Pricing policy – Debt Recovery

As you will no doubt know running a business can be a tough, but rewarding task. Unfortunately, running a business can sometimes mean you find yourself in a battle, more often than not this battle is ensuring that your invoices are paid by your own customers and clients.

As experienced solicitors, we understand that every case is different and every case needs to be managed and strategized accordingly. That is why we treat every case differently and will discuss pricing with you so that we understand your particular needs.

We will work with you to consider and discuss a pricing structure with you, whether this is a fixed fee structure or on a traditional time spent basis. With our simple and flexible pricing structure, we aim to make this as simple as possible for you.

Our Debt Recovery Package is designed to be a flexible and cost-effective way to recover a debt that is owed to you. Each matter is different and the costs vary depending at what phase your debtor pays the outstanding debt. These costs are also only designed for those matters where the debt is undisputed and where there is no requirement to engage the enforcement process to recover.

If however, your debtor disputes your claim, we shall provide you with an up to date estimate of costs and shall explore various costs options with you.

Our Debt Recovery Package is limited to debts below £100,000 and splits the costs down into three specific phases:

Phase 1

1. Drafting and tailoring a Letter Before Action (to be compliant with the Practice Direction for Pre-Action Conduct or Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims)  – the typical costs of this phase ranges from between £200 plus VAT and £600 plus VAT (£240 – £720)

Phase 2

1. Considering, advising and strategizing with you with regards to any payment proposals made by the debtor concerning payment of the debt; and
2. Liaising with the debtor and seeking to agree on terms of payment, if necessary.

The typical costs of this phase range from £250 plus VAT to £450 plus VAT (£300 – £540).

Phase 3

This phase is only necessary if the debtor has not made payment following phases 1 and 2

1. Drafting the claim form and particulars of claim for your approval; and
2. Issuing your claim with the court; and
3. Seeking to obtain judgement from the court (if the debtor has not defended the claim); and
4. Further correspondence chasing the judgement debt.

The typical costs of this phase range from £400 plus VAT and £1,100 plus VAT(£480 – £1320). These costs do not include the costs of the court fees which are as follows:

Up to £300	£35
£300.01 to £500	£50
£500.01 to £1,000	£70
£1,000.01 to £1,500	£80
£1,500.01 to £3,000	£115
£3,000.01 to £5,000	£205
£5,000.01 to £10,000	£455
£10,000.01 to £100,000	5% of the claim

There may well be additional third party costs/disbursements that you will need to pay, these include but are not limited to:

• Postage/courier costs if documents need to be sent by special or other registered post. Vatable at the (current) standard rate of 20%
• Process server costs – Not Vatable
• The costs of instructing a tracing agent – Not Vatable

Each phase takes into consideration that we shall take instructions from you and advise you accordingly. Further, if payment is received within a particular phase then forwarding the same to you.

Assumptions & Caveats

The typical pricing structure for each phase assumes that:

1. The debt is undisputed; and
2. The debt is overdue for payment; and
3. There is not voluminous documents and correspondence to consider; and
4. That the initial meeting will take no more than 30 minutes; and
5. That there are no further or other factors other than the undisputed debt claim; and
6. That the matter does not require us to send a Letter Before Action under the Construction & Engineering Pre-Action Protocol; and
7. The debtor is in England and Wales; and
8. That enforcement proceedings or the requirement to engage an enforcement agent is not required.

Timeframes

As each matter is different from the next, the timeframes for each case will vary. However, in our experience we anticipate the following timeframes for each phase:

Phase 1 – 2-4 weeks

Phase 2 – 2-3 weeks following phase 1

Phase 3 – 4-8 weeks following phase 2.

The timeframes can, of course, be longer or shorter than this and this depends on numerous factors, including but not limited to the debtors’ response (if any) and the court’s standard processing times.

Work undertaken within our Debt Recovery Package is generally carried out by trainee solicitors under the supervision of the solicitors in the dispute resolution team.