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Peter Bland heads our debt recovery team and has nearly 20 years of legal experience. Peter is an Associate at Scott Rees & Co, as well as a member of the Association of Costs Lawyers and a Graduate member of Chartered Legal Executives.
You can find below the costs for our commercial debt recovery work for claims up to the value of £100,000 in England and Wales. For debt recovery claims with values higher than £100,000, these can made available on request. The costs below are for claims with unpaid invoices that are not disputed. For debt recovery claims that are disputed, we can discuss any further work required and provide revised costs.
1. Simple letter before action (LBA)
2. Fully compliant Pre Action Protocol letter
For the letter before action (LBA), we can produce one within 24 hours of your instruction provided we have received all of the information we need to process it. In our LBA, we will usually instruct the debtor to pay their debt in full within 14 days, but we’ll discuss this with you first.
As for our fully compliant Pre-Action Protocol letter, we can produce this within 24-48 hours depending on the complexity of your debt recovery claim and the volume of accompanying documents. The Pre-Action Protocol letter will give the debtor a minimum of 30 days to pay their debt, but can be extended to 90 days depending on the complexity of your case.
For all debt recovery claims with values up to £100,000, we will issue this via Money Claim Online (MCOL), an online court portal. By using this service, it ensures that our clients will not be charged as much as if we issued proceedings via the normal county court.
The table below shows the MCOL court fees and our fixed solicitors’ costs, both of which are payable if the debtor pays the claim without dispute. These costs include us completing and submitting the claim form and the particulars of claim.
| Claim amount | MCOL court fee | Our fee (plus VAT) | Recoverable fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to £300 | £35 | £100 | £75 |
| £300 – £500 | £50 | £100 | £85 |
| £501 – £1,000 | £70 | £145 | £130 |
| £1,001 – £1,500 | £80 | £200 | £270 |
| £1,501 – £3,000 | £115 | £250 | £355 |
| £3,001 – £5,000 | £205 | £350 | £535 |
| £5,001 – £10,000 | £455 | £450 | £860 |
| £10,001 – £25,000 | 5% of the claim value | £650 | 4.5% of the claim value plus £100 |
| £25,001 – £50,000 | 5% of the claim value | £750 | 4.5% of the claim value plus £100 |
| £50,001 – £75,000 | 5% of the claim value | £850 | 4.5% of the claim value plus £100 |
| £75,001 – £100,000 | 5% of the claim value | £950 | 4.5% of the claim value plus £100 |
We may charge an additional fee for claims with values exceeding £100,000 or if it is considered a complex claim. If this applies to your claim, then we will advise you appropriately when known.
The defendant will have 14 days from when they receive the claim form and/or particulars of claim to respond. If the defendant acknowledges it within the 14 days then they will have another 14 days to file a defence. If they do not respond in time then you can request court judgment for the claim debt.
If the debtor does not respond to your claim within 14 days upon receipt, then you can request for judgment against them and for the court to order them to pay their debt. We will charge the following costs for requesting judgment on your behalf, which are recoverable from the debtor should they pay their debt.
A request for judgment that is submitted on the online court service MCOL will be processed within 48 hours.
| Claim amount | Our fee (plus VAT) | Recoverable costs |
|---|---|---|
| £25 – £5,000 | £250 | £22 – £55 |
| £5,001+ | £400 | £30 – £70 |
After successfully obtaining judgment against the debt, we will always advise you on the most appropriate form of enforcement depending on your claim and situation. You will be made fully aware of any costs and additional costs for the type of enforcement of judgment should we reach this stage. Please contact us for more information as we can advise more appropriately once we have a better understanding of your claim and situation.
