Debt Recovery from Restaurants

By Ray White – Litigation Manager

Often the hardest cases to fight are those involving restaurants who are notoriously bad payers and often changes hands frequently without properly communicating with their suppliers.

At the end of last year one of members (a butcher) asked us to take legal action against a restaurant in Berkshire for £4.3K regarding invoices issued between August and October. After a long legal battle, we obtained judgement and passed the matter to the sheriff. Last week we recovered over £6k which included all the legal costs, the CPA fee, interest and compensation that our member was due.

Today another member in the catering industry received their full recovery. In November 2016 they asked us to take legal action against their debtor, a restaurant in London on invoices raised between February and October of 2016. judgement was obtained and a recovery has been secured for the full debt with an almost fifty percent uplift once costs, the CPA fee, interest and compensation had been added.

If you operate with restaurants, make sure you have the correct legal identity, that all orders are confirmed in writing and that the correct details are shown on the invoice. Keep all documents such as proof of delivery to support your claim. Then if payment is not forth coming, chase quickly and suspend the account if necessary to limit your exposure. Pass the matter to us as soon as possible as the quicker we act, the more likely we are to be successful.