Fees

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Debt Recovery 

Debt Recovery Claims

Where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice, we will agree an initial fee with you for reviewing any documents and correspondence supplied by you and writing an initial letter before action, claiming payment of the debt on your behalf. 

Where VAT applies this is a rate of 20%

The hourly rate charges is £275 – £575 plus VAT depending on level of PQE.  Solicitor is £275-£325, Director being up to £575 plus VAT.  All work is supervised by a Director.

Depending on the amount of documentation which you provide, our fee is likely to be in the region of £1,250 to £1,750 (plus VAT).

Should it become necessary to issue proceedings for recovery of an undisputed debt, the following Court fees will apply:

If you wish to proceed with a claim, you should note that:

• the VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor; and
• interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, which means that a higher Court fee may be payable.

We will charge between £950 and £1,250 (plus VAT) to draft simple short-form Court proceedings claiming payment of an undisputed invoice.

If the other party fails to acknowledge service of the proceedings or file a defence to the claim, we will charge £350 (plus VAT) to request a default judgment and, on receipt of the default judgment, to write to the other party again, demanding payment.

A default judgment will only include Court fees and fixed solicitor’s costs (as provided for by the Civil Procedure Rules).  You will not be able to recover the fees which you pay us.

If the other party fails to pay the judgment debt, we will (if so requested) write to you setting out the various ways in which you may be able to enforce payment of the judgment debt.  The fees set out above do not include the cost of any further action which may be required to enforce payment of the judgment debt.

If the other party disputes/defends your claim and the matter becomes contested, we will discuss any further work which may be required and provide you with a revised estimate as to the costs of such further work.

Our fees are time-based and are calculated by reference to hourly charging rates (which will depend on the seniority of the fee earners working on your case).  We will give you as detailed a costs estimate as we can, once we know what issues have been raised and have a better idea of how long it is likely to take to resolve the matter for you.

Undisputed claims are likely to take anything between 2 weeks and 3 months from receipt of instructions from you to receipt of payment from the other side, depending on whether or not it is necessary to issue a claim.  This is on the basis that the other side pays promptly on receipt of Judgement in default.  If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve.

Disputed claims can take up to 12-18 months to resolve.

In certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to draft and serve a statutory demand claiming payment of an undisputed debt.  Our fees for doing this (including the cost of arranging for personal service of the demand on the debtor) will be in the region of £1,250 plus VAT.  We can discuss this method (and the costs involved) in further detail during our initial consultation.