We can see you!

One of our Solicitor clients regularly acts on behalf of a computer manufacturer, who unfortunately on occasion suffer from attempted fraudulent orders and non payment. Goods are ordered, shipped to a holding address and sold on before payment is made to the manufacturer. The "customer" can then sometimes disappear.

 

On one such instance, involving £400,000 of computers, our client went out to inspect the computers (at 4.30pm), to confirm they had been received and to prompt payment. However the customer refused them access to do an inspection. Smelling a rat, we were asked to provide surveillance operatives almost immediately at the premises and keep an eye on any activity overnight. 

At 6am the goods were being readied for moving and when we advised our client they contacted the MD and told him that, if the goods were moved, a Judge sitting at 10am would not be amused. He capitulated and we collected £250,000 of computers later that day.

 

Out of interest, all was not lost with regard to the remaining £150,000 of computers. We obtained copies of all sales invoices and our client wrote to all of the customers who had not yet paid for their computers and pointed out that under Retention of Title they could only have good title to the equipment if they paid our client. Failure to do so would result in them being liable for conversion. A further £100,000 was recovered as a result.

Industry Topic - 2012 Q4 Insolvency Service Statistics

R3, the trade body for Insolvency Professionals, recently commented on the above statistics. The statistics provide an interesting insight into the current climate and give us much food for thought. There is clearly still some way to go for the economy to instil confidence........

R3 say, "Total individual insolvencies in 2012 are down 8% from 2011 figures, while bankruptcy orders have fallen 24% year on year which is encouraging, however this should not be taken as an indication that people are prosperous and financially secure. There remains a vast majority of individuals who are still struggling with their personal finances. This is evidenced by consumer spending falling as people continue to prioritize paying down their debt."

"Individuals typically petition for bankruptcy because of credit card and bank debt that they cannot repay however in recent times we have seen more manageable repayment plans put in place by lenders. This has allowed indebted individuals to pay off their debts over a longer period of time instead of entering formal insolvency. If lenders were to become more aggressive in their pursuit of debts owed it is likely that we will see more individuals becoming insolvent."  

The full statement can be read here. 

London House News

Our year has started well with the fantastic news that we have been successful with a tender for the provision of trace and process serving for The Insolvency Service. This contract begins next week for a minimum 12month period and we look forward to working with their UK wide regional offices. Another Blue Chip Client for London House.

We are delighted to advise that we have a new London House Franchise Owner. Robert Jutton has just completed his training and will be covering the Derby area for us (all DE postcodes). Rob was originally with Midland Bank/Forward Trust and then a Senior Manager with both Ford Credit and GE Capital selling finance and leasing into the IT industry. Latterly he developed and sold a yacht brokerage franchise. So, welcome aboard Rob!

Rob's details can be found here - London House Services Derby  

This month we also attended the Credit Services Association half yearly members meeting. As ever, it's good to catch up with friends and peers and get industry updates and news. Compliance and regulation was, of course, a prominent feature of the conference and it will certainly be a topic that will take up much of our time over the coming years particularly with the birth of the FCA in April 2014.

January 2013

Happy New Year to everybody!  

Last year was an unusual and difficult time for our industry and it will be interesting to see how 2013 develops. Without doubt, there are further hard times ahead for some but there does appear to be a small amount of confidence creeping back into the economy. This has to be a good thing for everyone, particularly if we can avoid the triple dip(!) recession, and at London House we are looking forward to a fascinating year ahead.

London House Top 10

For our clients we undertake a mixed variety of work that covers the full remit of investigative services. Our client base, which continues to grow, know that they can come to London House with a business problem and they can be confident of our professional help and advice. At the end of the year we thought we would have a look at our most popular services provided in 2012 and these are listed below. 

Clicking on the service will provide more information

• Tracing missing persons/absconded debtors
• Process Serving
• Evidence of means interviews/status reports
• Discreet Enquiries/investigations
• Pre-Repossession Reports on properties
• Property Repossession (Residential & Commercial)
• Surveillance operations
• Commercial Debt Collection
• Debt & Mortgage Shortfall Counselling
• Insurance Claims Investigations

Industry Topic

From the results of its quarterly Data Gathering Initiative, The Credit Services Association recently released figures confirming that businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to collect their cash.

At the end of September 2012 the amount outsourced to third party debt collection agencies stood at £1.145bn, an increase of 12% on the previous quarter.Similarly, there was also a rise in both the amount and volume of consumer debt passed to Debt Collection Agencies or sold to Debt Buyers. As at the end of September the amount now stands at £62bn, a rise of 4%.  

These continue to be staggering figures and collection of these debts remains critical for the economy.  

 

Full details of The CSA Press release can be found here  

London House News

After the seasonal break it is now back to "business as usual" at London House. We are continuing to hold a number of follow up interviews from the NEC Franchise Show in October and are pleased to say that discussions are progressing with a number of prospective Franchise Owners. We have set training dates for later this month and more news on this in next month's newsletter.  

Some of you will know that when a new Franchise Owner joins us, the term of the agreement is for 5 years which can then be renewed, by mutual consent, for further 5 year periods. It is with much pleasure then that I can advise that 2 of our Franchise Owners have just renewed their agreements with us. Keith Bell (Glasgow) is one of our longest serving Franchise Owners having completed 10 years with us. Keith has now renewed for a further 5 years. Dave Williams (Central London) has been with us the longest of all our Franchise Owners. Dave has now completed 15 years and has also renewed for another 5 years.  

Many thanks to you both for your continued efforts and support

November 2012

The clocks have changed, nights are drawing in and we have had some early large snowfalls around parts of the country. Christmas ads are already on the TV. Winter is approaching. 

Construction and housing markets underpin the economy so it is disappointing to see that UK construction activity fell 13.1% in September from a year ago, as the sector's downturn steepened, Office for National Statistics figures have shown.

The month saw further big drops in new building by the commercial and public sectors (excluding infrastructure projects), both of which were down by a fifth from a year ago.House building saw a 5% bounce in the month but remains 12% below a year ago.

Further, we say goodbye to Comet who appointed Administrators on 2nd November.

Focus On.......Property Visits

We are often asked by our clients to visit a property and provide information relating to it.Typically our clients - banks, solicitors, landlords - ask us to provide a range of information and the purpose of our visit could be to find out any manner of detail. For instance, our clients may ask us to :

1. Confirm the details on an Ordnance Survey Map 
2. Report on its condition 
3. Confirm what the property is used for 
4. Find out who is living/working there (as opposed to tracing somebody) 
5. Advise them what is actually on the site 
6. Ascertain if the property has been divided into flats 
7. Confirm if it is owner occupied or if it has been let/sublet
8. Provide an up to date valuation

An Open and Shut Case

One of our solicitor clients asked us to attend at a property that they had repossessed using another agent. The property was advertised for sale and the estate agent had visited to make sure everything was okay. He found that his keys would not give him access.It seemed that the doors may have been screwed shut from the inside.The curtains were closed but he thought he saw them "twitch". We were asked to visit and find out what was going on.

On attending at the address we had a look around the front of the property and whilst the curtains were indeed closed, we saw that one of the lower floor windows was closed to but not shut properly or locked. On opening the window and the curtains we found that the living room was full of someone's personal possessions.

We then spoke to a neighbour, who was not aware of the repossession, and told us that the former occupant was still living there. She gave us access through a shared locked gate to the rear we saw that one of the windows had been broken. He had therefore broken back into his former property and was coming and going through the front window, while telling our client he was having to live at a local hotel.

 

London House News

We have held a number of follow up interviews from the NEC Franchise Show last month and are pleased to say that discussions are progressing and deposit cheques being received from prospective Franchise Owners. We have set some training dates for later this month.  We have also held our Franchise Owners' Conference at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. The event gets bigger and better each year and is a great opportunity for our nationwide team to get together and share best practices as well as catch up with friends and colleagues. Our very special thanks go to not only our Franchise Owners but also our guest speakers from Franchise Development Services, UK Global, Chartis, The Federation of Small Businesses and The Martin Cliffe Practice.

You asked us

"The Council of Mortgage Lenders have released figures showing that the number of repossessions has fallen. Nice to see some positive news!" 

Indeed, as recently reported by The BBC, the number of homes being repossessed has fallen to a five year low. The CML reported that there were 8,200 repossessions during the third quarter of 2012 which is the lowest quarterly figure since 2007. 

There are, though, some underlying concerns. Whilst the number of borrowers in arrears is stable at 159,100 and the number of repossessions is falling, this is reflective of record low interest rates and lenders showing restraint with those borrowers in difficulty. Lenders have been under pressure not to repossess properties unless it is genuinely a last resort; they also have to jump through many hoops to successfully obtain Court permission to seize a borrower's home.  

Long term arrears have risen but Banks won't be able to go on absorbing arrears into their balance sheets indefinitely, and they also have a duty of care to ensure borrowers don't build up too much debt by allowing them to stay in a property if this is unsustainable.

October 2012

It is pleasing to read that Ernst and Young are forecasting the UK economy will rebound in the second half of this year and grow by 1.2% next year buoyed by a housing market revival next spring.

There are "if's and but's" and much will depend on the extent to which consumers take opportunities to pay down their debts. This won't be helped by yet more price rises being passed onto them by their gas and electricity providers from November.

Focus on....Customer Interviews

Latest statistics from the financial education charity, Credit Action, show that 1,552 people a day reported that they had been made redundant between May and July 2012 and that £53,706 is the average household debt including mortgages.

The estimated average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households that carry mortgage debt stood at £111,793 in August.

The figures also tell us that the CAB are dealing with 8,465 new debt problems each working day, while 93 properties are repossessed each day. Staggeringly, in Q2 2012 UK banks and building societies wrote-off £1.15 billion (of which £567 million was credit card debt) amounting to a daily write-off of £12.52m. Click here for the full report into the UK Debt Statistics

Here at London House we interview many individuals on a daily basis on behalf of our clients in an effort to get their up to date financial position. Wherever possible we meet them at home and complete a detailed income/expenditure/assests/liabilities breakdown. If our client has asked us, we will also negotiate a repayment programme on their behalf within agreed parameters. 

Wherever You Go

We were asked by one of our overseas clients to visit a debtor to interview them about their finances and to get a closer feel for their asset base. The subjects owed a large amount of money to a financier abroad and our client wanted the debt transferred and registered in the UK to allow them to obtain judgment and proceed with enforcement.

When they had originally borrowed the money they provided a schedule of their assets both in New Zealand (where they resided at the time) and in the UK. When the borrowing went into default they fled back to the UK. We tracked them down and met with them. Whilst not particularly pleased to see us they saw the error of their ways and co-operated with us. We were able to establish that they did indeed have a good asset base and were also in full time, well paid, employment. The liabilities they had were comfortably manageable.

Armed with this information, our client began enforcement procedures and ultimately a repayment programme agreed via the sale of property assets.

London House News

As mentioned last month we have exhibited at the NEC twice in October.

 Firstly, we were at the National Franchise Exhibition on 5th & 6th. This was our first time at this event and we feel it went very well. We received a good number of enquiries from potential new Franchise Owners and we are hopeful that some will progress to them becoming part of our network. Indeed, follow up interviews are already being held at Head Office. 

We were then back at the venue on the 9th and 10th for the Solicitors Group exhibition, Law Autumn NEC. Again, a new event for us but a good opportunity for us to meet both existing and potential new clients. We were helped over the two days by Allan Fern, our Franchise Owner for Dudley and Birmingham, thank you Allan, and we now have a number of enquiries to follow up.

Finally, it will soon be time for our own Franchise Owners' Conference (how quickly it comes around!). This year it is being held on 7th November and will be at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. There will be a large turn out from our network and it is shaping up to be our best conference yet. More details next month.  

You asked us

"The Credit Action Debt Statistics were published on 3rd October. Any thoughts?" 

I have touched on these figures above. Whilst there are some encouraging signs, such as the total amount of credit card debt continues to fall and outstanding unsecured consumer credit was down £9bn at £156bn on the previous year, there are still causes for concern. 

Every 15 min 30 sec a property is repossessed and every 4 min 49 sec someone will be declared insolvent or bankrupt. 904,000 people had been unemployed for over a year between May and July 2012 and total outstanding personal debt stood at £1.412 trillion at the end of August which is up from £1.407 trillion last year. These are depressing figures. 

Clearly as a country we have some way to go to get out of this gloom and reach growth as suggested by Ernst and Young. There are still some tough times ahead. 

September 2012

What a summer it has been for sport - The Tour De France, Olympics, Paralympics, a Murray Major and now perhaps the biggest story of all - the truth about Hillsborough.

It has taken 23 years but finally the details have been revealed. After all the great successes of the summer we are now faced with a national disgrace. But, the truth will out and justice will prevail.

The Hillsborough families have acted with honesty, integrity and dignity and are as much an example to us all as our athletes.

Focus on.....Commercial Property Repossessions

We do many repossessions during the course of our work but some of you may not know that we do commercial repossessions as well as residential. Our work in this sector is varied with us repossessing many types of property from farms, shops and warehouses to hotels, pubs, guest houses and even a whole industrial estate.
 

As with a residential property repossession we attend with a bailiff and when he has executed his warrant we take over. We take meter readings and liaise with the utility companies, drain down systems, change locks and make the property secure according to our clients instructions. A full schedule of anything left in the property is taken along with photographs. If required we also arrange for clearance of the site and then undertake weekly security visits. 

Water, water everywhere

One of our clients asked us to repossess a cold store unit on an industrial estate. The property had been empty for a little while and we had attended the site in order to obtain quotes for locksmiths, shuttering and alarm security. When we reattended to begin the work it had been raining for two whole days and we arrived to find the site under 3ft of water.

The electric had been turned off some time previously, and therefore caused the problem insofar as the pump that cleared surplus water away from a sump was unable to function. Whilst we ourselves did not have the equipment to deal with the problem we were immediately in contact with a suitable contractor who subsequently pumped 160,000 gallons of water away and then cleared away the tons of mud and sludge that remained.

It's all in a days work.