General Debt Recovery Advice for Information Required to Pursue a Debt

When it is necessary to commence pre-litigation / post-litigation action against a Customer / Debtor, you will be required to provide us with information, which will greatly enhance your chances of recovering the debt outstanding which is due and owing to you.

Requirements:

• Full Name of the proposed Defendant.
• Full Postal Address of Defendant’s Property / Business Address.
• Defendant’s Date of Birth (if known), when requesting Judgment for Claimant (in default).

What is meant by “Full Name”?

• Individual – the full unabbreviated name including Title (Mr / Mrs / Dr etc. e.g. Mr John Andrew Smith.
• Individual Trading Under Another Name – as above, plus the full name under which he / she is trading e.g.Mr John Andrew Smith t/a Smith Landscapes.
• Partnership – (other than a Limited Liability Partnership [LLP]), the full name of the Business followed by “a Firm”.
• Registered Company / LLP – the full name of the Company or Partnership followed by Ltd / Plc or LLP.
• Any other Company / Corporation – its full name and any suffix if appropriate.

If you do not know all the required information, where can it be obtained from?

When you initially enter into a new Contract / Agreement / Arrangement with your client, it is imperative that you obtain as much correct information about them as possible (D.O.B.); are they an Individual; an Individual t/a; last known Address; Property Address; Correspondence Address; Business Address etc).

Useful sources to obtain the above information can be obtained from the following:

• Individual – details maybe found on the Electoral Roll / register
• Registered Companies – details can be obtained for free from Companies House
• Full Postal Address / Post Code – details can be obtained free of charge from The Royal Mail
• Gone Away / Not Known at Address – we have a strong standing relationship with Enquiry / Tracing Agents we use to see if the Debtor has laid down a financial trail at an alternative address.

So why should you provide this information?

Firstly, to ensure that we are suing the correct entity. If we are provided with the incorrect information and a Defence is received advising we have sued the wrong individual, or the address is incorrect, we will be required to make an application to the court to amend the claim form and re-serve it. All of this comes at a cost, which would need to be borne by you, resulting in a further delay in the litigation process and ultimately in recovering the monies due and owing to you.

(We therefore recommend that you complete the enclosed “Instruction Sheet” to avoid this happening at all).

Secondly, to ensure that any Judgment registered against the Defendant at the Registry Trust is correct and assists when the Judgment is enforced through the most appropriate enforcement option, we recommend to you.

Do I need to have any concerns about Data Protection Act / General Data Protection Regulation?

This will not cause you a problem. You are allowed to supply such information to the court for the purposes of making a County Court Claim and / or to comply with the Civil Procedure Rules, e.g. the Defendant’s Date of Birth (if known) when requesting Judgment for Claimant (in default).