DEBT RECOVERY
Debt recovery is an essential part of running any business and it can seriously affect your ability to function when clients refuse to pay your invoices. Recovering debts can be a time consuming and costly task. SNS Solicitors can ease this burden by providing as much or as little support as you require. You will always have someone you can rely on to assist with debt recovery as quickly and painlessly as possible.
We understand the pressures in the marketplace and we have complete transparency with regard to fees and charging rates. Our policy is to provide first letters (at an agreed, fixed rate) which is often all that is required to settle the matter.
We have extensive experience in dealing with both small and large claims and, if that first letter doesn't bring satisfactory results, we activate actions involving going to court and enforcing any subsequent judgements.
We will handle your case in a professional and civil manner so that important business relationships are given the opportunity to remain intact. All of our practitioners are qualified solicitors which means that you can rely on your claim being dealt with by a qualified lawyer, not something that can be made by a significant number of our competitors.
If you have continuing and volume debt recovery issues, we are also happy to consider entering in to a periodic retainer agreement so that you can be sure about the costs of debt recovery within your business and, more importantly, plan ahead with certainty.
Debt recovery process (typical stages)
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Letter of Claim (debtor given 18–30 days to respond)
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County Court claim if unpaid
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Judgment (CCJ) if no defence
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Enforcement action (e.g. bailiffs, charging orders)
Letter of Claim
We do not offer a fixed fee service for letter of claim/initial demand letters, instead we charge on an hourly basis, in units of one tenth of an hour. Our usual hourly rates are £300 plus VAT at 20% though, typically we would expect a letter of claim on a debt claim to take in the region of 1-2 hours of work.
Court claim costs
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Court fees for issuing claims apply separately and are linked to the value of the claim value. This link will take you to the currently applicable court fees for issuing a claim: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees
Issuing the claim
We do not apply fixed costs for this service and will charge using our hourly rate of £300 plus VAT at 20% in units of one tenth of an hour for preparing and issuing a claim, which is usually issued via the online Money Claims Online portal.
If the claim is particularly complex or, if you prefer, we can instruct a barrister to prepare the claim for you. We will charge at our usual hourly rate of £300 plus VAT at 20% to prepare instructions for the barrister.
Barrister’s fees can vary significantly depending on seniority and which chambers they work from but our experience suggests that the following is a good guideline for the preparation of debt claims:
Junior Barrister (up to 10 years of experience) Between £750 - £2,500 plus VAT at 20%
Senior Barrister (over 10 years experience but not a KC) £2,000 - £7,500 plus VAT at 20%
If the Claim is undisputed or not defended
If the Defendant does not dispute or does not defend the claim then we can apply for judgment in your favour. Please note that there are fixed recoverable costs in relation to debt claims, this can mean that the costs that you are allowed to recover are less than those you spend on our services:
Fixed Recoverable costs
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£25-£100 | £50 recoverable
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£501-£1,000 | £70 recoverable
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£1,001 - £5,000 | £80 recoverable
For entering judgement
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Judgement less than £5,000 | £22
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Judgement exceeding £5,000 | £30
We charge for all of the above services at our usual hourly rate of £300 plus VAT at 20% but estimate that applying for judgment in default usually takes no more than half an hour of our time.
Enforcemment of Judgment
Once judgment is obtained the new can move to enforcement of the judgment.
Below is a table of the various options for enforcement along with the appropriate court fees and fixed recoverable costs. Again, our fees for dealing with each of those steps will be charged at our usual hourly rate of £300 plus VAT at 20%.
Issue a warrant of enforcement to County Court Bailiff
Court fee: £94
Recoverable cost: £2.25
Issue a writ to the High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO)
Court fee: £80
Recoverable cost: £51.75 plus HCEO costs if successful (both retained by the HCEO.
If unsuccessful then the HCEO will raise an additional charge of £75 plus VAT
Applying for an Order to obtain information
Court fee: £67
Recoverable cost: £15 per half an hour of attendance at court, if required.
Application for attachment of earnings
Court fee: £135
Recoverable cost: £8.50 if attendance at court is required
Application for a charging order
Court fee: £135 plus Land Registry fees currently £43
Recoverable cost: £210 plus Land Registry fees
Application for a third party debt order
Court fee: £135 plus process server fees approximately £150-£200 plus VAT at 20%. Plus attendance at hearing which we estimate to be in the region of £200 - £300 plus VAT at 20%
Recoverable cost: £98.50 plus reasonable disbursements
If the claim is disputed
The claim is disputed after issuing a letter of claim then we will provide a quote based on all of the circumstances of the dispute and the complexity of the issues involved.
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Costs are based on our usual hourly rates of £300+VAT at 20%
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Covers: Advice, preparation, mediation, hearing support
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Legal costs generally not recoverable from debtor if the claim is for £10,000 or less, which is considered the Small Claims Track.
If the claim is for £10,000 or less and likely to be allocated to the small claims track we usually estimate that
Timescales
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Small claims hearing: 24–32 weeks
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Larger defended cases: 56 weeks +
Key cost points
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Some costs can be recovered from the debtor (depending on contract/law).
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Extra work (disputes, payment plans, complex issues) = additional fees.
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Disbursements (court fees, enforcement costs) are charged separately.