On Jan 31, 3:00 pm, Alex Threlfall <a...@nospam.cyberprog.net> wrote:
> My other business has a customer who currently owes arround =A36k to us.
> They had been paying the bill slowly up till recently (total was
> somewhere arround =A316k). However they stopped paying, and started
> avoiding us even more than they had been.
> 
> We gave them a ultimatum of 7 days to pay, or we take them to court, and
> on reminding them of this and suggesting they make arrangements to pay
> so we don't have to do this, they became defensive and said that they
> were going to go bankrupt on monday. We've not contacted them since, but
> would like to know what the rules are here, can we continue to chase
> them until we're actually given the bankrupty notification by their
> trustee? Can they claim they're going bankrupt but then not do so?
> 
> The customer in question is a sole trader, but runs a public house. It's
> unclear wether they own the property, but they live in a flat above. We
> also know they own a house in the locality as we have been given
> information on their re-mortgage (which we were supposed to be repaid
> out of... b*stards). Who do we actually sue? I presume I just sue Joe
> Bloggs t/a Grotty Pub ?
> 
Depends what you want to do.  To start with, if they threaten to file
for bankrupcy on Monday and fail to do so, you can AFAIK petition for
his bankrupcy without further ado, since it is over the magic figure
of 6k pounds (I think).

The other avenue is to seek judgement for the debt and if he does not
pay, get a warrant to send in the bailiffs to seize the beer pumps,
tills, computers, stock, etc (assuming they are his and no one has a
floating debenture over them - otherwise they can go for what asset he
has).  He most probably leases the pub from a brewery or a pub owning
chain.  He is most probably signalling that he is filing for bankrupcy
to discourage you from taking legal action.

Odds are he keeps his rent, brewery bills and IR payments up to date
and just plays off small fry creditors.


You sue or petition him as Joe Bloggs, it does not matter under what
trading name the debt is owed.

That is right, except you would just petition for Joe's bankrupcy (it
does not matter