The prospect of pursuing commercial debt owed to you can be daunting and expensive. However, if you are owed money, speak to Alba Claims today for a confidential no obligation discussion about how we could help you pursue your claim on a no win, no fee* basis. Our team offer clear and straightforward guidance on the options available to you and cover Glasgow, Edinburgh and all of Scotland.
Complete our online enquiry form or contact us on 0131 550 0401 to find out how we could help.
Debt Recovery Procedures
Alba Claims can assist you with your debt recovery, whether large or small. Through our panel solicitors**, there are a variety of options available, including:
- Correspondence and phone calls to the debtor.
- Statutory demands and ‘short-form’ demands.
- Court actions – more than £5000 – If your claim is worth more than £5,000, an ‘ordinary’ action can be raised at the Sheriff Court. The party against whom the claim is made is known as a defender. The purpose of this action is to obtain a court order (“decree”) against the defender to allow further diligence to recover the debt in full.
- Court actions – less than £5000 – This is known as “Simple procedure” actions. Such actions are designed to be speedy, inexpensive and informal way to resolve disputes where the monetary value does not exceed £5,000. A claim is made in the Sheriff Court by a claimant. The party against whom the claim is made is known as a respondent. The final decision in a claim is made by a Sheriff or a Summary Sheriff. From 28 November 2016 simple procedure replaced the previous small claims and summary cause procedures for actions for payment. The purpose of this action is to obtain a Decree against the defender to allow further diligence to recovery the debt in full.
Debt Recovery Diligence
Once a Decree is obtained, this entitles a creditor to pursue a range of enforcement mechanisms to recover the outstanding debt described as ‘diligence’.
There are a variety of options available to creditors pursuing diligence against a debtor. The usefulness of these measures will depend on the circumstances in each case. The options available are as follows:
- Earnings Arrestment – This instructs an individual debtor’s employer to deduct money owed to the creditor directly from the weekly/monthly salary and pay it to the creditor. There is a limit on the amount that can be taken from a debtor’s salary and this is dependent on how much they earn.
- Arrestment – This order is commonly served on banks, to prevent debtors from accessing money they have in their bank accounts, although there is a protected minimum amount that must be left available to the debtor for essential living expenditure. An arrestment can also be effective for example where a debtor is due monies from property rental income or any other third party.
- Inhibition – Where a debtor owns any property in Scotland, a creditor can serve an inhibition in order to prevent the debtor from selling or re-financing the properties without first addressing inhibiting creditor’s debt. This ‘secures’ the debt for a period of up to five years. In practice, a purchaser or proposed new lender will not proceed with a transaction unless an inhibition has been discharged, so this can be a very useful tool.
- Attachment – Attachment allows a creditor to seize and sell a debtor’s moveable property as a means of recovering money owed. The attachment can be used to seize property owned by the debtor and in their possession. Attachment cannot be used to seize goods in the debtor’s dwellinghouse, unless an order for exceptional attachment has been granted by the Sheriff. Other forms of attachment include interim, exceptional, money and land.
Why choose Alba Claims?
Alba Claims have developed an innovative no win, no fee* funding model which means that you can will be able to pursue court actions using our panel lawyers** without having to pay fees on an on-going basis. We offer a confidential no obligation consultation, so get in touch today to find out how we could help.
Contact our Alba Claims team today
Complete our online enquiry form or contact us on 0131 550 0401 to find out how we could help.
*Other costs could be payable.
**Claims are referred to our panel of solicitors.
“Alba Claims is an innovative way for businesses to pursue commercial claims on a no win no fee basis. Businesses are often unable to pursue claims either because the cost of litigation is too high or they consider that they can deploy their finances for a better return elsewhere. Alba Claims can help address this with their no win no fee mechanism.”
Keith Barbour, CEO, Mid & East Lothian Chamber of Commerce