Debt Recovery Costs

We have extensive experience of providing debt recovery services to a wide range of clients, and a wide range of values.  This includes helping clients obtain judgments and helping them enforce them such as instructing bailiffs.  Where appropriate, we will assist clients to have Judgments transferred up to the High Court so that the Sheriffs and commercial bailiffs can be instructed.  In some situations, we may advise issuing winding up proceedings, and we have been involved in a large number of both bankruptcy and insolvency matters, and we have made a number of people bankrupt and put a number of companies into liquidation.  Our experience includes having Insolvency Practitioners appointed.  In other cases, we have put charges on properties, and had properties sold to realise funds for our clients.  We are also no stranger to less common forms of debt collection, such as dealing with assets abroad, freezing bank accounts and having sums paid out of salaries.

 

The costs involved for debt recovery can be hugely variable depending on several factors. The costs are affected by whether the debt is contested or uncontested and at what stage in the collection process we are able to collect the debt on your behalf.

The first stage of the process would be to issue the debtor with a letter before action at a cost of £500 (including VAT at 20%). If the debtor does not pay at this stage then the next step would be to issue proceedings at a cost of £1,000 (including VAT of 20%). If this then proceeds to court the disbursement for the court fee will be £455 (there is no VAT for Court fees) for a claim up to £10,000 and our fees will be £2,500 (including VAT of 20%) for the preparation and then in the region of £2,000 (including VAT of 20%) to enable us to attend court on your behalf. It may be possible to recover some of your costs if you are successful, but this is not guaranteed.

Our fees are based on the amount of work and not the size of the debt. However, it should be noted that the court fees differ depending on the size of the debt. More information on the Court Fees are available from HMRC, form EX50.

There are lots of options available at this point.

If we obtain a judgment at court for you, we would issue a statutory demand if the debt remains unpaid and is over £5000 (if against an individual- bankruptcy proceedings) or £750 (if against a company- insolvency proceedings).

A statutory demand is a written warning from a creditor and to draft this may cost £500 (including VAT of 20%) then a further disbursement of £114 (including VAT of 20%) for it to be served. This may later proceed to bankruptcy proceedings which would incur further costs and potential counsel fees.

If this leads to bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings it will cost £1,000 (including VAT of 20%) to draft the petition. In order to wind up a company (insolvency proceedings) the disbursement of a petition fee will be £2600 (there is no VAT on the petition fee) and the disbursement of the court fee will be £302 (there is no VAT on the Court fee). To make an individual bankrupt there will be a petition fee of £1,500 (there is no VAT on the petition fee) and a disbursement of a court fee for £302 (there is no VAT on the Court fee). Each bankruptcy/insolvency hearing will cost approximately £2,000 (including VAT of 20%) a hearing for our Legal fees.  

Alternatively, instead of issuing bankruptcy proceedings we can advise you on the use of Bailiffs.

The above costs assume that the debt is disputed by the debtor. If the debt is not disputed it may not be necessary to issue proceedings and an alternative approach might be a statutory demand, which is also considerably cheaper. The cost of this is set out above.

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

  • The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor if you are VAT registered.
  • Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.

It is impossible to give you an accurate indication of how long it would take to recover your debt as we have encountered debt matters that have been settled in full by the debtor on the receipt of the solicitors letter and there have also been disputes where bankruptcy proceedings are necessary and consequently taken 18 to 24 months to resolve. We will do our best to advise you on the likely time scale for the circumstances of your case.

All debt recovery work will be undertaken by a member of our Commercial team.

We offer a free consultation for up to an hour to enable you to understand the process and costs involved in your matter. Further we would be able to discuss the options available, the chances of success and whether taking legal action to recover the debt is economic for you.

 

Persons responsible for the work:

  • Stephanie Kleyman (admitted as a solicitor in 1997)
  • Shivani Varma (admitted as a solicitor in 2014)
  • William Couchman (admitted as a solicitor in 2019)
  • Ellie Murray (admitted as a solicitor in 2022)
  • Caoimhe Leece (admitted as a solicitor in 2022)

To view their profile, please see the Meet the Team section of the website for details.

More information on our Debt Recovery service.