August 2012

Recent news has, rightly, been dominated by the Olympics and what a fantastic show it was. Our best ever performance at the Games was surely helped by the public who seemed to become overwhelmingly involved in their desire to be a part of the event. Team GB can be very proud.

In the background, there has been talk of a cut in Base Rate, further revelations about LIBOR, banking fines, and a hint of the next possible "scandal" - packaged bank accounts. Life goes on!

Continuing the Olympics theme, last month we made mention of Rajiv Ouseph, a 25 year old English badminton player currently representing England as the No.1 Singles Player in the UK. Rajiv was selected for the London 2012 Summer Olympics and, whilst playing very well and giving a good account of himself, sadly failed to progress beyond the group stages of the tournament. He won his first match and narrowly lost 21-19 in the third game of the next. It was a great experience for him and he will take a lot from it, but sadly it was not to be. Rio?

Milton Keynes resident, Greg Rutherford, has different memories of course, having secured the Gold Medal for Team GB in the mens long jump event. A fantastic result with his jump of 8.31m enough to win him the title of Olympic Champion. As we know, the Post Office have taken to painting a red letter box gold in the home towns of the GB winners, and to this end two(!) boxes are now displaying their new colours in the city centre. Many congratulations Greg!

Focus on......Trace and Discreet Enquiries

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!

Lets Chat

One of our clients asked us to confirm the residential address of a debtor and to undertake enquiries into any assets that they may have. They had understood that he owned a property overseas. 

Our local manager began making enquiries in the area and was able to confirm that the debtor was still living at the address provided by our client - he was clearly avoiding them. Continuing the enquiries she took a stroll past the address one morning and the subject was in the front garden. She decided to strike up a casual conversation and they were soon chatting away. With the subject none the wiser, she came away from the conversation with not only first hand verification that he lived at the address but also with details of his various properties overseas and the websites through which he rented them out. A positive result for our client which wouldn't have been possible if our managers never left their desks.

London House News

We continue to receive many enquiries from prospective Franchise Owners and we are pleased to advise that two of these now have progressed to the purchase of territories. The new owners are joining us next week for the start of their two week residential training, so more details on this next month when they should be up and running!

At Head Office we are also turning our thoughts to a number of up coming events. We will be exhibiting at the NEC twice in October. The first event is the National Franchise Exhibition on 5th & 6th and then we are back at the venue on the 9th and 10th for the Solicitors Group exhibition, Law Autumn NEC. Again, more details next month but for now if you would like to come along and chat to us at any of these shows then please make a note of the dates.

November will soon be here! That means our annual Franchise Owner conference is rapidly coming around again. We are beginning to put the day together for our team and are looking forward to another great day.

You asked us........

"Whilst London House is not a debt collection agency (DCA), what do you make of the recent figures released by The Credit Services Association?" 

Frankly, they are mind boggling! We are not a DCA but do of course become involved in tracing the debtors, interviewing them or indeed serving papers on them. The figures released by the CSA (based on member information submitted to them) show that agencies are currently recovering nearly £6m debt everyday. As at the end of March, the total value of unpaid consumer debt held by CSA members for collection was £58billion.

The total number of consumer debts awaiting collection stands at a staggering 32 million. The CSA members have reported a trend of new consumers falling into debt for the first time, with many consumers having nothing left to cushion them from any emergencies which may arise. It appears that the double dip recession has resulted in an increase in the number of debtors from more affluent households seeking financial help and advice.