We hope this newsletter finds you well and coping with all the changes we are currently going through. We are still very much business as usual and currently have a small bubble of staff based in the office with the rest of our staff working from home. We have been busy catching up with some of you on video calls. If you would like a review meeting or catch up call, or if you or your team need any training on debt manager or the debt recovery process we are pleased to be able to do this via Microsoft Teams or Zoom, please just email: clientservices@legalrecoveries.com to arrange this.
We said goodbye to our credit controller Val Wilcock who retired last month after 11 years with us. We are grateful to her many years of loyal service and hard work and will miss her. We welcome Tara Hodges to the role who has joined credit control from our operations team.
We would like to say another big thank you to our staff and clients for their continued support in these difficult times and also extend a warm welcome to new clients. Read on for further updates regarding changes to legislation for Winding up Petitions due to Covid-19.
Update on Winding up petitions
There has been an update to the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act made 24/9/2020 to relieve pressure on businesses dealing with coronavirus.
Statutory demands and winding-up petitions will continue to be restricted until 31 December 2020 to protect companies from aggressive creditor enforcement action as a result of coronavirus related debts. Follow the link below for full details.
Court Listings
The courts have been busy catching up with the delays from the pandemic and by holding remote hearings the listings are moving quite quickly so we don’t always have long to obtain your instructions. Please keep your eye out for these cases and respond to our requests for information as soon as possible so that there is no prejudice to the claim.
Reminder that High Court Enforcement Agents (HCEA) – Restrictions were lifted from 24th August 2020
As you may be aware legislation was laid on Friday 19th June by the government making statutory amendments to the Taking Control of Goods and Certification of Enforcement agents (Amendments) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020. This came into effect on 24th June 2020.
The amendments are as follows:
- Amendment to Regulations 10 and 23 of the TCG2013 will prescribe that the emergency that applies to the restriction on the taking control of goods by enforcement agents will end on 23rd August (in line with the stay on possession proceedings).
- An amendment to Regulation 9 of TCG 2013 will extend the duration of the validity of notices of enforcement for taking control of goods that are due to expire before 23rd August (thereby automatically extending writs and warrants of control); and
- An amendment to Regulation 7 of the Certificate of Enforcement Agents (CEA) Regulations 2014 will allow for the extension of an enforcement agent certificates that are due to expire before 23rd August.
The main point to note from the latest amendment is the extension of the emergency period which restricts writ of control enforcement at residential addresses until 24th August. Due to the spike in COVID in lockdown areas, all enforcement for commercial matters will not be visited in the restricted postcodes whilst the area remains in lockdown.
New cases
We are encouraging our clients to continue sending cases as normal. We still anticipate that once everything reverts to “business as usual”, there maybe a further uplift of instructions across the industry which could cause a considerable backlog at the courts. This way we can help to avoid potential lengthy delays.
Significantly, we have also been obtaining many payments in full and payment arrangements over the last few months due to our continued outbound activity of calling, messaging, emailing and lettering efforts.
Outstanding Instructions
We would greatly appreciate it if you get time to go through your outstanding instructions on workflow. If you need any help or advice please get in touch with the client services team.
Contact
When emailing the office, please use the team email addresses rather than (or as well as) individual ones, just to ensure that your email gets dealt with swiftly if the member of staff you are emailing is not available.
- Legal: legalteam@legalrecoveries.com
- Pre Legal: recoveriesteam@legalrecoveries.com
- Client Services: clientservices@legalrecoveries.com
- Finance: finance@legalrecoveries.com
- IT: it@legalrecoveries.com
We will endeavour to keep you updated with any significant changes. Please do not hesitate to contact client services with any concerns.
