The key issue
Our clients were property developers who were forced by their lenders to sell the principal property that was held as security.
They left a shortfall of around £800,000, and the lender then called on the personal guarantees given by the directors, despite assurances that they would not.
Preliminary discussions to settle were aggressively rejected by the lender’s solicitors, culminating in Statutory Demands being issued, and our client’s legal team were poor and failed to respond properly.
Why the client came to us
The failure of their previous representatives left our clients dangerously exposed as they were being threatened with bankruptcy.
As company directors, this would have been a disaster, as well as putting their significant assets at risk.
They recognised the need to do something as soon as possible and approached us after researching personal guarantee help online.
What We Did
Our strategy involved reviewing our client’s asset and liability situations and obtaining sworn versions of these.
We then demonstrated that in the event of Bankruptcy, the lender would yield very little, if anything from our clients.
In addition to this, we analysed the demand and calculations claimed, offering various arguments to the case to introduce doubt to the case.
Although this sounds relatively simple, this involved a massive amount of work as the clients owned several businesses, multiple assets and had messy financial records. These had to be fully investigated, all whilst holding off their creditors.
The Outcome
After 6-months of work and negotiations, we secured a full and final settlement of £183,000, with some time to pay, and both sides met their own costs.
We saved the clients a huge sum here, allowed them to avoid bankruptcy and, made sure that their business could continue to trade.
Bell & Company brought context, commerciality and focus on what was a very emotive subject for these directors.
Most importantly, we controlled this insolvency situation, minimised costs and provided solutions that protected all parties.
