People cannot repay their loans sometimes because they are going through hardship. Even though it’s difficult for the debtors, it’s, in the same way, challenging for the moneylender. Each year, most companies encounter huge losses from non-paying clients.
As a result, we force them to heavily invest in a means of scraping back the money that’s owed to them. They mostly subcontracted this unfriendly task to the debt collection agencies, whose work is to hunt down defaulters on behalf of the company. Resolute debt recovery company is one of the best that can help you in the debt recovery process.
Under the debt recovery, there are three steps which are:
- Know who your debtor is.
- A court judgment
- Enforcement of the debt
1) Know Your Debtor
This is the first step to honestly understand your debtor, their reason for not paying their loan, and their requirements. The fundamental question you should ask yourself is who is your debtor? Probability is whether you lent the money to a business or an individual. For instance;
- i) Your debtor is an individual and has a debt over $15,000, then they will have to file for bankruptcy. You must be able to explain to the person that the advantage of bankruptcy is that it stops the accumulation of interest and it also freezes legal charges.
- ii) Your debtor is a company. Here you must learn a couple of things like;
- Financial circumstances of that company, for instance, attachment-available properties and income.
- The directors of that company.
- The type of assets the company has countrywide.
Having a personal guarantee for a particular loan is an added advantage. But in case an individual or a company has no personal guarantee,
If the person or company owing your money simply has none, the measures taken are therefore not useful. That is the reason you need lawful help and perhaps even a debt collector to find the solutions to your questions.
What happens if you make a civil claim even if the debtor has no money and no assets?
You have all the rights to sue the loan defaulter, but economically it is not viable. To make that claim, you’ll spend a lot of money and you might not recover either the original debt or this cash. Alternatively, what you are supposed to do is.
- Discuss another payment strategy that suits you and the defaulter
- Find out if that person or that company truly has got no funds
2) Getting A Court Judgment For The Debt
Shall the above fail? Then the next step is getting a judgment from a court or tribunal order to compel payments. Under this category, there are two situations to consider:
i. Your Debtor Owes You below $20,000
Under this category, Small Claims Tribunal is your finest resource because you don’t need to hire a lawyer so that he/she can file a claim, and also lodging fees are not expensive.
There are some disadvantages, I.e.
- Although you and your debtor agreed to $30,000 tops, the limit amount is $20,000
- The Small Claims Tribunals do not listen to many cases. For instance, loan cases are left out.
Your finest alternative would be to file a claim with the Small Claims Tribunals. That’s because lodging fees are inexpensive and you do not need to hire a lawyer to file a claim at the Small Claims Tribunals.
There are some limitations:
- The limit on the claim amount is $20,000 unless there is consent from both sides to raise the limit to $30,000.
- The Small Claims Tribunals however do not listen to many cases. For instance, they leave loan cases out.
ii. Your Debtor Owes You above $20,000
Under this category, file a civil claim with the court of law. Even if you can present yourself, consider hiring a lawyer. This is because lawyers know how to outline debtors.
In addition, they know the best approaches that are appropriate under different circumstances, so they will advise you to concern the greatest profitable result.
First of all, the lawyer will have to refer to a letter of demand before filing the claim. The demand letter should never be that much costly, however, it may not be insufficient to force the other side to pay the debt.
3) Enforcement Of The Debt
Even though you get that court judgment or order of the Tribunal, it is not final. If the defaulter still doesn’t pay up, the next step is enforcement measures.
What If Your Debtor Still Refuses To Pay?
Below are the options to take:
- Order Of Tribunal–Small Claims Tribunal
Since the order of the tribunal has a time limit written on it and your defaulter has agreed to pay, then they will have to respect this deadline and pay the debt.
- Writ Of Seizure And Sale
In case the defaulter refuses to pay, this Writ of Seizure and Sale permits the legal officer to take and sell the defaulter’s properties to recover your debt.
- Writ Of Delivery
Under these circumstances, the court instructs your debtor to transport any movable asset to you.
- Writ Of Possession
They planned this writ for those tenants who do not wish to vacate certain premises. Therefore, they are served the writ of possession to vacate the house of the landlord.
- Examination Of Judgment Debtor
Examination of the judgment debtor is simply a court order which requests your loan defaulter to appear before a judge besides answering questions concerning their assets. The judge can also demand your debtor to show clarifying documents that support their claims.
- Garnishee Proceedings
Let’s say your debtor also lent money to another person who, in this case, is also referred to a third party and he/she is not in a position to give back your money. Then the court has the power to give a garnishee order to the third party requesting them to pay you instead of bidding the original debtor.
- Committal Order
You can sue your debtor if he/she declines to pay back your money or does not follow the instructions of the court order. So, your debtor will be given an additional punishment, for example, steep punishment, or sometimes they can be imprisoned.
- Foreign Enforcement
When your debtor has properties abroad, then your lawyer will help you in implementing the court order in that foreign country. They have to watch out for any discrimination in the area’s authority.
Conclusion
We need hard work to recover your debt, but the outcome is worth the effort. An important thing a debt collector should know is to follow the proper legal procedure. As a result, hire an allowed counsel and hence follow their advice. This increases the chances of getting back your money.