Manufacturing
A refrigerated transport business undertook various deliveries for a company which later changed their identity. A document was provided to our client to confirm the new entity would be responsible for the unpaid account of the prior company.
After 2 years of attempting to recover an outstanding debt of $15,000 the matter was sent to us. There had been a number of staff changes at the debtor company during this time so not all information was easily obtainable or verifiable.
During the relatively short time the matter was with us, there had been a settlement offer of $5,000 made. This was not accepted. We discussed this matter with our client and recommended the best course of action would be for a detailed legal letter of demand be sent to the debtor outlining the details of this debt.
We provided information to our clients’ legal representatives, including a timeline of the debt, correspondence between ourselves and the debtor as part of our debt recovery report. Our client agreed to accept a settlement offer of $15,000 to finalise this matter. Whilst this matched the original debt amount, there were our fees and legal costs to be deducted from these funds.
In the end, our client recovered approximately 70% of the original debt amount within 4 months of engaging us. This was a much better outcome for our client than the original 33% offered and within an acceptable timeframe given the additional involvement of lawyers.
It should also be noted this matter played out during Stage 2 and Stage 3 restrictions due to Covid-19.