Debt Recovery & Insolvency Pricing
OUR CHARGES
Stage 1. Pre Legal Debt Recovery – sending a letter before action ‘LBA’
Starting the debt recovery process normally involves the sending of a LBA ‘letter before action’ to the debtor.
Value of claim | Compensation entitlement | Our fee (plus VAT) |
Less than £1,000 | £40 | £100 |
£1,000 – £9,999.99 | £70 | £150 |
£10,000 or more | £100 | £200 |
Pre legal advice on the merits of your claim
Value of claim | Our fee (plus VAT) |
Less than £10,000 | £400 |
£10,000 or more | £700 |
Work includes;
Review of client file, risk assessment, file set up & sending of LBA and considering any reply from the debtor or their legal advisor and providing you advice on how to proceed
Stage 2. Legal/contentious Debt Recovery
This section governs the charges we make for matters whereby legal proceedings have been issued including any work done in preparation of any such proceedings. Any work described below is;
Issue fees – to issue a claim for money, the following fees will be payable on the amount claimed
Value of claim | Court fee payable (£) | Our fees (£) |
Up to £300 | 35 | 200 |
£300.01 – £500 | 50 | 200 |
£500.01 – £1,000 | 70 | 200 |
£1,000.01 – £1,500 | 80 | 300 |
£1,500.01 – £3,000 | 115 | 300 |
£3,000.01 – £5,000 | 205 | 350 |
£5,000.01 – £10,000 | 455 | 500 |
£10,000.01 – £25,000 | 5% of the claim | 600 |
£25,000.01 – £50,000 | 5% of the claim | 700 |
£50,000.01 – £200,000 | 5% of the claim | 1500 |
£200,000+ | 10,000 | 2000 |
Once the Court has issued and served your claim, the Defendant will have 14 days from service to file a defence, acknowledge the claim or they may do nothing.
If the debtor does nothing, default Judgment can be obtained. The costs to enter default Judgment are;
Value of claim | Recoverable costs (£) | Our fees (£) Plus VAT |
Judgment does not exceed £5,000 | 22 | 50 |
Judgment exceeds £5,000 | 30 | 60 |
Judgment is usually granted within 14 days from the request being received, if it is sent by mail to the Court.
If the debtor defends the claim then work done on the file will be charged on an hourly rate basis and an estimate of likely costs will be given at that stage.
Fee earners who may work on your case are:
Madeline Broddley Chartered Legal Executive hourly rate £260 plus VAT
Simon Davies Solicitor and Head of the Civil department hourly rate £260 plus VAT
Debt recovery assistant hourly rate £146 plus VAT
Application to Enforce an Award
This is the process whereby you can apply to enforce an award as if payable under a Court order, such as a liability order for the none payment of council tax
Value of claim | Recoverable costs (£) | Our fees(£) (plus VAT) |
exceeds £25 but does not exceed £250 | 30.75 | 70 |
exceeds £250 but does not exceed £600 | 41.00 | 80 |
exceeds £600 but does not exceed £2,000 | 69.50 | 120 |
exceeds £2,000 | 75.50 | 150 |
Stage 3. Enforcement & Recovery
Once a Judgment has been obtained and if the debtor does not pay the sum ordered to be paid, you may choose to enforce the Judgment by using a variety of methods. Our charges are detailed below. Fixed costs allowable by the Court, which are recoverable from the debtor, are listed for your information. Our fee is the amount charged to you if instructed to carry out any enforcement on your behalf.
Description | Court fee (£) | Recoverable Costs (£) | Our fee (£) (plus VAT) |
Writ of Control (fifa) & Writ of Execution (High Court) | 71 (plus £90 for HCEO if unsuccessful) |
51.75 | 150 |
Warrant of Execution (control) | 83 | 2.25 | 150 |
Attachment of Earnings | 119 | 8.50 | 150 |
Information Order | 59 | 15 per ½ hour | 250 |
Third Party Debt Order | 119 | 98.50 | 500 |
Application to re-issue Warrant/fi fa | 0-33 | 50 | 150 |
Application for a Charging Order | 119 | 110 (plus Land Registry costs) | 500 |
PLEASE NOTE: the above fees and costs are fixed by parliament and can be changed at any time and during the term of your claim. You are liable for any increase in court fee in this regard.
Writ of Control (fifa) & Writ of Execution (High Court) – This is a process which can be productive if you are aware of any assets of the debtor. The High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO) will attempt to seize asset to the value of your claim and costs incurred by the HCEO. The HCEO may agree a repayment programme if the debtor has insufficient assets to pay the debt. Typically this type of enforcement can take between 6-12 weeks from receiving instructions from you.
Warrant of Execution– This process and timescale is the same as a Writ of control but carried out by a County Court Bailiff.
Attachment of Earnings – This is a process whereby the Court can order an employer of the debtor to make deductions out of the debtor’s salary at source. The process can take between 4-10 weeks depending on whether the debtor co-operates with the Court in providing information requested or whether the debtor changes his employment during the process of the application.
Information Order – This is a process whereby a debtor is ordered to attend court for questioning on his assets and liabilities and ability to pay the debt. The debtor may evade service of the documentation which means that a process server may be required to effect service. This will incur a further fee for service.
Third Party Debt Order – If you are aware that the debtor is owed money by another, or has money in a bank account, you can ask the Court to Order that the payment comes to you instead of the debtor. Typically, this process takes between 2 – 6 weeks upon issue.
Charging order – You can ask the Court to place a charge upon a property owned by the debtor which property is not limited to land, but also includes pensions or stocks and shares. The application is made without notice and if the Court is satisfied the property is to be charged, the Court will grant and interim order which is then registered against the property. The fees charged are as follows
Order for Sale – This process is the enforcement of the Charging Order over land obtained. If a debtor does not pay the debt, you can apply to the Court for an Order that the property charged is sold to pay the debt. An initial investigation fee of £450 plus VAT is charged. Once you decide to pursue this application our fee is charged at the hourly rate of £260 plus VAT. We always seek to obtain an order that the debtor pays all of the costs incurred which are payable out of the proceeds of any sale, but the Courts has discretion whether to order these costs. The likely cost of obtaining an Order for Sale, on an undisputed claim, is usually £1,800.00 The disbursements incurred in pursuing this claim are as follows
Description | Disbursements (£) |
Issue Fee | 332 |
Office Copies & Plan | 6 (plus VAT) |
Registration fee at HMLR | 20 |
Drive by valuation | 50 (plus VAT) |
Agents fee for attending the hearing | 135 (plus VAT) |
Warrant of Possession | 130 |
Insolvency
This section governs our charges for standard work involved in each of the following processes, on the basis that the claim is undefended and only 1 court hearing is required on the petition.
Our fees on insolvency processes
Process | Our fee (plus VAT) | |
Drafting Statutory Demands | £750 | |
Drafting Bankruptcy Petitions | £1000 | |
Drafting Winding-up/Insolvent Partnership Petitions | £1250 |
If the claim becomes defended, which includes an application to set aside a statutory demand, an hourly rate will be charged at a rate of £260 plus VAT per hour. If a hearing is adjourned, we will charge a further fee for preparing for the adjourned hearing, including any increase in advocacy fees. A fee estimate will be provided at the time.
Disbursements on insolvency processes
Statutory Demand | Bankruptcy Petition | Winding-up/Insolvent Partnership Petitions | |
Court fee | £302 | £302 | |
Official Receivers Deposit | £990 | £1,600 | |
Process servers fee | £100-£200 (plus VAT) | £100-£200 (plus VAT) | £100-£200 (plus VAT) |
Advertising | various | ||
Advocates fee (per hearing) | £100 (plus VAT) | £150-£250 (plus VAT) | |
Bankruptcy search | £11 | ||
Company search | £11 |
Proceeding with a statutory demand is usually only done if the debt is undisputed or a Judgment has already been granted by the Court. Service of the demand usually takes place between 2-3 weeks of the demand being given to a process server for serving. Once served the debtor has 21 days to pay the debt or 18 days to apply to the Court to set aside the demand. A bankruptcy Order is usually obtained within 6-12 weeks of a petition being issued.
Winding-Up/Insolvent Partnership Petitions
More details on charges for insolvency proceedings can be provided upon request.
Pepperells Limited, registered in England and Wales: No. 10244781 | Registered Office: 100 Alfred Gelder Street, Hull, East Yorkshire, HU1 2AE | Authorised & Regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority | Regulation Authority Numbers 636188, 638554, 638556, 647027, 636188, 807163, 818433, 8000373, 832782 and 830125. | www.sra.org.uk
Pepperells Solicitors are committed to ensuring that all Partners, Consultants and Employees give their full co-operation to the Legal Ombudsman in the event of any dispute or complaint against our firm, contact details of which can be found at www.legalombudsman.org.uk. VAT No. 365 0589 36