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We specialise in 

• Lease Review
• Contract Checking 
• Contract Review
• Shareholder Agreements
• Business Terms and Conditions
• Business Debt Recovery
• Commercial Debt Collection

Awards

Global 100 - Awards

Best Contract Law Services 2025

Legal Insider

Contract Law Specialist of the Year - Surrey 2025

The Lawyer International - Legal 100 

Best Contract Law Services 2025

Global 100 - Awards

Best Contract Law Services 2024

UK Legal Awards 2024 Commendation of Excellence: Client Service Innovation

Debt Recovery

Top 5 debt Collection Agencies in the UK 2024

Best Debt Recovery Business 2024 - Southern England

Telephone us on

0333 121 0161

between 09.00 - 18.00 Monday to Friday

Head Office

Unit 5 Base Point

15 Jubilee Close

Weymouth

Dorset, DT4 7BS

Surrey Office

Office Suite 1

Fetcham Grove

Guildford Road

Leatherhead

Surrey, KT22 9AS

https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-a-ward-78a37952/

Should you use a Debt Collection Agency or a Solicitors Law Firm?

What are the pros and cons?

The simple answer is, it depends on your needs, but we always say that someone who offers no win no fee as standard should be looked at before someone who tells you their hourly rate before they read anything.

In life there is no such thing as a free lunch, but typically, a solicitors’ practice would charge either up-front fees, an hourly rate, or fixed fees per stage (or all of the above) so whether your debt is collected or not, you have still paid upfront for a service. There’s nothing wrong with that but you need to be aware to make an informed decision.

The best debt collectors back themselves by offering no win no fee, so the simple question is: who is more skilled and motivated to achieve successful recovery of your debt.

We seem to have forgotten the adage that a hungry fighter is a good fighter because we live in a country now where nobody is hungry, but more and more companies are owed money than ever before.

A solicitors practice doesn’t tend to do the debt collection (90% of the work up to the steps of the court) and usually only gets involved once a case is ready for litigation whereas a debt collection agency usually can do the entire process, from early arrears to pre-litigation to litigation and enforcement as AVC Debt Recovery have an association with a reputable solicitor’s firm.

Who has more authority, a debt collection agency or a solicitor’s law firm? In both instances they are considered to be third parties and therefore there is no perceptible difference. A debt may escalate from a debt collection agency to a solicitor’s law firm but very rarely, if ever, is it vice versa.

Therefore, you can have best of both worlds by going via the debt collection route first and then them escalating to a solicitor’s law firm thereafter as here at AVC Debt recovery we seek to spend your money as we spend our own. There is no downside as debt collectors operate on a time is of the essence basis as every minute they work without recovering debt is another minute they do not eat.

Pre-litigation debt collection can save you time and money. Whilst it should always be the objective to avoid litigation, sometimes it can be unavoidable therefore thrusting you into a time consuming and expensive process. A good debt collector will know that the threat of litigation and the instigation of the litigation processes will prompt a debtor into paying or entering into some kind of negotiation especially if the creditor has the correct audit trail of POs and Invoices in place.

Does a solicitor’s law firm have more powers than a debt collection agency? 

Only if the matter comes to court and a creditor does not seek to act as a claimant in person as debt collectors cannot enact the  conduct of litigation, but the parameters of The Legal Services Act 2007 and unregulated activity were defined recently in the High Court case: Julia Mazur and another -v- Charles Russell Speechlys LLP, and others, so debt collectors legal standing is now set out in a High Court ruling.

As a reputable debt collection agency AVC Debt recovery have all the processes and structures in place to enable the most cost effective and best legal outcome to obtain creditors’ monies. Not many debt collectors collect debts for solicitors, but AVC Debt Recovery have successfully done that and continue to do so.

Visit our Business Debt recovery company on 

www.avcdebtrecovery.com

Here are a list of our most recent Blogs

1. Jaevee Homes Limited v Mr Steve Fincham (t/a Fincham Demolition) [2025] EWHC 942 (TCC)

2. County Courts in Crisis: Justice Committee’s Report

Posted 27 04 2026

Contract Review Contract Checking

We never cease to be amazed at the lack of recourse to simple contracts of terms and conditions  in business, but especially the construction industry where we come in when contractors remain unpaid. We see half-baked JCT contracts  or documents that have been culled from someone else’s contract from the internet and now the favourite – the Chat GBT contract. In an industry such as construction whereby the contractor is always behind on payments and some unscrupulous employers (and consumers) deliberately raise objections at the end of the job to get a discount then recourse to contract or even a contractor issuing their own Ts & Cs should be standard. The worst contract we ever saw was a 3 page drafted document for a £1.5m build and surprise surprise the employer terminated to contract owing the contractor £300k then hired aggressive solicitors because he knew the contractor would be unable to finance legal action as he was insolvent. Some simple measures are all that is required.

1. Get a Review of any Contract you are sent.
2. Issue your Terms and conditions if no contract is sent to you
3. Always try and use your terms and conditions.

SHAREHOLDER AGREEMENTS ... WHY DO WE NEED THEM?

Whether you are two shareholders or several hundred, it is vital to have a shareholders’ agreement drafted to your unique requirements.

What is a shareholder's agreement?

A shareholder’s agreement manages the relationship between directors and shareholders within a business and allows directors to focus on the running of the business whilst providing protections for shareholders. 

Many people think that shareholders agreements relate to large corporations and think of large boardrooms as set out in the films, but many small businesses and SME’s operate shareholder agreements and often fail to put in place a basic agreement and issues arise when there are the minimum number of 2 shareholders with work allocations and specialities to be agreed.

It is very important that a shareholder’s agreement is specifically drafted to the individual requirements of the company, and addresses the specific needs of shareholders or groups of shareholders. For example, the agreement can be used to:

Clearly set out loan repayments and dividends;

control the decision making powers of directors ;

set the company’s dividend policy ;

put in place procedures which the company must follow for share transfers or on a sale of the company either to protect minority shareholders’ interests; or

clearly allocate areas of responsibility;

determine what happens to shares if a shareholder becomes bankrupt;

the employment of an appointed director with the company is terminated;

a shareholder dies;

place restraint of trade provisions on shareholders, restricting their ability to compete against the company .

Failure to put a shareholder’s agreement in place results in greater uncertainty in the event of a dispute or if an unexpected event occurs. Without an agreement in place it will be harder to resolve disputes between shareholders quickly –if at all and then the law becomes expensive and that is where it can get scary.

To get in touch visit us at www.cwcontractlawandlegal.co.uk or  call us on  0161 333 121,  for a no charge no obligation discussion about how we can add value to your business proposition through fixed price legal services.