Client Gone Into Administration - Help!

[stephenmarsh]

Hi all, hope somebody can give me an idea of where I should begin with this situation!

I am a freelance copywriter, and have worked with a particular client for a couple of years. It is a group, made up of smaller individual companies for each line of business.

I have some invoices with them that became overdue, so I contacted them. I was then told, over the phone, that the company had been acquired by somebody else, and they would need to work out who was responsible for paying the invoices.

After some more research, I can see that the two companies I have due invoices with had administrators appointed on the 12th March. The impression I get is that the companies were bought out of administration by another organisation, which I do have the name of.

I've attempted to get hold of my contact at the original company, but no luck. Should I be contacting the administrators? Should I speak to the new company that made the acquisition?

And - big one - if they acquired the company out of administration, presumably they acquired the debt too?

Any advice, any thoughts, much appreciated.

 

[leemason]

As far as I know if a company is acquired out of administration then the debts are with the old company. I think it would be best for you to contact the administrators. I would have though that they should have contacted you but am not sure whether they have to contact unsecured creditors (which is what you are). It may be that there may be some funds available to pay unsecured creditors although it depends how bad the companies debts got before they went down (and how much they owned secured creditors like banks, etc).

 

[Charlie B ACS]

What do your Terms & Conditions say about the copyright of the articles, if it only passes on payment, then inform them they cannot use the copy, unless of course they pay for the privilege.

If not you can only register your claim with the administrator, and hope for a dividend to be paid. (Most often under 10p in the £ in my experience)

 

[stephenmarsh]

Thanks a lot to both of you for the thoughts.

Today we finally managed to get hold of the administrators and (unsurprisingly...) I hadn't been listed as a creditor. So we're going through the process of proving debt, and once that's done, one day, we may get a very small amount of money back.

Lesson learnt, I guess. I had a suspicious moment with the client a few months back and should've gone with my gut and asked for payment up front from them. I guess when they build up goodwill you want to remain friendly!

My terms don't allow them to use anything, so I'll keep an eye out and make sure they don't. Thanks again.

 

[Mike_Scott]

Did you have a contract with them for any work you did?

 

[Alan R Price]

My terms don't allow them to use anything, so I'll keep an eye out and make sure they don't. Thanks again.

You should get the administrators and new owners to acknowledge your copyright in writing and give you an undertaking that they will not use any of your material that has not been paid for.