How do I maximise recovery from an insolvency debt?
If a person or company is indebted to you, or one of your clients, and they fall into an insolvency procedure, you can outsource the administration of your insolvent debt to us.
How do our Creditor Services and Investigations work?
These services are offered mainly by our Thames Valley office.
We will work with you and for you to ensure that your debt is protected in an insolvency procedure. We reduce the risk of bad debts and increase the likelihood of recovery.
From one that is going through the initial insolvency process, to one that has already been in the process for a while. The services we provide, are listed below but are not limited to:
- Lodge your claim into the procedure, being a proof of debt, which outlines your claim and how it has been incurred, with evidence of the debt due, and our Letter of Authority detailing our involvement, and the ability to act on your behalf.
- Review, if applicable the Statement of Affairs/ Report to Creditors for the initial asset position and potential likelihood of a recovery. We are able at this stage to see a very brief overview of what other creditors there are and what the process is going to look like.
- Notify you that your claim has been acknowledged in the procedure.
- Regular updates to you on the current position of the procedure and/or likelihood of a return.
- Review annual progress reports for the latest updates and what work has been done, is still to be done and what claims have been found as a result of the statutory investigations, and report back in a clear and easy to understand manner.
- Receive any payable dividends.
- Attend and vote at meetings of creditors or decision procedures.
- At meetings we can put forward any questions or concerns your or your client may have to the Insolvency Practitioner/Directors.
- Retention of Title Questionnaire.
- Completion of Proxy forms
Need help?
If you or your company is owed money by a company and it falls into insolvency, we can help you maximise the recovery of your insolvency debt.
What are the costs?
This service is offered to creditor clients and our referring Solicitor and Debt Collection Agency (DCA) introducers free of charge.
Can incumbent Insolvency Practitioners be replaced?
The service is predicated on a continuing relationship whereby the creditor/solicitor/DCA will support our appointment as Insolvency Practitioner where appropriate.
We have a proven track record of replacing incumbent Insolvency Practitioners and bringing legal action against directors in order to pay dividends to creditors.
We act without funding and our fees are paid as a percentage of what we recover.
We refer to these case as “investigation” cases.
The Creditor Services Team at Antony Batty, Thames Valley
The creditor services function is run by Lawrence King and Laura Bedwell.
Lawrence has been an appointment taking Insolvency Practitioner since 2010 and has a significant background in investigations, litigation, and recovery actions.
Laura Bedwell has been working with Lawrence since 2017 and is the first point of contact for our creditor clients and is able to walk creditor clients through complex insolvency issues with ease.
The Investigation Team
This team is headed by Lawrence King and Bethan Bryant with assistance from Andy Lloyd, Laura Bedwell and Lucy Elms.
Bethan is a qualified insolvency practitioner having qualified in 2024 and has been involved in investigations and litigation for the 7 years she has been working alongside Lawrence.
Andy is a Certified Accountant with great IT skills and has over 20 years’ experience in insolvency investigations.
Lucy is a trained auditor who has also worked in industry and assists the Investigations Team in their review of the financial affairs of insolvent companies and director’s conduct.
Opportunity for introducing solicitors
We work with a small panel of regional and national law firms on a reciprocal basis. We have a proven track record of converting opportunities provided by solicitors into formal insolvency appointments and then engaging those solicitors to act for us as liquidator or trustee.
In addition to those appointments directly introduced to us, we are also routinely appointed on cases directly by our creditor clients and debt collection agency referrers. When we are introduced to a possible case in this fashion, we contact our panel solicitors with the creditors list to see if they represent any creditors. In such scenarios we have the ability to refer legal work to those solicitors.
Solicitors are instructed on a Conditional Fee Arrangement basis, often with significant uplift, in order to assist the liquidator in the recovery of monies for the benefit of the insolvent estate.
Some examples of such instructions in recent years are shown below:
- Case Study 1: Compulsory Liquidation of an arable farm:
- Realisations of £567,580
- Solicitors’ fees of £192,000
- Liquidators’ fees of £161,000
- Case Study 2: Compulsory Liquidation of a dry cleaners
- Realisations of £452,000
- Additional claims of £3,000,000
- Solicitors’ fees of £25,000 on account billing
- Projected solicitors’ fees £150,000
- Projected liquidators’ fees £200,000
- Case Study 3: Creditors Voluntary Liquidation of an egg laying chicken farm following an administration by another insolvency practitioner
- Realisations of £173,000
- Additional claims of £2,000,000
- Solicitors’ fees on account of £6,000
- Projected solicitors’ fees £100,000
- Projected liquidators’ fees £200,000
- Case Study 4: Bankruptcy of a director of a construction company
- Realisations of £180,000
- Solicitors’ fees of £80,000
- Projected Trustees’ fees of £50,000
