Creditor Pressure
If your company has escalating debts and creditors are chasing you for payment that your company cannot afford, there is little time to waste.
CREDITOR PRESSURE / QUICK LINKS
Under Pressure From Creditors?
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We can help you get the space you need to repay what you owe over time, so your business can recover.
Is your business under mounting pressure from creditors you can’t afford to pay? If so, it’s essential to act now to stop the problem getting any worse. The expert team at Clark Oliver are here to support you. We offer a range of services that can help ease the pressure you’re experiencing and help you find the best way to repay your debts.
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Helping You Find The Right Way Forward
In today’s turbulent economic climate, many businesses are under pressure from creditors, with CCJs, insolvency threats and winding-up petitions being commonplace. If you’re in this situation, you’re not alone – but you do need to act now to ensure the future of your business and protect your directors. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.
Of course, your creditors only want to get back what they’re owed. But if you can’t afford to pay in full, the pressure they’ll put you under can be immensely stressful. This is particularly the case with creditors such as banks, suppliers and HMRC. They’ll often take the legal route to recover debts and, quite simply, will not stop. Having said that, there are almost always opportunities to negotiate – which is where Clark Oliver can help.
Our team of business debt specialists will help you make the right choice to manage your creditors effectively, so you get the time and space you need to get your company back on track. For example, we can delay winding-up orders and bailiff visits by negotiating with your creditors to allow you more time to pay.
Please don’t hesitate to act if you’re struggling to repay your business debts. We offer a free initial consultation where we’ll talk through your options and help you find the best solution. To get in touch, just fill in our quick online form and we’ll get back to you as soon as can.
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Owing Money to HMRC
Tax, National Insurance and VAT are some of the commonest business debts. As a Government body with considerable debt recovery resources at their disposal, it can be difficult to reach a workable agreement with HMRC, especially if you delay getting in touch with them. The longer you leave it, the worse things will get.
However, HMRC do offer solutions for companies who can’t pay their debts, such as Time to Pay arrangements. As the name suggests, this is a form of repayment plan which lets you pay what you owe over a pre-agreed time period.
The key to success when negotiating with HMRC is understanding how they work. Clark Oliver has years of experience of helping clients achieve a positive outcome – and we can even deal with HMRC on your behalf.
Understanding Your Creditors’ Rights
Your creditors have certain rights which they can exercise if you owe them money and can’t repay it. These include debt collection rights, either through direct action or employing debt recovery agencies to work on their behalf. Your debts can also be sold on, usually for a portion of what they’re actually worth, in which case you will owe the money to the buyer instead of the original creditor.
If this happens, or your creditor is working with an agency to get back the debt, you’re still obliged to pay it off. You could find yourself and your directors under considerable pressure, with phone calls, emails, letters and personal visits from agents. Where your debts are secured against assets such as property, vehicles or machinery, these could be seized and sold to help repay the money. If your business needs these assets to continue trading, their seizure could have disastrous consequences.
Where debts are unsecured, such as credit cards and standard business loans, you may receive a formal statutory demand for repayment. Unless you do something about this within 21 days, you could then be hit with a winding-up petition. A statutory demand is a legal document and it’s imperative not to ignore it if you receive one.
Going to Court
Sending a statutory demand is the first stage in a set of legal proceedings to recover your debts. As noted above, the next step is issuing a winding-up petition, which may happen if you don’t repay your debt or negotiate a payment plan with your creditor within 21 days. A winding-up petition effectively asks the court to liquidate your business as the creditor believes it to be insolvent.
Naturally, court proceedings must be avoided where at all possible. Many creditors won’t hesitate to go to court if their demands are ignored, as the costs to do so aren’t especially high and they’re likely to get their money back if your business is liquidated. So, if you get a statutory demand or winding-up petition and you can afford to repay even some of the debt, it’s advisable to do so straightaway to avoid insolvency.
Dealing with Pressure from Creditors
Creditors move quickly and once the pressure starts building up, you could be just a few weeks away from a winding-up order from the court. You have two basic options: try to negotiate with your creditors yourself or ask a business debt specialist like Clark Oliver to help. We can take some of the stress away by liaising with your creditors for you, and working to achieve the best possible outcome.
Hassled by creditors and not sure what to do?
Our expert advisers will discuss your situation in detail and help you decide on the right course of action, so you can get the space you need to repay your debts and continue trading.