Debt Recovery Fees

Price Transparency

At Greystone Solicitors our aim is to be transparent and open about our fees. This information is provided in accordance with the SRA Transparency Rules. This price transparency information is provided to help you make an informed choice as to your legal provider and understand the services and prices for legal services which we provide that come within these rules.
The price transparency information provided below is only a guide, and does not constitute an offer of services that you can accept. Each individual instruction will receive a personal quotation from us, relevant to your instructions.

 

debt recovery fees

Our Charges

Our charges are made up of:

a) our fees for the legal work; and
b) ‘disbursements’ – disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to other people, such as fees for bailiffs. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Where VAT is referred to below please note that this will be charged at the applicable rate, which is currently 20%.

Our Fees

In debt recovery work the legal fees often vary depending upon how much work we need to do to recover the debt. We therefore tend to charge fees for each stage of the recovery process and only charge clients for the parts they need:

1) Letter Before Action

A Letter Before Action is a letter which formally demands payment from the person who owes you money (the ‘debtor’). This is the first step for any debt recovery process before starting court proceedings. This stage normally takes 21 days depending upon the nature of the debt.

This is charged at a fixed cost of £175.00 (plus VAT) and includes:
• Undertaking appropriate searches
• Sending a letter before action
• Receiving payment and sending onto you, where applicable

Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.

2) Issue Court Proceedings

If the debt has not been paid following the letter of action, we will draft and issue court proceedings on your behalf. Our standard fees for issuing a court claim are below:

Debt Value Court Fee Our Fee Total (Excluding VAT)
£1,000.00 to £1,500.00 £80.00 £100.00 (Plus VAT) £180.00
£1,500.00 to £3,00.00 £115.00 £100.00 (Plus VAT) £215.00
£3,00.00 to £5,000 £205.00 £100.00 (plus VAT) £305.00
£5,000 to £10,000 £455.00 £150.00 (plus VAT) £605.00
£10,000 to but not over £100,000.00 5% value of the claim Hourly Rates Apply Depends on the precise value of the sum claimed
Over £200,000.00 £10,000.00 Hourly Rates Apply Depends on the precise value of the sum claimed

Please note that the court fees are regularly updated, fees can change, please see link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50 Court fees do not have VAT.

To issue Court proceedings, we would normally anticipate the Court to issue the proceedings within 14 to 28 days and serve the proceedings on the Defendant. The Defendant would have 14 days to acknowledge service and 28 days to file a Defence. If they fail to do either of these, default Judgment can be applied for. This is likely to take a further 14 days.

If the Defendant defends the action, the matter is likely to take between 3 and 6 months to get a small claims trial, 6 to 12 months for a fast-track trial and 6 to 18 months for a multi-track trial.

Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.

3) Enter Judgement

If there is no response, we may be able apply to the Court to ‘obtain Judgment’ for you. This means you would have a court order which you can enforce to reclaim your money because the claim was not responded to. Our fees would be:

Value of Claim Our Fee
Up to £5,000 £25.00 (plus VAT)
Over £5,000 £30.00 (plus VAT)

If we are successful in obtaining judgment for you but payment is still not received then we will advise you on the next steps at that time, such as enforcement action and what the likely costs would be (see below).

This stage normally takes up to 2 months depending upon the nature of the debt.

Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.

4) Defended Claims and more complex cases

If a debtor submits a defence to your claim or the case is otherwise more complicated, we will normally charge you an hourly rate for the time which we spend on your case. The hourly rate depends upon the experience of the fee earner handling the matter:

Details Hourly Rate
Director £300.00 per hour (Plus VAT)
Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience £300.00 (plus VAT)
Solicitors, CILEX or Costs Lawyers with at least 4 years PQE £275.00 (plus VAT)
Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience £250.00 (plus VAT)
Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners £150.00 (plus VAT)

Timescales for defended and more complex cases are more difficult to predict. Sometimes matters can be resolved within a matter of weeks but others can take much longer. Contact us for more tailored guidance on your circumstances.

Disbursements

You will need to pay for ‘disbursements’ in addition to our costs as described above. In a debt recovery matter the most common disbursement is the Court fee and the cost for these are listed above. If we need to go to Court then a barrister (sometimes called ‘Counsel’) is often used to deal with the hearing. This is not common. Barrister’s fees tend to be in the region of £1,000.00- £5,000.00 plus VAT and between £250.00 – £750.00 plus VAT per day. We will however guide you on this as and when such costs need to be incurred.   

Court fees and other disbursements will be invoiced and must be paid in advance. Court fees can be found at: Fees in the civil and family courts – main fees (EX50) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Please note that court fees are regularly updated and fees can increase.  

Other costs to consider

The costs set out above do not include enforcement action such as for bailiffs to go out and collect the debt on your behalf. 

Key stages of your case

The costs described above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages a debt recovery process: 

  • Discussing your case with you and, where appropriate, reviewing documents you provide
  • Performing relevant checks and searches
  • Sending a letter before action (see above)
  • Receiving payment and forwarding payment to you or, if a debt is not paid, drafting and issuing court proceedings
  • If no response is received, applying to the Court for Judgment in Default, subject to the additional costs for doing so as detailed above being paid;
  • If Judgment in Default is received, writing to the other side to demand payment
  • If payment is still not received within the specified timescale, providing you with guidance on the next steps and likely costs

It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide you with a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances. 

How long will my case take?

Please see time estimates above for the timescales in each stage of the process.

In terms of the overall time the debt recovery will take, if a debt is not disputed, we find that it typically takes about 4-8 weeks from sending the letter before action (see above) to receive a Judgment in Default.  A debtor with sufficient funds to do so will very often pay upon being sent the Judgment in Default and so matters can quickly be resolved after obtaining a Judgement in Default (within about 21 days).

If the debt is disputed, defended or enforcement action is required, the matter will ordinarily take longer than this to resolve and involve additional costs which will be discussed with you in advance.

Get in touch with a Solicitor today!

No matter what legal issues you are facing, you wont have to face them alone. Get in touch with our solicitors today and find out how we can help you. Call 01582 343 453 to speak to a member of our team.