HMCS County Court Claims & Sheriff’s Court Small Claims
If a Solicitor’s Letter Before Action has been issued and payment has still not been received, it is time to now file a Claim with the HMCS for English and Welsh debtors and a Sheriff’s Court Small Claim for businesses based in Scotland. Any debt collection agency you speak to will advise this as the only course of route left to take. It is worth doing a credit reference check at this stage to establish the history of a debtor before submitting an application to the Courts. If the debtor has an existing County Court Judgment(s) registered against them in the Register of Judgments, it may not be in the interest of the Claimant to pursue the matter if there is a belief that Court action may be futile. Pro-Debt will advise Claimants on whether or not Court action is the best way forward. More often than not, Pro-Debt debt recovery agency will advise Court action as will most UK debt collectors and agencies nationwide.
Small Debt Recovery Procedure
Pro-Debt debt recovery agency offers a HMCS and Sheriff’s Office Claim filing service. Pro-Debt will take the hassle away from having to file a Claim yourself or pay expensive fee’s to a Solicitor commercial debt recovery specialist to file a Claim for you. We charge £24.95+VAT for submitting Court Claims in England, Wales and Scotland. Once an application is filed with the Courts online, the debtor will receive a Summons from the Courts within approximately five days. On receipt of papers being served by the Courts on to the debtor, the debtor will realise at this stage that this matter is now extremely serious and is in the hands of the HMCS and will have to attend a Court hearing if payment is not made within the given time frame.
Commercial Debt Recovery Order
Part or full payment will often be made by debtors at this stage now they know that threats have Court throughout the process have now become a reality that they can no longer ignore if they wish to avoid a County Court Judgment being issued against them and debt collectors visiting them on the doorstep to recover payment with a debt recovery order or Judgment as it is referred to by Court bailiffs and debt collectors. Some debtors will still not make payment at this stage if they do not have the funds to do so or if they dispute the debt or have a bad history with debt. The good news is unlike in previous years is that individuals, sole traders and limited companies that have not been struck off cannot avoid paying money they have been ruled to pay. Even if the debtor is on some type of government benefit, money will be deducted from their benefit until the debt is paid and the figure is more substantial than the UK debt myth of a couple of pounds per month.
Debt Collectors
After the given time frame has passed, the Claimant has the opportunity to discontinue proceedings if they wish to write the matter off. They are not obligated to proceed to arranging a hearing date and attending. Some debt collection agencies may advise Claimants to not proceed to a hearing. Pro-Debt would not typically advise this unless a Claimant does not wish to attend a Court hearing, although Claimants are not obligated to attend hearings as cases can be heard in their absense of a ‘Macenzie friend’ (Pro-Debt agent) can attend on the Claimants behalf. Please contact us for further details on 08005668157.
