Debt Recovery costs

Our hourly rates for single debts to be recovered are £225 plus VAT (@20%). The amount charged to recover your debt will depend upon the amount of time spent.

As an example, for Stage One, the fee is likely to be no more than one hour of work at the above hourly rate.

To progress to the end of Stage Two and secure a judgment in an uncontested matter, the additional fee is likely to be no more than three hours of work at the above hourly rate.   Circumstances that may increase this fee can be found in the Disputed Claims section below.

Court fees are also determined by the value of your claim and are currently set at:

Where you have a number of regular debts to be recovered then we are able to offer pricing in the following way:

Stage One – Pre action

For this initial stage, there is a fixed fee price of £50 plus VAT (@20%) to send the initial letter to the other side to notify them of the debt owed.  If, after this letter has been sent, there is no response from the opponent and you decide you do not wish to proceed then there are no other charges payable.  If we recover payment there is then an additional 10% payment to us of the monies recovered, up to £500. 

Stage Two – Court judgment

Our fees to complete Stage Two are as below:

Please note our fees as shown are exclusive of VAT (@20%), which would need to be paid on top.

Court fees are also determined by the value of your claim and are currently set at:

Stage Three – Enforcement

We would charge a £75 fixed fee per enforcement plus VAT (@20%).  The High Court Enforcement Officer would also charge fees in the event of an unsuccessful recovery, which would be an abortive fee of £75 plus VAT (@20%).

For all claims there may also be interest and Late Payment Compensation payable; if this is the case you will keep the interest that is paid, while we will keep the Late Payment Compensation which is payable as below:

*Please note this amount is payable per invoice.  For example, if you are due payment on 4 invoices of £400, totalling £1,600, your Late Payment Compensation would be £160 (4 x £40) opposed to £70.

What is Late Payment Compensation?

Our revolutionary pricing model is designed to keep the costs to you at a minimum at a time when you are already facing financial challenges due to unpaid invoices.  One reason we are able to keep these costs low is due to the charging of Late Payment Compensation which forms part of the payment that your debtor pays and we retain once the matter is resolved.  By doing this, we are removing the costly hourly rates charged by some firms, taking on the risk ourselves as we therefore only receive payment once the debt has been repaid.    

Costs example

As you can see, the total cost of attempting to recover your debts is variable depending on the size of your claim.  In order to summarise, we have provided a working example below based on an undisputed claim with a total debt of £2,500 from one invoice.  While this debt is from one invoice, it is one of a series of debts to be recovered over a month, therefore the multiple debts to be recovered fee structure applies.  The Court fees in this case, which are payable by you, would be £115 and would be recoverable on a successful outcome:

If successful recovery of the debt after the initial stage only:

• £50 fixed fee plus VAT (@20%)
• £250 plus VAT (@20%) – 10% uplift of the total debt
• Total payment = £360 including VAT (@20%)

In this situation you will have recovered your debt and retained £2,140 of the same.  You would also retain any interest on the payment, while we would retain the Late Payment Compensation of £70.

If successful recovery after judgment is made by the Court:

• £300 charge based on successful outcome plus VAT (@20%)
• Total payment = £360 including VAT (@20%)

In this situation you will have recovered your debt and retained £2,140 of the same.  You would also retain any interest on the payment, while we would retain the Late Payment Compensation of £70.

If successful recovery only after enforcement is required:

• £300 charge based on successful outcome plus VAT (@20%)
• £75 enforcement fixed fee plus VAT (@20%)
• Total payment = £450 including VAT (@20%)

In this situation you will have recovered your debt and retained £2,050 of the same.  You would also retain any interest on the payment, while we would retain the Late Payment Compensation of £70.

Where you have a bulk of regular instructions then we are able to offer a bespoke pricing package based on the multiple instructions model, but at a lower rate at every stage. Please contact Brian Kirby, Head of Debt Recovery, to discuss your requirements.

After the issue of proceedings the debtor may dispute the claim and make a counter claim, at which point additional fees would be applicable based on our hourly rate structure set out below. 

Andy Munden is the Managing Partner and Chartered Legal Executive at Warner Goodman, while Brian Kirby is Head of our Debt Recovery team. In the majority of cases, you will be working with Brian; however, there are additional members of the team who can assist with specific or unique issues.