London House News

Following Mike King joining us last month, we now have 38 Franchise Owners who between them own 48 regional offices and cover 63 postcode territories. A number of our Franchise Owners have more than one territory and cover a range of postcode areas for us. We have offices as far apart as Exeter & Glasgow and provide a full UK coverage.

We are delighted to advise that following a successful tender process we have been appointed to the panel of TLT Solicitors in Bristol. We will be undertaking a variety of instructions on their behalf (the work is already flowing in) but will be focusing predominantly on trace and process serving

You asked us........

"We are currently in the banks half yearly reporting period and the City is braced for a big dip in profits, largely due to PPI. Bearing in mind your client base, does this have any effect on London House?".

The Payment Protection Insurance mis-selling scandal will no doubt have a huge bearing on the half yearly results of the UK banks. Already we have seen Lloyds, RBS and Barclays show sliding results. HSBC have bucked the trend with a slight increase in profits but there is no doubt that it has been a gruelling six month period. Massive provisions have been set aside to offset or cover the position but it will have long running effects. Further pressure for the banks comes in the form of lending targets, job losses, branch sales and severe financial pressures among the eurozone fringe countries. It is not a happy picture.

The PPI issue in itself does not have any direct bearing on the work we do here or indeed our relationships with our banking clients. As with any business in the spotlight and under financial constraints, the banks need to be aware of costs and look at how best to reduce losses or maximise profits. It is in this way that we can help them directly. The banks continue to ask us to trace "gone away" debtors, find assets, serve documents, interview debtors and recover assets. The more successful we are, the better the impact on our client's balance sheet. In these pressured times, our work often proves to be a cost effective course of action.

Focus on.......Trace & Discreet Investigations

When a client has lost contact with a debtor, we are often asked to trace the debtor's whereabouts and then try and investigate what assets they may have without raising their suspicions.

As you will know, trace is one of our areas of expertise and our Franchise Owners are highly skilled in field trace work. We often overcome a number of difficulties in locating people who do not want to be found, but we remain determined and our success rate of c70% confirms our abilities.

When found, we may be asked to investigate the debtor's assets. Obviously, this would normally be their residential property but we also look out for such things as vehicles, other property investments, business interests etc. Where possible we will also seek to gather information from neighbours in an effort to perhaps confirm our thoughts or just provide us with a little snippet of detail. It should be remembered, of course, that there are also occasions when there is no new information or details to find!

What's in a name?

Following a bank repossession of a property, we were instructed by the bank's solicitors to trace the former owner and ascertain whether she had any other assets as there was a shortfall following the sale.

In trying to locate the subject, enquiries into the name given became difficult because the bank's understanding was that she was married and that all correspondence was in the matrimonial name. It subsequently became apparent that the subject wasn't married and only used the name as an alias. We therefore tried to trace the subject using her maiden name and established several people in the UK as possibilities, from which we narrowed the list down to 3.

Further extensive enquiries followed and after a series of discreet investigations at the appropriate locations we managed to obtain a positive match. Our enquiries tell us that she owns the property (in her maiden name) as well as other assets. The bank can now consider their position in light of this information thanks to the strengths of a field force investigation.

And so it continues!

So, the News of the World issues have been knocked off the front pages by crashing stock markets, more Eurozone problems and now riots throughout the country. Where will it all stop?

Furthermore, according to our friends at Begbies Traynor, 5179 companies in the UK were facing critical problems in the second quarter of this year representing liabilities of nearly £60bn. Their Red Flag report, issued in July, tells us that the number of companies in critical condition shows a 12% increase on the previous quarter. As possibly expected, the sectors which have continued to suffer are retail, hotels & accommodation, and travel & tourism.