What Factors can Impact your Commercial Debt Recovery Claim?
When beginning a commercial debt recovery claim, through your own company or when hiring a specialist debt recovery company, there are aspects that could make or break your claim, and others that we believe are essential for the success of a claim.
Your commercial debt recovery claim:
Do you know who your customer is?
This should be done before any business relationship has begun, therefore should the business relationship reach the point of debt recovery you will have adequate information to provide the courts and for enforcement. If information is incorrect within your claim, your judgement will be unenforceable. You should have:
- Their full legal entity
- Details of whether their company is limited/ sole trader/ partnership
- If the company is a sole trader or partnership, I advise that you retrieve home addresses from partners/ owner.
Whose T&Cs was your business relationship under?
It’s the battle of the forms; whoever handed over that last piece of paper before the contract is performed is the party to which thier T&Cs apply. If it is yours, you need to be able to evidence that the T&Cs have been accepted, through verbal, written or conduct.
Ensuring your T&Cs are made known to your customer is vital for any business relationship; if you simply state that they are on your website this may not be enough to demonstrate that the terms have ‘been made known’ to your customer for them to accept.
Are there any disputes?
I would always recommend trying to resolve genuine disputes; the courts will not look kindly on litigants who do not make reasonable steps to resolve the issue before commencing legal action. If you believe a dispute is not valid I suggest gathering any proof you potentially have to prove that their dispute is indeed merely an excuse for non-payment.
Have you done everything you can?
Pre-action protocols must be followed when carrying out a commercial debt recovery claim. You could be penalised, even if you win, for not taking all necessary steps to come to a resolution prior to taking legal action against your debtor.
Our commercial debt recovery service can take the reins of your claim, take a look and see if we could help your business.
