings Order: This is an order granted by the court. It states that money is deducted by your customer’s employer direct from the salary of your customer, to be repaid against the debt. If your customer is in full time employment, this can result in instalment arrangement being put in place by the court.
• Charging Order: This is an order securing your debt over the debtor’s property. This acts to prevent your customer from selling the land or property without paying what is owed to you, provided that there is enough equity after payment of any prior Charge holders. The charging order method of enforcement can be used in addition to other methods of enforcement, either simultaneously or consecutively.
• Order to obtain information: An order of the court instructing your customer (or director of a limited company) to attend court to give evidence as to their means.

Debt payment plans

Many of our clients are owed money by their customers, but the repayment activity isn’t always positive. We understand many of your customers may need more structured, helpful debt payment plans that can be agreed upon with both yours and their best interests in mind.

If you are a customer of one of our clients and you owe them money, we know how stressful setting up a payment plan with a debt collector can be. That’s why our team will work with you, and our client, to arrange a debt repayment plan that helps you pay back what is owed in a supportive way.

Setting up a payment plan with us might seem daunting, but rest assured it will be agreed in a way that is helpful to both you and our client. If our contact with your customer leads to an offer of payment by instalments, then we will work with you both to arrange a debt payment plan that meets your needs. We will address the issue of affordability, monitor the payments for you and chase any overdue instalments. We will account to you in full for payments collected.

Please note we don’t deduct our fees from the payment plans.

International debt recovery

Our team undertakes global collections, supported by a solid network of agents and legal partners in different countries. This means it doesn’t matter where in the world your customer is; we can still collect your debts.

If you wish to take legal action against your customer, we will tell you how long the procedure will take in that country, how much it will cost and the likelihood of making a recovery of the debt and the legal costs, so that you can make an informed decision. We can then instruct the local law firm from our contacts to take action through their legal system to recover payment, and monitor progress on your behalf.

We are also members of Multilaw, a global network of independent law firms, which gives us immediate access to over 9,000 lawyers in 150 centres around the world. The benefits of this membership include the ability to take account of local cultural sensitivities and social expectations, when pursuing debtors in another country with its own legal system.

Debt and asset recovery sectors

Automotive

Our team provides services for the recovery of both debt and assets within the automotive industry. We are members of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, The Institute of the Motor Industry, the Institute of Road Transport Engineers and the Society of Operations Engineers.

We have long-standing relationships with a large variety of banks, leasing companies, asset-based lenders and financiers, brokers, captive and non-captive lenders. Our experts act for a range of providers whether they be manufacturers, franchised and independent dealers, leasing companies, international rental companies or brokers. We handle all aspects of both contentious and non-contentious business including the recovery of vehicles and debt, handling complaints and conducting litigation. We often deal with title disputes and satisfactory quality issues. Our solicitors frequently liaise on multi-party disputes including leasing companies, customers, end users and manufacturers.

Education

Our debt recovery team can help recover all kinds of debts in the education sector, such as unpaid tuition fees, corporate debts and commercial debts. We can support universities, schools, colleges, and small specialist institutions. We are also partnered with overseas agents to assist with the collection of international student debts. Our experts work with clients and their customers at each stage of the debt collection process, and aim to deliver a high rate of recovery and help debtors feel supported during the process.

• Higher Education debt collection: Our specialists often deal with matters of student loan debt collection and the recovery of tuition fee debts. We can also support with the recovery of student accommodation debt, emergency and hardship loans, library fees, commercial and corporate debt, student loan collection and other sundry debts. 
• School debt collection: We are also partnered with public and private schools, and small specialist institutions. As with higher education debt, we undertake the recovery of all education debts for schools, colleges and specialist institutions. 
• International school debt collection: We are partnered with international debt collection specialists and overseas agents through our Multilaw network, who can assist with debt recovery if our initial contact with the debtor does not produce results.

Financial services

In this heavily regulated sector, it is important that advisors are equipped to support their clients and the customers of same. We assist the negotiation of remediation, repayment and, where appropriate, the recovery of assets. We are fluent in the provision of support to the following areas of this sector; Asset based lending and Funding, leasing, hire, sale and buy back, Consumer Credit, invoice discounting and factoring, security, policy drafting and guidance and regulatory support.

We provide practical, commercial solutions to lenders on the following:

• Security enforcement;
• Book collections;
• Enforcement of guarantees;
• Unsecured recoveries;
• Injunctions;
• Fraud;
• Mortgage shortfall collections;
• Recovery of funds;
• Recovery of assets and receivables.
• Cradle-to-grave contractual document service

The team also specialises in consumer credit issues, and can assist with procedures and the drafting of documentation. We’ll also provide ad hoc advice on the many issues faced by our clients within the finance industry.

We are able to offer a call recording service which is fully PCI DSS compliant should we take payments on behalf of lender clients.

Property

We’ve helped owners of commercial and residential dwellings with property-related debt recovery. Our team is experienced in the following areas of residential and commercial property debt recovery:

• Overdue rent
• Service charge arrears (including making or defending applications to the first tier tribunal);
• Dilapidations;
• Forfeiture of leases and repossession.

Landlord debt collection

We act for landlords and managing agents in relation to all types of property investments, but have particular experience in relation to shopping centres, residential property, student lettings, public houses and buy-to-let portfolios.

Our approach to landlord debt recovery takes into account all the factors that you or your client will be concerned about.  While the primary objective may be the recovery of arrears, we need to consider the ability of the debtor to pay, the impact on the remainder of the term of the tenancy and on other properties in the development. We also need to consider the need for urgent action in some cases, and a more measured approach in others, plus the legal and regulatory framework and the risk of reputational damage or of claims being made against you.

Tenant debt collection

Treating customers fairly is something we expect all of our clients to do. Being in debt can put added pressures and stress onto people, which is why it’s important for us to consider the tenants when conducting property debt collection. We understand it can be frustrating for landlords if they aren’t being paid rent on time, or even at all. We will work with your tenants to try and agree on a repayment plan that has both of your best interests in mind.

Pubs and breweries

We know how to look after the interests of independent breweries, and offer a comprehensive service covering not only debt recovery but also advice on the following:

• Trading terms;
• Tenancy agreements and personal guarantees;
• Regulatory advice;
• Employment advice;
• Sales and acquisitions;
• Corporate issues.

The pub industry has been through a few years of change since 1988, and we have helped many clients understand the legal implications of regulatory change and market pressures.

Recruitment

We have extensive knowledge of the regulatory framework for specialist sector and the case law relating to the contractual terms. This enables us to achieve positive results on their behalf, whether by negotiation or by litigation.

Sometimes, a recruitment agency’s client may not pay their invoice, which would constitute the need for debt recovery action. This may be for a number of reasons, but the main one being dissatisfaction with a candidate’s performance. Our extensive experience in this area enables to deal with issues raised by customers swiftly and commercially.

Utilities

We currently have several high profile utility companies instructing us to handle their debt recovery needs, and the combination of our extensive collections experience and knowledge of the regulatory framework enables us to achieve positive results, while protecting reputations.