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Thread: Legal help re bounced cheque ..... Please!!!

  1. #31
    DazzyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I assume you sent a copy by the same means to yourself at the same time, along with terms of interest charged for delay?
    That proves postage (with the receipt for both on the same date). You could also get a witness and take photos but thats a bit OTT.

    That way you can prove it was sent.

    I would then leave it a month and send another one.
    Leave it a further month - send another one.
    The legal action on the third month.

    The longer you leave it the more interest you can charge for "admin" etc. plus the legal fees.
    They will cave after the second one she they know that you are not giving up.

    Just make things much less personal as per my previous posts.

    Thats just my opinion.
    I thought giving a month between communications was very generous - until I read your comment about doing this so you can hit the debtor with more interest charges! In my mind, that's pretty unethical and, also, if the debtor is financially unable to pay, increasing the charges makes it even less likely that you'll get paid in good time. The best outcome would be to settle this situation as quickly as possible. The Office Of Fair Trading have issued guidelines on debt collection practices and, if I remember correctly, they recommended 14 day intervals between sending letters. I'm unable to access the OFT's website at the moment as it's currently offline for "routine maintenance".
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  2. #32
    ukpartydj's Avatar
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    I do believe you can charge a fixed £40 compensation fee per invoice along with a statutory amount of interest which I believe is something like 8% above Bank of England base rate.
    End of the day if they aren't paying you've given them credit of £150 which they need to pay interest on - I'm uncertain but I believe if you told the client in advance you could have set a ridiculous interest rate and really got them. plenty of info online about this if you want to check for future reference.

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  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by DazzyD View Post
    I thought giving a month between communications was very generous - until I read your comment about doing this so you can hit the debtor with more interest charges! In my mind, that's pretty unethical and, also, if the debtor is financially unable to pay, increasing the charges makes it even less likely that you'll get paid in good time. The best outcome would be to settle this situation as quickly as possible. The Office Of Fair Trading have issued guidelines on debt collection practices and, if I remember correctly, they recommended 14 day intervals between sending letters. I'm unable to access the OFT's website at the moment as it's currently offline for "routine maintenance".
    It depends on the fee and situation IMO, but I think you need a set procedure in place as per your t&c's.
    14 days would be better I would think. Not had to do it before.

    I am not talking about charging a massive amount - literally 10% or something depending on the legalities of it and final fee.
    The £40 stated probably has more to do with big businesses, i would opt for a smaller daily charge since the letter is issued.
    £1 perhaps depending on your outgoings?? after all you will spend at least an 1-2 hours writing and printing letters, delivering them via the post office.
    as well as the cost of the postage, which is not cheap recorded. Plus the time you have as a one man band out of pocket.

    I think this will not be settled quickly as per the excuses laid out on the phone.
    I am not sure of the time but I would personally do one more letter and leave it to debt collection.

    If it was a hotel pay for the whole of December delayed till March that could very well bankrupt a small business, so procedures need to be in place.
    Last edited by yourdj; 26-01-2014 at 04:13 AM.
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  4. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I am not talking about charging a massive amount - literally 10% or something depending on the legalities of it and final fee.
    The £40 stated probably has more to do with big businesses, i would opt for a smaller daily charge since the letter is issued.
    £1 perhaps depending on your outgoings?? after all you will spend at least an 1-2 hours writing and printing letters, delivering them via the post office.
    as well as the cost of the postage, which is not cheap recorded. Plus the time you have as a one man band out of pocket.
    Bear in mind that the banks have just gone through the whole court case about unauthorised overdraft fees and if I remember right the crux of that matter was that Consumer groups were arguing that the fees levied (typically £15 per day) were not representative of the costs incurred. So basically the guideline is to recover reasonable costs incurred as part of recovery. On the subject of interest on the debt, you're allowed to recover it based on a set ANNUAL interest rate (again I think the OFT has guidelines on this). The last time I did this (and bear in mind interest rates were much higher 7 years ago). I applied an ANNUAL interest rate of 8.5% to the debt. The reality is that the Small claims action will be the largest cost of recovery and interest and letter writing fees should be small (the last debt I recovered had been due for 6 months and I think I added less than a tenner in fees other than the court costs).

    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I think this will not be settled quickly as per the excuses laid out on the phone.
    Unfortunately agree.

    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I am not sure of the time but I would personally do one more letter and leave it to debt collection.
    Agreed. While no-one is happy with being left with a debt, the guidelines state that you have to treat the customer fairly - and you're also far more likely to recover the debt if you do (rather than spending more time arguing about if the additional charges are "reasonable").

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  5. #35
    Web Guru Marc J's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DiscoMagic View Post
    So still no reqponse from the client. Email Sent. Recorded Letter Sent (but they were out and not collected from sorting office). If client doesn't pick up today not sure if I should send another letter by Special, and a separate one by normal mail (just to ensure she does get a letter), or whether this would be classed as harassment?
    There's your problem right there. They got the email, and knew the recorded letter was from you, so won't bother collecting it. If they hadn't got the email, I bet they'd have taken the recorded delivery and you'd have your proof of delivery.

  6. #36
    Sapphire Disco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marc J View Post
    There's your problem right there. They got the email, and knew the recorded letter was from you, so won't bother collecting it. If they hadn't got the email, I bet they'd have taken the recorded delivery and you'd have your proof of delivery.
    Very true but if Ralph sends the next letter ordinary first class post and gets a certificate of posting which I think is free or very small cost the postman will put it through their letterbox, the original recorded delivery receipt ( first letter ) along with the certificate of posting ( second letter ) would be more than enough to convince a judge that at least one if not both letters had reached the defendants.

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by DJ Jules View Post
    Unfortunately agree.

    Agreed.
    I am making headway then. i could be a barrister in a year or two

    Good to know all this. I usually get spot on clients and have only had an event that cancelled and did not tell me last year.
    They ignored all my communication, which really made me angry as it's such a pathetic thing to do.

    I ended up sending a letter to them and also keeping proof of all communication just incase they then turned around after and accused me of not showing up. Kept the booking fee and left it at that.
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  8. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sapphire Disco View Post
    Very true but if Ralph sends the next letter ordinary first class post and gets a certificate of posting which I think is free or very small cost the postman will put it through their letterbox, the original recorded delivery receipt ( first letter ) along with the certificate of posting ( second letter ) would be more than enough to convince a judge that at least one if not both letters had reached the defendants.
    If 7 days Royal Mail will return the recorded delivery letter to you. If you try once more and it fails, then go straight to small claims. Ironically the court letters aren't sent with any kind of proof of delivery required and the court won't take non-receipt as any excuse. You just have to show that you have attempted to resolve the matter and the returns from the post office will be sufficient following on from your emails and phone calls.

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  9. #39
    DazzyD's Avatar
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    As someone who has been on the receiving end of debt-collection due to getting in too deep with payday loans (as well as chasing people for debt in my current day job and my previous one - always good to get experience from both sides of the fence!! ) I can honestly say I've never received a letter by recorded or Special Delivery from any of my creditors or debt collection companies. Most of the time, they have contacted me by telephone but, sometimes, I do get a letter as well. Then again, my situation was governed by the Consumer Credit Act whereas, in Ralph's case, this would not apply. I've looked in to this kind of situation a bit deeper the last couple of days and, from what I've found, for businesses such as ours, it's best to have these eventualities covered in detail in our T&Cs something, admittedly, I haven't got. But, having an effective debt collection procedure down in writing is something that I'll be looking in to over the next few days. I'll be Googling for help on just how to word it!
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  10. #40
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    So this thread just came up from 4 years ago. What happened? Did you get paid?
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