Would this be worth pursuing

[alexsmith2709]

I had a customer who owes me around £3000 + interest. The invoices were all to a UK limited company. The company is now under different ownership to when the invoices were due. The previous owner did not dispute any invoices but before selling the company went off radar and stopped responding to everyone (including his staff, all of which have since found other jobs, but none were ever made redundant or officially quit). The company no longer operates at its old address and the registered address is an accountant.
I started chasing this debt before the company was sold and letters and copies of the invoices have been sent to the registered address, addressed to both the old and new owner, the old owners home address, and the new owners home address and i have had no response. These letters have been sent by me and also by a debt recovery company.
There is no email address or phone to use, the company isnt doing any business any more and i have suspended the companies house strike off action due to them not filing accounts. The only details i have are the new owners name, personal address and registered address. The registered address did not change from the old owner to new, so it is still the same accountant.

In peoples experience is this going to be worth pursuing through the courts or will i just be wasting money? The company clearly has no interest in paying or even responding to any letters and the standard solicitor letter through the debt collection agency did not scare them in to paying.
I happen to know that this company owes a lot of people a lot of money and i am one of the smallest creditors, nobody else has managed to get any money yet, but i do not know how far they have gone with their claims.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

How was it sold? As a going concern (limited company et al)?

If it was, the debt is still with the business, despite the new owners. CHase it through small claims, but use the correct procedure.

 

[dylanmarlais]

It may well be that the company has no money. So, no. It's not worth pursuing. You can download their last accounts from Companies House.

It's always worth doing a credit check on a company before providing goods and services. Even then, a company could go bust, of course.

 

[AndreasC]

It sounds as though it's not worth chasing as if you could go to the small courts and they agree the money be paid, given they have not money, what would you get?

 

[eteb3]

I can't comment on practicalities, but you (and I) have a statutory right to inspect the register of members at the registered office, and to have a copy. That will tell you who controls the company, if you don't already know, which may help piece things together a bit more.

It also depends what you mean by "sold the company". By the sounds of things the whole biz was transferred to a new company. Obvs you can't pursue the new company!

But since the first company itself is the seller of the biz (the shareholders don't sell the biz) it's relatively usual to have a pile of cash/assets from the sale sit inside the first company, to be eked out as dividends over a period of time, or the co buys commercial property as an investment, etc.

So assuming it was sold for a good chunk of cash (and newco directors may tell you, or newco cap table may give it away), I'd think there's a good chance the first co has assets worth pursuing.

A CCJ against the first co will knacker the directors' credit rating, so they may have a suitable incentive to pay up. Or may not.