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Debt Recovery

Josiah Hincks Debt Recovery Solicitors offer debt collection services to businesses whether in Leicester or further afield. Our debt recovery team aim to provide excellent service, turning around standard commercial debt recovery letters as soon as possible from instruction, and seek to recover your debts swiftly and efficiently.

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Our Debt Recovery Team

How we can help

We know that in any business “Cash is King” and that unpaid invoices can be problematic. Our commercial debt recovery service offers quick and effective steps to recovering payment for invoices.

Upon confirmation of instructions, we will write to the debtor (by letter and email if available) with a so called “7 Day Letter” sometimes known as a Letter Before Action. That letter will demand payment, along with calculated interest and compensation for late payment as set out in the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act.

If payment is not forthcoming, then we will expect instructions from you to issue County Court proceedings against the debtor after the 7 days has elapsed.

7 day letters

7 day demand letters don't cost you anything

Court claims

Formal litigation

Why choose our Debt Collection Solicitors

Outstanding service

Making sure you receive outstanding service is our number 1 priority.

Competitive rates

We offer genuinely competitive rates to make sure we can help as many people as possible.

Clear & concise advice

We won’t over-complicate things. We don’t use unhelpful legal jargon.

We’re recommended

We tend to find that after our clients use us once, they use us for all future matters. 98% of our clients would recommend us.

Attention to detail

We won’t rush your matter. We make sure we check everything, even the smallest details.

Nationally endorsed

We sit on the NFU’s national panel of recommended legal firms.

The debt recovery process

Our Debt Recovery Solicitors will aim to have issued a 7 day letter before action within 24 hours of receiving your instructions. If you are an existing client, that will be on receipt of details about the debt. If you are a new client, we will have to go through our new client procedures for compliance and security, but that will be dealt with promptly at our end. It does require you to provide signed terms of business and identification for Money Laundering purposes.

Following expiry of the 7 days, if we have not heard from you or the debtor, we will contact you to see if you have been paid. If you have, we will invoice for our fees. If you have not been paid, then we will expect instructions to issue proceedings. We will request money on account at this stage to cover costs and Court fees, and we will confirm our costs to you beforehand.

Once we have received instructions to issue proceedings, a claim will be issued either online or in paper depending on the complexity of the claim.

It can take up to 2 weeks for the Court Service to issue a Claim, but once it is issued it will be sent by the Court to the Debtor. They will then have 14 days to acknowledge the Claim and a further 14 days to defend it. Alternatively, they could simply pay.

If after 14/28 days there is no Defence to the claim, we will request the Court enters Judgment (known as a CCJ).

Once Judgement is received, we will explain your options in relation to enforcing that Judgement. That could include bailiffs to seize goods, bankruptcy, freezing bank accounts. We will explain these options to you further.

Our Fees – For undisputed debt matters

Pre-Issue Stage

This is where we are pursuing the debt before issuing a claim at County Court. We do not charge upfront for the 7 day letter referred to above, and our fees will be limited to the amount of interest and compensation calculated on the debt plus VAT at 20%.

Example – debt of £5000 in one invoice:

Interest – £50
Compensation – £70

Total fee if debt recovered – £120 plus VAT at 20%

Court Claims

If the debt is not paid following our letters, then we would expect instructions to issue proceeding at County Court. You will have to pay our fees, plus disbursements which are third party costs such as court fees. These are set out below.

Our fees for a typical undisputed debt collection matter will be £250-500 plus VAT at 20%, plus the interest and compensation figures referred to above.

If the other party disputes liability at any stage, then the matter will fall to our litigation and disputes solicitors and you will be advised, and the matter will move to an hourly rate basis or fixed cost if agreed. We will discuss this further with you at the time.

The level of the Court fee depends on the value of the claim including interest. It also depends on whether we can issue the claim online (simple matters only) or whether a paper claim is required.

Claim amount Paper form Court fee Online claim Court 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

Josiah Hincks are solicitors for businesses in Leicestershire. Contact us now for expert advice on all commercial issues.

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