Debt Recovery and Recovering Overpayments

Unpaid fees / debts

• Advised a local authority acting as the landlord on the recovery of parking charges from a private company in excess of £350,000. Advice included steps on potential winding up of the company and potential claims against individual directors of the company;
• Acted for a healthcare recruitment consultant to recover unpaid fees of approximately £30,000. Steps taken included sending letters before action to the debtors, corresponding with the debtors, and their solicitors and reaching a negotiated settlement;
• Acting for a material handling equipment supplier to recover excess hours charges under a hire contract for the supply of forklift trucks;
• Acting for an agent in relation to recovery of fees of £16,000 paid in connection with a cancelled charter flight.  We secured payment of the refund and a credit note following a letter before action and correspondence with the operator’s in house counsel;
• Acting for a company to recover unpaid fees from an artist based in Germany. County Court proceedings were issued in the UK and served upon the debtor in Germany, which resulted in payment of the debt and costs;

Group actions regarding overpayments

We acted on behalf of 51 UK local authorities and 2 higher education institutions in relation to the settlement of 81 claims brought by the insolvent Icelandic bank, Glitnir hf in respect of an alleged overpayment in 2012 as a result of an Icelandic Supreme Court decision in 2014, post-distribution to our clients who were wholesale priority creditors. Our work included advising the clients on their position, verifying the claimed repayment figures, co-ordinating execution of settlement agreements by our clients and liaising with our Icelandic Counsel.

Volume repayment demands

We are advising a private sector entity on the recovery of overpayments made on Life Assurance Policies following the death of their policyholders. This is on ongoing and cost effective instruction whereby we handle over 50 claims at any one time. Our work includes (a) drafting demand letters; (b) negotiating and advising on a range of repayment plans and settlement offers; and (c) active and regular management and advising the client on escalations.

Local authority debt recovery

We are acting on behalf of a local authority seeking to recover a debt portfolio of in excess of £300,000 in respect of residential care home fees paid on behalf of a number of clients who were recipients of adult care support. The clients have since passed away without repaying the monies owed to the authority and we are instructed to recover the outstanding debts from their estates. Work done includes assessing the status of the debt in terms of limitation, assessing the financial position of the estates (whether solvent or insolvent and the value of any known assets and debts), advising on appropriate next steps in the context of probate law (as applicable) and using a variety of recovery methods, including payment plans and charging orders.

Service charges

We acted as advisor to a local authority over a period of 5 years to recover outstanding leasehold service charge arrears.  Steps taken included advice on recoverability, serving letters before action, robustly contesting defended cases through the Courts or in the First Tier Property Tribunal, undertaking the recovery process from pre-action through to judgment, including legal costs and interest, and using a variety of debt recovery methods, including section 146 notices, to secure payments from leaseholders/ lenders. 

Enforcement

• Recovery of approximately £400 million in insolvencies of group companies of a failed property fund subject to jurisdiction of various Caribbean countries;
• Acting for local authority in enforcing interim payment on account of costs;
• Acting for a challenger bank to recover unpaid bridging finance, costs and fees. The work involved included enforcing charges over land, appointing administrators over two companies and serving a statutory demand on an individual borrower.