Debt Recovery Fees

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Our fees are broken down in accordance to the stages of the Debt Recovery Process.

There are various members of our Debt Recovery team that will deal with your matter.

Letter Before Action

Spratt Endicott will commence recovery action normally via a standard letter before action. The charge for the LBA is dependant upon the monthly volume of instructions passed to us and will range anywhere between £2.25 and £25 per letter.

It is optional to agree a success fee for a recovery of money. This will again be negotiated but will vary from 2% of the sum paid, up to 40% of the sum paid. All our charges quoted here are exclusive of VAT.

VAT will be added to your bill. Court fees do not attract VAT and the ‘fixed costs’ (see below) recoverable from the 3^rd party will not include VAT as the service element is rendered to you, not the 3^rd party.

We will write to you informing you when the debtor 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.

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 volumes fixed rate can be agreed for this PAP letter of between £20 and £35 per letter.

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.

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

Court Actions and Issue

County court proceeding and entry of Judgment will be charged a fixed fee which will be based on a sliding scale and calculated in  accordance with the fixed sum awarded by the court. The fixed fee would be between £70 and £120 depending on the size of the debt. Depending on the size of your debt, there will also be an additional fee between £22 and £55 to cover the judgement costs. This fee is reflective of the fixed costs awarded by the court.

Our fixed fees are as follows to issue a warrant or instructing the High Court Enforcement Officer:

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

• The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor.
• 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.

To instruct the High Court Enforcement Officer

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 an hourly rate, 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 X days, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs

Matters usually take x-x 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 1/10^th of an hour at a time., i.e. 6 minute units.

If a piece of work takes slightly less than 6 minutes we will apply our discretion where possible.

There may also be court fees, disbursement and VAT chargeable, where possible these will be recovered from the debtor. These fees are charged in addition to the figures quoted above.

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.