In the current economic climate the bottom line for companies is \u2018cash in the bank\u2019 rather than assets, order books or goodwill. In many cases, a lot of companies have a habit of holding back on payments due or even avoid making any payment at all!<\/p>\n
A growing number of companies require debt recovery services, either from debt collection agencies, law firms or their own internal processes. When the latter has been exhausted without success, debt recovery companies or law firms remain the only viable alternative before writing off the debt completely.<\/p>\n
Debt recovery agencies and law firms often compete for recovery work by offering just a standard and fairly cheap fixed fee initial letter. This basically means the client is merely paying for the organisation\u2019s letterhead. Whilst there is a market for fixed fee debt chasing letters the client needs to be aware that usually the initial costs will only cover the first standard letter.<\/p>\n
These costs will soar if legal action is required to recover the debt. Fixed fee letters have only basic information relating to the debt, a demand for payment and a time frame to reply. If there is no reply there is little or no scope for anything other than to commence formal legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
Clients need to be informed from the outset of the potential costs of litigation. Recent legal reforms mean that legal costs are not recoverable for money claims with a value of under \u00a310,000. A fixed fee letter probably has just the debtors name and the amount owed. If no response is received or no money is retrieved, it\u2019s unlikely the client will recover any legal fees if he has to resort to litigation.<\/p>\n
In order to recover even part of any debt it seems the best way to achieve this is with a legal firm that can tailor a debt recovery service to its client\u2019s specific needs.<\/p>\n
James Thornton a commercial debt recovery legal specialist at RRP Associates recently helped local insolvency practitioners, BRI Business Recovery and Insolvency (\u201cBRI\u201d) to recover over \u00a331,000 of debt for one of BRI\u2019s clients. Oliver\u2019s thorough detailed tailor made approach to recovering the debt meant that within a month the company had received 100% responses from debtors, including additional debtors whom Oliver had discovered by researching boxes of receipts.<\/p>\n
He says “There is a market for the fixed fee initial letters but theses are only appropriate in certian circumstances. We find that a tailor made approach is always the best option in order to achieve a successful outcome, as we did on behalf of BRI”<\/p>\n
Julian’s Top Five Tips for Debt Recovery:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Act quickly<\/strong> In the current economic climate the bottom line for companies is \u2018cash in the bank\u2019 rather than assets, order books or goodwill. In many cases, a lot of companies have a habit of holding back on payments due or even avoid making any payment at all! A growing number of companies require debt recovery services,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n2. Don\u2019t rely on a standard fixed fee debt recovery letter<\/strong>
\n3. Ensure you are aware of your financial risks<\/strong>
\n4. Retain as much information and documentation as you can<\/strong>
\n5. Don\u2019t forget you are entitled to claim interest on the money you are owed<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"