Voluntary Insolvency

[Tagk9]

Hi, a LTD security company i have done some work for has gone into voluntary insolvency and owes me about £1,500.
I know he has money in the bank and is still possibly traiding. We were not pre informed he was going to do this just told that a different company now has the contract we work on, i only found out as i contacted him to ask where a payment was and he told me on the phone that he stoped traiding yesterday but had not told us.

Thanks for any advice on this matter.

 

[Bri]

You now become a creditor with all the others I'm sorry to say.Luckily, and I mean this sincerely is not much to lose in comparison with some of the other stories you'll hear, however its still an important amount to you.

 

[Tagk9]

Thank you for your reply,

Its the second one that has done it to me this week, luckly this is a small amount the other one is £8,000, (this one has been forced into it tho)

 

[akirk]

You don't say what you do, but perhaps it is a wake up call to bill more frequently / get more money up front?

Alasdair

 

[Bri]

Unfortunatly the last government made it too easy for companies to fold and enter insolvency leaving people like you and me to wipe up the mess on the floor.

I advise what we do is stage invoice, or some deposit upfront. We now explain our reason for this to be insuring ourselves in the current climate against instances like you have experienced. Connaught is a prime example of a stable company going to the wall this week.

 

[aitch1952]

First of all find out if he has gone into voluntary liquidation and if he's using a so called "financial consultant or whatever they label themselves" who's only concern is to mitigate their clients position, he has to owe a certain amount of money to make it worth their while (the more the better) and they will have assisted him shuffling finances to accomplish this. And it would seem that's the case if he's carrying on trading. These can be ordinary unqualified people who are just good with numbers and have a ruthless streak, though they are bound to act with a registered solvency practitioner who only receives the information they give him. They are supposed to try to arrange a deal with creditors of whom a consensus must agree to the terms offered. This is usually a percentage of the outstanding debts excluding preferential creditors.
If that is not the case and the company has gone into liquidation there should be an official receiver and statutory notices should have been posted in relevant press and a creditors meeting called. It doesn't matter if it's a small amount or not you should go for him, it might be worthwhile finding out who the other creditors are and contacting them to find out the overall situation and if he's done a deal with any of them. If not, remember, there is strength in numbers. Although the company will have limited liabilities it depends on whether any of the company assets were shifted, and when they were shifted as to the legality of the liquidation. Their hope is the big creditors will swallow it and the small ones too scared of costs to chase it. I have been in business all my life and had this one pulled on me too many times to remember, but I always made sure they were genuinely skint before I'd let them off the hook, usually they were jack the lads having too good a time on creditors and the banks hard earned money and saw an easy way out. Take my advice, you might not get your money but make him earn it. Keep working hard and be more careful in future and you'll be ok I wish you Good luck. Harry

 

[toddle2u]

and the banks hard earned money

I had to laugh at that!!

 

[aitch1952]

Sorry about that, slip of the keyboard, but somebody somewhere HAS worked hard for the money the banks lend just not them.