Advice sought on bad debt

[LordHaveMurci]

We have a customer who is a Sole Trader, sadly he passed away over Christmas owing us money, his daughter contacted us to let us know & confirm the amount owing, she did state it would take a few weeks to sort things out which we were fine with. We have offered them the option of returning un-sold goods for a 100% refund if it makes their lives easier as the business is not to continue as far as we're aware.

Some weeks down the road & we have received no replies to emails, answerphone message on phoneline with no option to leave a message.

Slightly concerned that we may get forgotten in the stress of dealing with everything, in the grand scheme of things it's not a lot of money (about £500) but it's more than we want to lose! Not sure threatening (or initiating) legal action is the way forward but what else can we do? Premises is too far to visit really (85mls) & I suspect there would be nobody there anyway.

[LordHaveMurci]

Nobody?!

[Doofus]

I would have thought you might want to notify the Executor of the debt. In theory, they will have published a notice in the London Gazette asking for creditors (or beneficiaries) to come forward, so a bit of hunting there may bear fruit.

[CAPP0]

Signed-for letter via Royal Mail as next step. Who knows whether they are even monitoring emails etc, either due to stress or if it's the deceased's account, a wish not to?

[superlightr]

I would write and post letters regarding the debt. - email almost certainly wont be looked at or password protected.

[LordHaveMurci]

Ok, we have the daughters email, with a bit of prompting she has now informed us they are trying to sell the property to raise funds to pay off the creditors.

Assume by this that she is the/an executor.

Sounds like it's going to be a long haul with a strong chance of eventually getting our money back, being a sole trader though is there any way of formalising anything without going down the legal route other than what we have already done?

[Doofus]

LordHaveMurci said:

Sounds like it's going to be a long haul with a strong chance of eventually getting our money back, being a sole trader though is there any way of formalising anything without going down the legal route other than what we have already done?

Yes. Find the executor, or the solicitor who may or may not have posted the notice, and submit a formal claim against the estate.

[CAPP0]

LordHaveMurci said:

Ok, we have the daughters email, with a bit of prompting she has now informed us they are trying to sell the property to raise funds to pay off the creditors.

Assume by this that she is the/an executor.

Sounds like it's going to be a long haul with a strong chance of eventually getting our money back, being a sole trader though is there any way of formalising anything without going down the legal route other than what we have already done?

I still don't think anyone should rely on email for formal/official issues, send a piece of paper and get proof they have accepted it.

[garythesign]

Doofus said:

Yes. Find the executor, or the solicitor who may or may not have posted the notice, and submit a formal claim against the estate.

I would agree with this.

Also worth mentioning to the solicitor your offer to take stock back, thus reducing the debt

It may be a long haul but you should get there

[KevinCamaroSS]

garythesign said:

Doofus said:

Yes. Find the executor, or the solicitor who may or may not have posted the notice, and submit a formal claim against the estate.

I would agree with this.

Also worth mentioning to the solicitor your offer to take stock back, thus reducing the debt

It may be a long haul but you should get there

These, plus, less than two months is a bit previous, it could take up to 6 months or so for the executors to sort everything out.

[LDN]

Depending on the estate, it could be many many months before things are sorted and money accessible. So give them the benefit of the doubt. Sounds like she underestimated things early on.

Simply get something in writing over to the solicitor dealing with the estate and that will be all you need to do.