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Legal Debt Recovery in Essex

If you or your credit control team are struggling to recover debts from clients or customers, Essex Law Limited can help. We are experts at legal debt recovery in Essex and have a successful track record of recovering debts from businesses and individuals.

We take a professional discreet approach to recovering debts in the Essex area and tailor our service to you with urgency and size of debt in mind.

Our Clacton debt recovery services

We offer two primary legal debt recovery services that will meet the needs of you or your business.

Business debt recovery

Any business has the right to be paid for the goods and services they provide and unpaid invoices can have a detrimental impact on the ability to run the business. With cash flow issues, you may find it hard to pay staff or your own suppliers.

At Essex Law Limited, we offer business debt recovery services in Essex for all types of business debt taken by a commercial entity or an individual including:

  • Personal loan debt
  • Business loan debt
  • Unpaid invoices
  • Owed rent
  • Unreturned deposits
  • Refunds not provided

Personal debt recovery

Legal debt recovery isn’t a service that is solely used by big businesses like lending companies, banks and trade suppliers as private individuals are also likely to be owed money.

Some examples of personal debts that can be successfully recovered include:

  • Personal loans to a family or friend
  • Loans to a business or employer
  • Money from the sale of goods
  • Unpaid rent
  • Unpaid wages
  • Unreturned rental deposit
  • Refunds not provided

How we recover debts in Essex

Legal debt recovery can be a simple process, but it can also be quite complex depending on several factors including the debtor being unresponsive or having moved house.

We use a sensitive and discrete approach where possible because whilst we understand that you are entitled to the debt you’re owed, we have to be compassionate about the debtor’s circumstances too.

Our debt recovery process:

Step one – letter before action

In the majority of cases, a letter from a legal debt recovery lawyer will recover the money you are owed. We offer a fixed price service to draft and send debt recovery letters to your debtors.

Step two – court proceedings

Once we send a debt recovery letter, if we don’t receive a reply in the time we’ve set out we will take legal action against the debtor with the county court. Proceedings will be issued by  the court and the debtor will have 14 days to pay, along with interest and costs.

Step three – CCJ

Once the county court claim has expired, the county court can then issue a County Court Judgment (CCJ) which allows us to take enforcement action against the debtor. 

Step four – enforcement

Once the court has issued the CCJ, we can then enforce collection of this debt. Methods of collecting the debt can include:

Bailiff action – Sending a bailiff to the individual or business that owes you money to collect the debt or seize goods to repay the debt. 

High court escalation – In the case that the debt is less than 6 years old and over £600, we can escalate it to the high court which could help you receive your money quicker although certain conditions apply.

Attachment of earnings – Getting an attachment of earnings order attached to their paycheque to recover a percentage of the debt each month until it is paid.

Charging order – The court will be able to place a charge on the debtor’s property or land for the amount you’re owed. It doesn’t necessarily mean you get your money straight away but it may protect your money for the future.

Frequently asked questions

What if the debtor cannot repay the debt?

There are two primary options if the debtor has no way of repaying the debt:

Apply for a bankruptcy order

If the debtor is an individual, in some cases you can apply for proceedings to make the debtor bankrupt which will mean they cannot obtain credit in the future or be a company director for a set period of time.

Insolvency petition

If a business owes debts that they cannot repay, you may be able to start insolvency proceedings including filing a winding up petition against the business.

What are your debt recovery fees?

We offer a fixed fee service for the majority of debts under £25,000 in value, incurred in England and Wales. Our fixed fee depends on the amount of debt owed.

For debts over £25,000, we can still assist but your quote will be more tailored around whether it’s a personal debt, a business debt and the complexity of the case.

Is it worth using a debt recovery lawyer?

There is not just one answer to this question as it depends on whether you believe you have a realistic chance of recovering debts that are owed to you amongst other factors.

For example, if the debtor has other CCJs against their name, you may never have a chance of recovering your debt and it could end up costing more than you’re owed to recover it. In the case that  you have supplied goods that a customer isn’t happy with and therefore they’re unhappy to pay for them, it may be worth looking into other channels to resolve the issue.

Overall, it is a good idea to use a debt recovery law firm in Essex to recover unpaid debts as you don’t want to set a precedent for other businesses or individuals to not pay you by writing off even small debts.

Do I need to prove that someone owes me money?

In an ideal situation, you’d have a contract signed by the debtor but this isn’t always the case when it comes to purchases or personal debts.

We’d recommend you ensure that all correspondence with the debtor is saved, as well as having any supporting documents to show that you’ve either let someone borrow money or supplied goods including:

  • Bank statements
  • Invoices
  • Purchase orders
  • Emails
  • Text messages

These will help show the court that you are owed money.

Get in touch with Essex Law Limited today
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