Owing money to a company in liqudation

[cheekymeerkat]

Hello,

I owe the sizeable figure of £14k to a supplier that went to the wall, the invoice is now overdue by 60 days and the liquidator (one of the big 4) doesn't seem too interested in collecting payment quickly, as I've barely heard from them!
At the moment I'm enjoying the cash flow, but how do you guy's think I should play this out?

Will delaying payment affect my company credit file with credit insurers?
Do liquidators typically sell the debts they couldn't collect before closing the business with Companies House? The company turnover was half a billion so I'd imagine it's going to be open for some time, ex staff have told me the liquidator's fee's are already running in to the millions and they reckon pennies in the pound has recovered.

I'm not entirely happy to be honest because about £1K's worth of goods turned out to be faulty but I'm not sure how to play ahead?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Johnniem]

IANAL but why would you not pay them what you owe them? Perhaps make an offer to reduce it by the replacement cost of the faulty items (if you already have correspondence with them that shows you had told them the goods were faulty) and issue them a copy of the invoice for those replacements.

Why not just be honest? You made an order and got the goods. Imagine if you were in their position.

Am I being totally naive in that anyone would think....'what can I make out of this?'

[Undercover Agent]

I'd be tempted to just sit on the cash until its formally requested, if ever.

[NorthDave]

Undercover Agent said:

I'd be tempted to just sit on the cash until its formally requested, if ever.

So would I am afraid. I kind of know where John above is coming from on paying what you owe but there is also the point of view that you are throwing money at something which is already dead.

Having said that I am very sure they will come knocking at some point. At that point I would pay speedily and gracefully :-)

[OldGermanHeaps]

Are the goods devalued by the loss of warranty/ loss of ongoing support/ruined resale value?
I would be trying to quantify that before handing over a penny.

[cheekymeerkat]

NorthDave said:

So would I am afraid. I kind of know where John above is coming from on paying what you owe but there is also the point of view that you are throwing money at something which is already dead.

Having said that I am very sure they will come knocking at some point. At that point I would pay speedily and gracefully :-)

That's what I was thinking, I think I'll just sit on it until they force my hand.

[tight fart]

I wouldn't pay, I'd put the cash on deposit and argue about the debt, faulty goods etc.
The liquidator won't be bothered about spending to much time and money on £14k.
I've always looked upon it as getting something back from when firms go owing me.

[LordHaveMurci]

Leave it until they chase it, then deduct the amount to cover the faulty goods plus at least the same again, possibly more.

We've done this a number of times & not once has it even been mentioned.

[RM]

Johnniem said:

IANAL but why would you not pay them what you owe them? Perhaps make an offer to reduce it by the replacement cost of the faulty items (if you already have correspondence with them that shows you had told them the goods were faulty) and issue them a copy of the invoice for those replacements.

Why not just be honest? You made an order and got the goods. Imagine if you were in their position.

Am I being totally naive in that anyone would think....'what can I make out of this?'

Loss of warranty and support for past purchased goods, changes needed to systems in-house with dealing with a new supplier, interruption in the supply chain and effect on business?

I had a website that was built around a particular supplier's systems, and owed them around £8K when they went bust. They simply went very quiet over a 14 day period, didn't ship or even respond to orders, and only then it became apparent that they had gone into administration. Yes, I know the risk was of my own making by being so reliant on the one supplier. I offered the administrators £800 and they bit my hand off.

[loafer123]

cheekymeerkat said:

Hello,

I owe the sizeable figure of £14k to a supplier that went to the wall, the invoice is now overdue by 60 days and the liquidator (one of the big 4) doesn't seem too interested in collecting payment quickly, as I've barely heard from them!
At the moment I'm enjoying the cash flow, but how do you guy's think I should play this out?

Will delaying payment affect my company credit file with credit insurers?
Do liquidators typically sell the debts they couldn't collect before closing the business with Companies House? The company turnover was half a billion so I'd imagine it's going to be open for some time, ex staff have told me the liquidator's fee's are already running in to the millions and they reckon pennies in the pound has recovered.

I'm not entirely happy to be honest because about £1K's worth of goods turned out to be faulty but I'm not sure how to play ahead?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I would wait until you hear from them, then make a suitably low offer to settle if they ever do contact you.

The mere fact you would be willing to engage and make an offer will be an exciting novelty for the liquidator and make them your best friend.

[Countdown]

Personally I’d pay.

It would seem a bit scummy taking advantage of the company going into liquidation for my personal benefit. If I’ve received the goods and I’m happy with them then I’d pay what the invoice said. That money is owed to somebody, whether it’s the owners of the company, or to people that they owed money to.

[tight fart]

Very little ever makes it to unsecured creditors.

[PW555]

Had a Window Fitting Company go pop on us literally the day after they had replaced every window and door on our property, granted they took an initial deposit but the balance was never chased by them or the Administrators. I did sit on the funds for around 3 years but no one once applied for them, that was around 10 years ago now.

Put the funds to one side for a decent while and see who come knocking.

[cheekymeerkat]

A lot of wildly different opinions on here!
Thanks for your suggestions guys, it's going in to our reserve account until they mention it.
I'm still amazed that administrator's don't sell debts on? If EE can sell a £100 debt to a debt collector, why wouldn't an administrator sell the title of a very large debt to a debt collection agency for pennies in the pound? At least the administrator would get something back?

[stongle]

cheekymeerkat said:

A lot of wildly different opinions on here!
Thanks for your suggestions guys, it's going in to our reserve account until they mention it.
I'm still amazed that administrator's don't sell debts on? If EE can sell a £100 debt to a debt collector, why wouldn't an administrator sell the title of a very large debt to a debt collection agency for pennies in the pound? At least the administrator would get something back?

Because the administrators job is to recover debts to pay the companies creditors. Selling company assets for pennies on the pound isn't what administration is about. The administrator also needs to recover it's own fees (first of course), so it has to exercise some prudence. There are plenty of examples where firms in administration have returned near 100% to it's creditors. It's also possible in so e circumstances that the administrators will seek to recover interest o any funds held out (dependent on contractual arrangemebts). When Lehman Brothers went bust, we owed over 97m to their estate on our desk alone. We had to client money the the funds and make sure they were paid a reasonable rate of interest. We only settled with them after 8 years.

[loafer123]

stongle said:

Because the administrators job is to recover debts to pay the companies creditors. Selling company assets for pennies on the pound isn't what administration is about. The administrator also needs to recover it's own fees (first of course), so it has to exercise some prudence. There are plenty of examples where firms in administration have returned near 100% to it's creditors. It's also possible in so e circumstances that the administrators will seek to recover interest o any funds held out (dependent on contractual arrangemebts). When Lehman Brothers went bust, we owed over 97m to their estate on our desk alone. We had to client money the the funds and make sure they were paid a reasonable rate of interest. We only settled with them after 8 years.

Roughly what was the settlement amount as a proportion of nominal?

[anonymous-user]

If you don't pay, the money is going to have to sit in a provision in the accounts until the administration is complete. In this time you've got to explain to your accountant why you're too morally bankrupt to pay debts you owe as you seek to take advantage of a supplier's misfortune.

The creditors of the bankrupt firm are going to get less in their pockets as a result of your not paying what you owe for things you were supplied in good faith.

I think you know my opinion.

[caziques]

I wouldn't pay.

Liquidators invariably suck out all the money, £14000 will probably make almost no difference to how much creditors get.

Remember the OP is now carrying his own warranty,who pays if there are problems?

[essayer]

caziques said:

I wouldn't pay.

Liquidators invariably suck out all the money, £14000 will probably make almost no difference to how much creditors get.

Remember the OP is now carrying his own warranty,who pays if there are problems?

This, your £14k will just be used to pay for admin time in dealing with your payment (1 senior plus two junior staff, one day’s work)

[Alpinestars]

loafer123 said:

Roughly what was the settlement amount as a proportion of nominal?

100% plus statutory interest. Huge payout for those they bought it for pence in the pound.