Ordinarily, we charge on fixed Fee Rates, which are a percentage of the sums we collect on your behalf, plus VAT. In addition, you fund any disbursements that arise.
Where a claim becomes contested, or otherwise falls outside our standard pricing guide, then we will provide you with the best advice of the likely costs at the outset, and work within an agreed budget where possible
We will keep you regularly updated of any relevant developments as we go along
Where proceedings are issued, we will also charge you the Fixed Court Costs to cover that additional work, allowed by the court, where we can recover them
We recognise that each client has unique needs, so do contact Debbie Mottley (Head of Recoveries) to discuss your particular requirements and fee structure on 01293 596905.
Our standard recovery fees in relation to an unpaid invoice or other liquidated liability, which is not disputed, are charged on a Fee Rate basis, as a percentage of the money we collect on your behalf, plus VAT. In addition:
• You also fund any disbursements.
• Where we issue proceedings, you are also charged for this additional work, where we can recover it for you, the “Court Fixed Costs” (for issuing proceedings, obtaining judgment, and taking certain enforcement steps)
We retain our fee from the money we collect on your behalf.
We also charge you VAT on our Fee Rate at the current chargeable rate. The VAT element of our fee cannot ordinarily be reclaimed from your customer
We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
Where we instruct a barrister to represent you at a hearing relating to an Employment Tribunal claim, the barrister’s fee can vary quite significantly depending on the experience and seniority of the barrister concerned. However, we would normally expect fees of between £1,250 and £2,000 plus VAT per day for representing you at a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation).
There are currently no fees to pay to theTribunal for making a claim to it.
Our Fee Rate is subject to our terms of business and providing the account is placed with us on a 1st placement basis. Bespoke B2B quotes are available on request. Fee Rates vary according to the balance of the outstanding invoices, debt type and the volume of accounts you place with us.
For B2B debts, you are ordinarily entitled to add to your debt a sum of compensation towards your costs of recovering that debt (and, where your contract doesn’t include provision for interest, you are entitled to statutory interest). Where that applies, we will add it to the debt and claim it as part of the balance owed to you by your customer.
The amount of the fixed sum you can charge a business for the cost of recovering a late commercial payment (on top of interest) depends upon the amount of the debt. You can only charge the business once for each payment/debt. The current statutory compensation (as at November 2018):
The Fee Rates on Consumer debts are generally dictated by the number of accounts referred and their average value.
As the Rate will depend greatly on the bulk and average size, along with whatever prior recovery strategies have been tried, for a bespoke quote contact Debbie Mottley at Recoveries.manager@stevensdrake.com.
Generally, the Fee Rate on Consumer Debts is between 15% and 30% depending on the type and age of the debts, with 15% for regular uncomplicated bulk account volumes for fresh 1st placement debts; to 30% for limited volume stale (>1 year) debts. We also charge you VAT on our Fee Rate at the current chargeable rate. The VAT element of our fee cannot ordinarily be reclaimed from your customer.
Our fee includes generally all the work we would normally need to carry out to recover the debt on your behalf, before the issue of proceedings. After the issue of proceedings, in addition to the Fee Rate we charge you an additional fee equal to the fixed sum for costs (“Court Fixed Costs”) which is automatically included in the court papers and applied under the court rules for the (i) issue of proceedings and (ii) entry of judgement and (iii) taking of specific enforcement steps.
For bespoke recovery arrangements, we will agree a Service Level Agreement dealing with the key steps and their timescales. The key stages include:
• For Pre-Legal Work (i.e. before the issue of proceedings):
Taking your instructions
Reviewing documentation where necessary
Uploading of the account details onto our bespoke debt recovery system
Sending a formal letter of claim, and if necessary further pre-action telephone or other contact with your customer
Receiving and processing payment and remitting to you
• For Legal Work (the issue of proceedings and obtaining judgment):
Should you wish stevensdrake to issue proceedings on your behalf we will discuss all available options with you
Drafting court proceedings, issuing and diarising the key dates
Where no acknowledgement of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default
Receiving and processing payment and remitting to you
• For Post-Legal Work:
When Judgement in default is received, to write to your customer to request payment
If payment is not received, to outline the next steps and ways to enforce and the likely costs
Further, please note you also have to pay disbursements up front, to include court fees.
Our Fee Rates apply where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice or other liquidated liability, which is not disputed. If the other party disputes your claim at any point, or issues a claim or counterclaim against you, we will discuss any further work required and provide you with revised advice about costs if necessary; which may be on a fixed fee (ie. if a one-off letter is required), or an hourly rate if more extensive work is needed.
Matters typically take 6 weeks from receipt of the account from you to the start of payments from your customer however, this may vary according to the particular debt type and depending upon whether or not it is necessary to issue a claim (which will increase the average time to payment by a further 6-10 weeks. 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. For bespoke recovery arrangements, we agree with you a Service Level Agreement setting out timescales for each phase of recovery we are authorised to take on your behalf.
We will advise you and agree with you what searches you wish us to undertake on all or an appropriate segment of your debts, for example, to trace and search for your customer.
We charge a fee for carrying out these additional searches and checks, which is additional to our Fee Rates. Any such additional costs will only be accrued upon your written approval
Please note, in regards to the HM Land Registry homeowner search, we do not charge you any fee for our work, the £3.00 is the disbursement charged to us by HM Land Registry.
In all cases and at all stages of the proceedings you will be liable to pay the court disbursements we incur on your behalf. We will obtain payment from you up front before incurring a disbursement. “Disbursements” are the fees and expenses incurred with third parties (for example, court fees charged by the court on issuing proceedings).
Disbursements normally incurred +In addition to Searches and to the court fees (see below), the following disbursements may arise: These fees are correct as at September 2020 but are subject to change by the service providers.
Personal service of order £105 plus VAT
Agent attendance at hearing £115 plus VAT
Transfer up fee £66 plus VAT
Compliance fee £75 plus VAT
Land registry (interim charging order) £20
Land registry (Final charging order) £45
Recovery of goods order £125 plus VAT
We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
Where we instruct a barrister to represent you at a hearing relating to an Employment Tribunal claim, the barrister’s fee can vary quite significantly depending on the experience and seniority of the barrister concerned. However, we would normally expect fees of between £1,250 and £2,000 plus VAT per day for representing you at a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation).
There are currently no fees to pay to theTribunal for making a claim to it.
Issuing proceedings, obtaining judgment and some enforcement steps, involve us in considerably more time and effort. A fixed sum dependent on the size of the claim is allowed for this (“Court Fixed Cost”), which is added to the claim and awarded against your customer. Whilst this Court Fixed Cost is usually a fairly nominal sum, we limit our additional costs for issuing proceedings, obtaining judgement, and certain enforcement steps, to that sum plus disbursements. We will charge this to you only where we recover it from your customer.
On issuing proceedings, the Court fee set by the government and Court Fixed Costs are based on the sum claimed (inclusive of interest):
• The Court Fee is the Disbursement we will get from you to enable us to pay the Court on your behalf when issuing proceedings. It is added to the amount of the debt payable by your customer to you when judgement is calculated. We obtain this from you before issuing proceedings, to enable us to pay it on your behalf.
• The Court Fixed Costs is a sum awarded by the court and added to the debt payable to you when judgement is calculated. We charge you this where we can recover it from your customer.
• These tables of costs and fees are only applicable to judgments and enforcement in England and Wales. For costs in relation to debts in Scotland and Northern Ireland please contact Debbie Mottley (Head of Recoveries) at Recoveries.manager@stevensdrake.com
There is no additional court fee on entering Judgment in Default.
We can also act for you to enforce any judgement we obtain on your behalf. We will discuss with you the costs for doing so at that stage, where appropriate. On taking steps to enforce a judgment, there is a further Court Fee to pay, and additional Court Fixed Costs.
• We can also apply to instruct County Court Bailiffs or High Court Enforcement Officers (only the latter where the balance is in excess of £600).
• If that option is chosen, we will first explain to you the fees and costs of doing so, which may involve a transfer from the County Court to the High Court of the judgement for enforcement, and where the Bailiff or Enforcement Officer’s fee will be based on the amount they recover.
• These tables of costs and fees are only applicable to judgments and enforcement in England and Wales. For costs in relation to debts in Scotland and Northern Ireland please contact Debbie Mottley (Head of Recoveries) at Recoveries.manager@stevensdrake.com
We can also issue and serve a Statutory Demand, and thereafter petition for Bankruptcy (individual) or for Winding Up (company), where appropriate for you. We will agree to the costs for this on an individual case by case basis; in addition, there will be the court fees to pay up front (currently a £1,270 court fee for bankruptcy and £1,880 court fee for winding up).
We offer a bespoke service for bulk recoveries. Please Contact Us for more details
The Recoveries Team have in excess of 155 years’ experience in commercial and consumer debt recovery. Specialist fields include B2B, Recovery of Goods, Vehicle Finance, Credit Card Debt and Personal Loans to name but a few.
We have 10 members in the team managed by Debbie Mottley (Head of Recoveries). Contact us to find out more, or to see what we can do for you; or fill in our online enquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
stevensdrake © 2019 All Rights Reserved. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority Number 525527. *stevensdrake* and *stevensdrake solicitors* are trading names of stevensdrake limited (registered in England and Wales under number 7159192). A list of the directors is displayed at the above address. stevensdrake are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for debt collection and insurance mediation. It is registered the FCA under registration number 702596.
