New clients often ask us how long it will take to recover a debt, which is difficult to answer. We are always confident in our ability to recover payment, but at which point during our 14 process payment is received is impossible to predict. Some debtors will simply wait until the very last minute to make payment. Others will pay as soon as they receive our correspondence and realise that a third party and additional costs are involved, next day payment is achieved in around two out ten instructions we receive. It is usually a surprise to the client who has spent months chasing for payment and either been ignored or given every excuse in the book.
This debt recovery involved a London based Commercial Letting Agent and a London based Property Development Company. Our client, the letting agent, issued an invoice for just over £4,000 on standard 30-day payment terms and in regard to work carried out in renewing the lease on retail premises that formed part of significant residential development. Unfortunately, the debtor ignored the invoice and all attempts to resolve the situation. The creditor chased for payment of the debt on a regular weekly basis by telephone and email and issued a statement of account at the end of each month. Once the invoice passed 90 days they issued a series of dunning letters warning that a debt recovery company would be instructed and that Court proceedings could follow. The debtor simply refused to engage or even acknowledge the outstanding debt.
It could be in less than 24 hours!
We commenced action and issued a Notice by post on a Tuesday and within two hours of receiving the client’s instruction. We then emailed copies of the Notice to several email addresses that our client had provided at 09.00 on Wednesday. Before we had even made telephone contact with the debtor, payment, including the late payment charges that make up Advocate’s fee, was credited to our bank account just after 12.00 that day. The total invoice sum our client had been chasing for months was transferred to our client’s bank account less than 30 minutes later via a same-day faster payment.
Advocate’s debt recovery action resulted in the debtor paying the full invoice amount and our fees within 3 hours of receiving correspondence advising of our involvement and the seriousness of the situation they were now facing. Our client received a cost-free debt recovery and 100% payment in less than 24 hours after we received their instruction.
Over the last 12 months, just over half of the instructions we received were paid in full within the first 7 days of our action, many of them within the first few days. By the end of the 14-day process over eight out of ten of the outstanding accounts, we actioned were paid in full at no cost to the client.
And whenever in the process we receive payment, you can rest assured that you will receive the funds the same day, unless the payment credits our bank account after 17.00, in which case you will receive the funds before 09.30 the next working day.