Cardiff Legal

You’re con­sid­er­ing doing a deal with another busi­ness /​cli­ent. You’re hir­ing a con­sult­ant, trade spe­cial­ist or con­tract staff. You’re chas­ing a cus­tomer for pay­ment and con­sid­er­ing legal action. How do you check their fin­an­cial track record?

Some com­pan­ies would use debt col­lec­tion agen­cies, factor­ing com­pan­ies or credit check specialists.

A little known “free” resource open to all is the Insolv­ency Register — www​.insolv​ency​.gov​.uk/​e​iir. A quick, easy check can be made to look for Bank­ruptcies, Court Judge­ments or IVA’s.

All that is needed is a full name, sup­ple­men­ted with a date of birth or address to help refine a search. It details cur­rent bank­ruptcies or those ended in the past three months; cur­rent IVA’s and other indi­vidual debt-​related court orders.

The Court Ser­vice stat­ist­ics show more claims are being made for unpaid debts. Even then the debtor might not pay. Although there are sev­eral enforce­ment options to choose from, using a Bailiff is the most pop­u­lar. But if the debtor has no assets, moves address or seeks bank­ruptcy then it will be dif­fi­cult to know who you’re deal­ing with without doing a check.

In the end, a simple free search on the Insolv­ency Register can save your busi­ness a lot of money.