Good debt recovery agent?

Reply to the comment left by "David Carter" at "10/03/2015 - 14:31":

Thank you, David. Apparently, according to your colleague who phoned me and her manager, you are not currently offering contact with your panel solicitors as mentioned at http://thesheriffsoffice.com/high-court-enforcement/obtaining-judgment/using-a-solicitor

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "10/03/2015 - 14:39":

Hi Jerry

Have you actually had a successful trace?

Have you considered using a direct access barrister to conduct the litigation? You may well be surprised at how cost effective they can be in comparison to using solicitors because they work on a fixed fee basis. See >>> http://www.property118.com/member/?id=1945

You could, of course, still use The Sheriffs Office for enforcement.
.

Hi Jerry, that doesn't sound right, I'll investigate.

In the first instance if the matter is a simply unpaid rent you may wish to use the government's own claim process through MCOL - http://www.moneycaim.gov.uk

Regards, David

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "10/03/2015 - 14:43":

I don't actually know if FCC Paragon did a trace as part of their exercise. Having had a chat with Irvine, one of David's colleagues, I shall now do the following: A free desktop trace via The Sheriff's Office website at http://thesheriffsoffice.com/instruct-us followed by an ownership check with the Land Registry. Once we know the guarantor is a) living at his address and b) the owner of it, I'll look at MCOL and Mark Smith as a means to obtain judgment.

One of my concerns about using MCOL is the possibilty of a brick through my window or worse, as I have to use my own address on the papers.

And the answer was that the guarantor is not a homeowner, as I had been led to believe. It's social housing. I suspect I should just leave it written-off.

Hi David

As the originator of this post, I felt obliged to provide an update. This post is primarily aimed at your goodself but anyone else feel free to comment.

As a refresher I have an ex-tenant who owes just under £5K - he left my property in late 2013 and I therefore subsequently appointed FCC Paragon to recover the debt, unfortunately they have only managed to recover a negligible amount as the tenant claims his financial circumstances limit him to paying only £10 per month even this has not been fully honoured as he only seems to pay in dribs and drabs. To be fair paragon seem to be doing their best but I'm not sure whether the ex-tenant is genuine about his circumstances or just trying it on knowing that paragon have limited ammunition to up the ante and make him take the situation more seriously.

Is this a case you feel you could add value more than paragon without me incurring significant additional expense ? Please advise

Genghis

Dear Ghengis,

As with most things in life it will be a financial decision.

Whilst debt collection is a valuable tool it does have it's limitations as it relies on the threat of legal action to prompt payment. Further to this the debt collector will usually keep a percentage of the debt as their fee. When it works it's easy to see the value.

To move to enforcement will require you to obtain judgment which of course has a cost. This cost can be minimised by making the claim yourself through the governments own online claim website http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

Once judgment is obtained it will cost just £60 to issue a Writ of Control. This gives authority for a High Court Enforcement Officer to attend the debtor's address(es) to seize their goods and sell them if payment is not forthcoming. The HCEO will recover your judgment, the court costs, the costs of the Writ and interest at 8%. If we are unsuccessful there is a compliance fee of £75 plus VAT.

The success of this is going to come down to whether the debtor wants to discharge the judgment or avoid having their goods seized and sold.

Given that debt collection itself is not working I would recommend the judgment route. You may find that this alone prompts payment. Even if not many people's circumstances change in time and you may find that the debtor will want to discharge it within the 6 years it is valid.

Once you have judgment you can then decide if you want to enforce it. What I will say is the attendances of an Enforcement Agent to seize goods can be very persuasive in recovery of a debt. After all, it's always a case of 'he who shouts loudest' and that is clearly us.

Reply to the comment left by "David Carter" at "11/03/2015 - 08:42":

Hi David

This is presumably only applicable IF the debtor has assets he does not want to be seized (but he says his financial circumstances limit him to £10 pcm, so that sounds like someone who perhaps has no assets and/or only welfare benefits income). If he has no assets then this route is likely to be ineffective. Likewise, if he does not have a car (free of finance), and he chooses not to let you in to his home, then again this enforcement route would probably be ineffective. However, I agree that it could be very effective if the debtor has significant seizable assets that can be identified and accessed.

Perhaps FCC Paragon have more information about the debtor's situation that could assist, e.g. is he working or claiming benefits? does he have a vehicle? does he have other debts? etc. If FCC Paragon does not have this information, Ghengis could apply to the court for the debtor to make a sworn declaration to the court about his financial circumstances (including assets owned, employment income, money in bank, etc) and then from that information Ghengis can then make a more informed decision about the best method of enforcement, e.g. attachment of earnings, third party debt order, bankruptcy, etc.

Hi Robert,

Yes whilst what you say is technically true, and already stated by me above, assets are not always a factor. It's never as black and white as that.

The very fact of an Enforcement Agent attending and the threat of removal of goods, even ones of very low value has a dramatic affect on how a debtor deals with the issue.

We are regularly paid in full by friends or family.

As I said, this really is a financial decision. The costs of getting judgment, a writ and enforcing are around £500. This is all recoverable if it is paid of course.

And I would wholeheartedly agree with Robert on getting as much info from FCC Paragon as possible as that will aid any decision.