In a few weeks time credit controllers may have to deal with creditors who can play the system and disrupt their supplier’s cash flow for even larger amounts.
In April the Government’s proposals to reform civil litigation take effect. The proposals are designed to introduce quicker, fairer and more cost-effective litigation.
However, the proposals include raising the small claims track claim limit to £10,000. An unintended consequence is that credit controllers may now be faced with opportunistic creditors.
These creditors will know that they can withhold payment of quite significant amounts, and the worst that can happen is being forced to pay the principal sum and no solicitors’ fees, at some time much further in future. Very disruptive to your cash flow, but cynically beneficial to theirs.
Two Offers of Practical Help
If you use First Report, a company credit check is already part of your procedure, and a Payment Performance report will show you how long a potential customer is stringing out payments to its other suppliers. Real invoices and actual time taken to pay. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
If you are not currently looking at the Payment Performance when you run a credit check, contact our Helpdesk now to get access to this extra information on your account.
The second way we can help is this offer from the London specialists in debt recovery litigation, Silverman Sherliker.
They understand the issues and ways around the problems, and will offer a fixed fee agreement for such cases. This means you can claim against debts without the worry of your legal costs spiralling out of control and wiping out the value of the claim. For information on the changes to the small claims track and how they can help you, contact James Robertson on +44 (0)20 7749 2700 or jvar@silvermansherliker.co.uk and mention First Report.
Till next time.
