It can be troubling to deal with debtors that seem to be very happy giving you the runaround.
These untrustworthy previous clients might be evading a form of debt that has built up over the years via interest. It might be that they’ve moved around for quite some time trying to evade your litigation.
This can prevent you from settling certain accounts and can be a bad show all around. There are certain things you can do however, but it’s important to be firm and quick about these matters.
We’d recommend the following:
Try To Come To An Amicable Solution
It might be tempting to throw down the hammer of justice immediately, but that isn’t your job just yet. Try to come to an amicable solution in order to resolve the debt.
This might mean proposing debt settlement willingness at a reduced payment rate or setting up a considerable payment plan.
The person in question may have zero intent to keep up with this, but offering that first hand initially might just help you retrieve some of your money now rather than later.
Be supremely clear about what the person in question can expect if your requests are ignored and mocked. When you have explicitly laid out your terms in writing, you can take your case to the local courts and have the strength of the judges favour to back you.
Trying to come to an amicable solution shows care, a willingness to try and listen to reason. Also, judges often look kindly on those who have claimed once with respect, care and documentation for the courtroom.
This candid yet cordial manner can lead to better results next time around because you become a trusted corporate face. This can certainly all work in your favour, so we’d recommend doing so.
Locate Using Professional Services
It’s unlikely that your debtor has dropped off the grid in an effort to hide from you. Changing address, contact numbers and email addresses is very easy to do, but that doesn’t mean they have won.
Using professional services, such as those equipped for finding people in the UK, can help you trace a certain someone using information on the public record, via landlord registrations and lettings, as well as the public credit report of the individual in question.
These means you can provide this information to the courts, and potentially embark upon debt recovery measures or serve the guilty party with a court date.
If they fail to attend this court date, then the judge can issue a county court judgement against the person in question, allowing you to seize assets and slowly begin regaining that which was initially lost.
From there, you can blacklist the person when you have achieved all the profitability. These professional services are by far the most superior option for finding your debtors quickly, and help out thousands of businesses each year.
Enact Credit Score Checks
Of course, it would be a sad consequence of this if you chose not to learn from the situation at hand. The next time you take on someone with a financial plan of some kind, checking their credit score and reliability can be the quintessential way forward.
This means that you will gain a full, 360-degree view of that which could influence your business decisions. Those with little credit history or with a history of late payment might not be your first interest, or you might offer them even more expensive or stringent plans.
For example, when selling jewellery, you might ask for a large deposit from someone with a bad credit score before selling them the payment plan for the item. This helps cover your back, and saves you plenty of time and lost finances in the recovery effort.
Train Staff To Detect Fraudsters
Unfortunately, fraud is still a multi-billion pound annual industry. This means that plenty of fraud takes place under the noses of many staff members without them knowing.
Forgeries of notes, chequebooks and other documentation can be quite refined, despite modern methods of combating this. For this reason, it can be very important to train your staff in the latest and greatest scams or false information reports.
This will help them raise the alarm almost immediately to prevent more thievery or scamming from taking place.
This will also give staff the confidence to say no and detect patterns with certain customers. The more of these people you can blacklist from your firm, the more profitable you can stay in the long term.
With these small efforts, dealing with debtors that have zero intention to pay can either be avoided, or spoken to, allowing the situation to be avoided as many times out of ten as possible.
