by scowan
26. August 2010 01:46
Up to this point we’ve provided a series of blogs to help you engage in good credit control practices and avoid bad debt.
For those in the position of trying to recover debts, we’ve suggested ways that you can start the ball rolling by carrying out certain procedures in-house. However, it may now be time to take this to the next level, which often means getting a third party involved (such as a debt collection agency or debt recovery solicitors).
Generally the ‘jumping off’ point is to submit a 'Letter Before Action' (LBA/pre-sue letter). At Yuill + Kyle Solicitors, we would send a letter to your debtor demanding payment within 7 days. After this you may want to instruct court proceedings, although there is no obligation to do so. At £3.00 + vat, with no commission on recoveries, we would advise clients that this is a low risk starting-off point.
What information is needed at the Pre-sue stage?
The information needed at the pre-sue stage is minimal. It’s normal to just ask for the client’s contact details, debtor’s contact details, the value of the debt, when it was incurred etc. You can see an example of the information needed at http://www.debtscotland.com/lettersform.cfm . It is really only if the client wants to proceed to court action that more information such as copy invoices etc are required.
So, overall a pre-sue letter acts as a low-cost, low-risk, but often high impact spur to getting payment.