Solicitors for Statutory Demands

A Statutory Demand is the next step in our debt resolution process for individuals or companies that have served a 7 day Letter of Demand that has not been satisfied. The Statutory Demand is giving notice to someone else that you demand immediate payment of a debt which you say is due from them. Making the demand in this form means that unless the form is dealt with in a particular way, the Courts will treat the debt as having certain consequences.

From 1st October 2015, the Government increased the debt threshold for Bankruptcy to £5000, as a result of which, Statutory Demands for less than £5000 can no longer be used as a basis for a Bankruptcy Petition (i.e. against an individual). The limits applicable to companies (Winding Up Petition) remain unchanged at £750.

Anyone can serve a Statutory Demand, it’s just like writing a letter – there is no official fee for its issue, nor anywhere that it needs to be registered.

The Courts frown on Statutory Demands being used purely as a debt-collection mechanism – the Courts treat a Statutory Demand as part of the Insolvency process, and as a result expect you to have some reason to believe the debtor “can’t pay”, i.e. rather than merely “won’t pay”. If there is a clear and genuine dispute over a debt, then the Statutory Demand should not be used. However, if a false narrative is raised to avoid payment, that may not prevent this insolvency process being pursued. Serving a statutory demand that is successfully disputed (see our “Set-aside” product, for more details) can have adverse legal costs consequences on you – i.e. there may be an element of dispute risk entailed in engaging the process.

The debt threshold applicable to individuals (bankruptcy) is £5,000. This means a Statutory Demand for less than £5,000 cannot be used as a basis for a bankruptcy petition – and therefore might have less “bite” for an informed individual debtor than a demand for £5,000 or more.

A Statutory Demand must be served properly in order to be valid. A Statutory Demand should be served in person at the debtor’s address. We can arrange service using a process server for an additional charge of £100 + VAT. Alternatively, for no extra fee, we can simply post the demand. Often the debtor will acknowledge postal service by engaging in a dialogue after postal service, which then removes the need for a process server to be involved. If, however, the debtor fails to acknowledge service, a post served Demand would not be properly served without proof of delivery, e.g. signed-for.

Having taken your instructions,  the drafting of the documents would usually be completed within 4 days.  There are, however, other forms of service that might be appropriate for different circumstances that take different amounts of time.  Once a Statutory Demand has been served, the debtor will have just 18 days to respond.

Your supplier is SRA-regulated Mounteney Solicitors, that charges VAT some customers may be able to reclaim

Our work will be charged at a fixed fee of £350 + VAT = £420 for producing and posting the Statutory Demand.

There is more about our fees on our website here

If you have any questions, require any further information, or would like to engage us (that will be on the T’s & C’s that are linked, “Our Terms”, in the footer, below) please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.