Getting the cash in

Chasing debtors can be time consuming, frustrating and ultimately can cause huge damage to your business if you carry out work or sell goods without getting paid, either at all, or after long delays. We are experts in collecting debts for clients. We know the ropes, the protocols and how to get the best out of the system. We can help you to avoid bad debts by taking preventative measures to avoid similar situations in the future and help you to recover your cash if you have to take proceedings.

Prevention is better than cure

Have a credit control checklist – run a credit check before you trade with someone.

In the case of limited companies obtain and check details of the registered office, but just as crucially check for trading addresses, since the registered office can often be an accountant or other third party which doesn’t have assets of the debtor. If you trade with a partnership, get details of all of the partners and their addresses – enforcement of a partnership debt can be at the partner’s private home as well as the office.

Check your terms of trading – do they need updating?

Do your terms incorporate a retention of title clause – this can be important where a debtor becomes insolvent and can often mean that you can recover your goods to prevent them being claimed by a liquidator?

Do you claim interest on late payment in your terms of trading?

Do you have a policy of ensuring that your terms are actually incorporated into the contract – terms on the back of invoices might be good practice, but if you have never dealt with a customer previously, this is too late because the contract has already been performed by the time you issue your invoice and your terms might not have been brought to the attention of the customer?

Will the market sector allow you to shorten your credit terms? Are you enforcing your period of credit strictly (time is of the essence – see below).

Check out our Commercial team who can help you update your terms and ensure you are incorporating them properly into your dealings with third parties.

Time of the essence with Effective debt recovery

But what’s the point of taking proceedings and getting a judgment if after all that hard work, the judgment isn’t enforced quickly and effectively? That’s where we can help, offering an integrated approach to effective debt recovery as we are the only Solicitors in Staffordshire (and one of only a handful nationwide) to have a High Court Enforcement Officer fully authorized by the Ministry of Justice in our team. Consequently, we can offer a comprehensive service from start to finish, including enforcement which most other firms simply cannot do, because unlike us, they have to subcontract enforcement elsewhere. This can save time and avoid costly delays in recovering your bad debts.

Check us out

Keelys to the rescue

We act for well-known names countrywide. Check out our Dispute resolution team and see our easy to understand, fixed fee structure.