Debt Recovery
Strategies to turn your hard work into cash
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Bill quickly
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Remind your customer that you went the extra mile
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Reminders must be timely and personal
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Invite feedback
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After two reminders without feedback, escalate
Bill quickly
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The best time to bill is as soon as you have done the job.
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What you have done is fresh in the mind of your customer
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The customer’s gratitude for what you have done is now at it highest point. In a few days they will be be thinking, “That job really wasn’t that big”, then in a few more days, “I could have done a lot of that myself.”
Remind your customer that you went the extra mile
Reminders must be timely and personal
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If your bill asks for payment in 7 days, don’t wait for 30 days to send your first reminder.
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A reminder with a short personal note from the person who actually did the work or the person with the relationship with the customer is much more effective than a nameless “Account Rendered”.
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A short personal email is often effective.
After two reminders, escalate There is little point in continuing to send reminders if the customer is not communicating with you. It is now important that your business has a clear and easy process to escalate recovery of money that is owed to it.
Invite Feedback
Invite your customers to contact you if they have any concerns about the work or the bill.
On the second reminder, invite your customer to indicate when you can expect their payment.
on April 5th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
I love receiving the documents [LawPacks]. They are fantastic!!!!!!
thankyou so much,
Dezi George
Lawyer
on August 6th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I just have a quick question. I loaned someone some money in October last year on the premise they would pay me back over a period of 6 months i.e. by end of April. I sent them a letter outlining my request and asked them to contact me.I received a part-payment in April. I have not received any further money or contact from them regarding terms of repayment. I approached them personally in June this year and suggested they pay me back $10.00 per fortnight.Very reasonable terms. I have not recieved any further money and no contact has been made.The amount owing is $400.00. This may not seem a lot but I am only a part-time employee as is my husband and we have a family to raise. thanks fory your time Patricia W
Response:
I suggest that you make formal demand with a draft “Court / Small Claims Tribunal Documents” attached to show that you are serious about recovery.
Our Debt Recovery LawPacks are an effective way of recovering small debts.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on August 7th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I have another question that you could perhaps answer briefly (naturally the mitigating circumstances are more detailed). We are looking to bring our lessor to the magistrates court are need to know one thing before engaging a solicitor.
Can we take legal action against them irrespective of the lease we have signed? We were only offered a residential lease for a business premises that by all intents and purposes should be a work and live tenancy agreement for one tenant. Instead there is a tenanted flat upstairs and a business premises downstairs namely us.
Reason-
We moved into the premises and there was a terrible leak that flooded the floor (this was documented on the RAC tenancy form and the agents own remedy to fix notice (form))and we could not start or complete an office fit out without the leak fixed as it would have ruined the floor that we needed to lay as the premises is brand new (after 2.5 months we did lay a floor as we had been told the leak was fixed and it did ruin it and needed to be relayed). Very briefly it took them ‘4′ months to fix the leak and we have only just completed our office fit out, We have been without any way of functioning as a business during this time and the lessor (who incidentally is also the developer) has agreed 1 months compensation only. We have naturally have had loss of earnings for all of this period and paid rent for the whole ‘4′ months. Sue under the grounds of ‘negligence’ and perhaps other grounds also, incorrect lease supplied etc, it is unapproved by the council.
Any quick help that you can give us with this would be greatly appreciated.
Response:
Unfortunately there is no quick answer this question. Advice from a specialist landlord and tenant solicitor (with experience in related litigation) is recommended.
There may be specific retail shop leases legislation to consider.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on February 9th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I have a question regarding the other end of debt recovery. I recently was told that I owed Centrelink money as I was overpaid in youth allowance. I have since then organised a payment scheme and am regularly having payments deducted from my account. I have heard that if I had been receiving the Family Tax benefit then any money that I received from my tax return could be taken straight out of my account to aid in the paying back the debt. However I have gotten mixed responses as to what happens with Youth Allowance debts. I am just enquiring as to whether Centrelink have the right to take my earnings from the tax return if it was not outlined in the payment plan.
Any enlightenment on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Matt
Response:
I simply suggest that you ask Centrelink for evidence of Authority (probably via a section in their Act) to deduct these monies.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on March 24th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Hello Andrew….. good to see lots more progress with your product development.
Do you have a basic dispute resolution procedure i.e. a format for arbitration - who is an independent arbitrator, who pays costs…those types of issues set out in plain English.
Regards
JMB
Response:
No sorry we don’t.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on July 19th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Hello Legal on Line,
We have been threatened with “legal action” from an accounting firm for non payment of an account $1,247.40. We wrote them a letter asking them to explain why we should pay, due to the accounting firm being incompetent, for not providing any work for us on time and for not responding to any of our calls requesting work to be finalised. They didn’t even respond to our letter! They made their first call to us regarding the outstanding account last Friday. If their chosen avenue is “legal action” does it end up in the Small Claims Tribunal or similar? We are a small company and cannot afford the grief - however we can afford to pay the bill!
Response:
Yes, an action for that amount would be launched in the Small Claims Tribunal (Magistrates Court) or simular. If you are a company, a Statutory Demand for payment can sometimes be used, demanding payment in 14 days or an application for your winding up will commence.
You could consider making a complaint to the professional body that the Accountants belong to.
At the end of the day, simply paying the bill and moving on may be the best commercial approach.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on October 16th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Hi,
I have been blacklisted on a loan I go. I had a lot of problems and issues paying it, and it was close to 100 days overdue. I kept calling the company and giving them updates as to everything, in the end, on the final month they told me to make a payment.
I called on 12th to organise payment
They tell me to make payment by 26th
Loan come in on 17th [I’m not sure what you mean]
Blacklisted on 19th
I called up to make payment on 23rd and found out I’d been blacklisted…
Is there anything I can do? I’m only young and having a bad credit rating could really cause problems.
Response:
The key question is: Did the lender vary the loan agreement (via the phone call on the 12th) to give you until the 26th to make the final payment? Probably not.
In any event, you had defaulted on the strict terms of the loan and therefore the lender is at liberty (assuming you signed privacy “waivers” with the loan documents, which is usually the case) to share that information with the credit community.
All I can suggest is that you go to the lender and plead for them to remove the notation (given that you have now repaid the loan) or at least add a notation to it that the default was remedied.
Regards
Onlinelegal
on November 10th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Hi,
Someone is not paying me back the money they owe me. It is a very small amount of money and the deadline for payback has far exceeded. I want to go for a legal action. I have proofs of emails of him promising me to payback.
I would like to what is the legal procedure to get back small amount of money he owes me. I am aware that this may incur some legal charges too. I heard he will have to pay my legal charges if I win the case. What should I do? Can you please advise?
on January 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Greetings,
I left a reply on 13/01/2008 but have not received an email back.Briefly, I loaned a former work coolegue $1500.00 two (2) years ago. I have written, phoned, spoken to him at his current workplace and got Engieering Manager involved, all to no avail I would greatly appreciiate your advice and where to find “Court/Small Claims Tribuneral forms, thankyou. Have a pleasant day.
Kind regards,
Peter Grant
on January 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Greetings,
I left a reply on 13/01/2008 but have not received an email back.Briefly, I loaned a former work collegue $1500.00 two (2) years ago and I have not received one (1) dollar of this outstanding loan . I have written, phoned, spoken to him at his current workplace and got Engieering Manager involved, all to no avail I would greatly appreciiate your advice and where to find “Court/Small Claims Tribuneral forms, thankyou. Have a pleasant day.
Kind regards,
Peter Grant