Debt Recovery Fees

Our friendly and approachable team are based in Banbury and we have a number of lawyers who may deal with your matter.  Regardless of who manages your care, the work will be supervised by Richard Gwynne, Director and Head of Department.

Our fees are broken down in accordance to the stages of the Debt Recovery Process.  Please note that all our charges quoted here are exclusive of VAT which will be added to your bill. Court fees do not attract VAT and the ‘fixed costs’ (see below) recoverable from the customer will not include VAT as the service element is rendered to you, not the customer.

Letter Before Action

Spratt Endicott will commence recovery action normally via a standard letter before action (“LBA”). The charge for the LBA is dependant upon the monthly volume of instructions passed to us and will range anywhere between £2.25 and £35 per letter.

There is an option to agree a success fee for a recovery of money.  The percentage uplift applied can be negotiated but will vary from 2% of the sum paid, up to 40% of the sum paid.

We will write to you informing you when the customer has made payment, or if further action is needed. If further action is required we will seek your instructions before commencing any further activity – unless you agree otherwise.

Re-Action Protocol

If a specialist or bespoke letter is required, i.e. a letter in accordance with the Pre Action Protocol (‘PAP’), then a charge will be rendered in line with our prevailing hourly rates.

A fixed rate can be agreed for this PAP letter of between £20 and £45 per letter depending on the volume of work passed to us.

Interest

If interest is to be claimed under your terms of trading or if interest and a fixed sum are to be claimed under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and Regulations, an additional charge of £10 will be charged for calculations of interest on a number of invoices exceeding 20. There is an additional charge of £10 for each further group of up to 20 invoices. Interest may also be calculated with reference to the Statutory Rate of Interest (Currently 8%).

If you require us to monitor installments, negotiate settlements or provide documents in support of the claim these will be calculated in line with our prevailing hourly charging rates.

Court Actions and Issue

If you wish to us to issue proceedings out of the County Court proceedings and enter Judgment (if appropriate) you will be charged a fixed fee based on a sliding scale calculated in accordance with the fixed sum awarded by the Court.  Depending on the size of the debt, the fixed fee would be between £500 and £120, with an additional fee of between £22 and £70 to cover the Judgment costs. These fees reflect the fixed costs awarded by the court.

Issuing a Warrant or Instructing the High Court Enforcement Officer

Our fixed fees are as follows and depend on the amount of debt owed :

Points to Note:

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

• The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your customer.
• Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.
• The costs quoted above are not for matters where enforcement action, such as the bailiff, is needed to collect your debt.

Enforcement may also be attempted by one of the following methods:

• Charging order
• Attachment of earning
• Third Part Debt order
• Obtaining an order for the debtor to attend court for questioning

Any charges for the above methods will be calculated on the hourly rates quoted above, any time spent on your matter will vary based on the complexity of your matter.

Our fee includes:

• Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation
• Undertaking appropriate searches
• Sending a letter before action
• Receiving payment and sending onto you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing claim
• Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default
• When Judgement in default in received, write to the other side to request payment
• If payment is not received within a fixed number of days, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs

Matters usually take 3 to 4 weeks 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.

All additional work charges are charged at our prevailing hourly rate. We calculate our time by using 1/10th of an hour at a time., i.e. 6 minute units.

Disputed Debt

For disputed debts, you will be charged for work done on an hourly basis. If this occurs we will inform you and obtain your agreement before proceeding. We will also provide our terms for dealing with disputed debts.  Each case is different and several factors can affect the costs.  We have outlined our costs below but please note that this is a guide only.

Cases can become more complex if :

• It is necessary to make or defend applications, to amend claims, or to provide further information about an existing claim.
• Counter claims that are brought by the other side.
• Complex preliminary issues such as whether the consumer is vulnerable.
• The number of witnesses and documents
• Number of parties to the proceedings