What are the different debt collection procedures?

Following a service rendered or a purchase, it may happen that you are confronted with a debt. It is indeed a debt not repaid on time, following a commitment made by the creditor. When this happens, there are several procedures you can put in place to gain possession of your money. Discover them in detail through this article.

Amicable collection

Amicable collection is a debt collection procedure which consists of using all the legal means available to obtain the voluntary payment of a debt. It does not resort to violence or legal proceedings.

Terms of use for amicable collection

If you want to use the amicable debt recovery procedure, your debt must have three main characteristics. First of all, its existence must be proven and indisputable. This means that you must be able to justify your claim by an invoice or a contract signed by the creditor. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that an estimate does not represent a debt. It is sent to the customer for information purposes, and is in no way sufficient to constitute a certain claim.

Next, your claim must be liquid. That is to say, it must be determined or determinable, precisely, using an invoice for example. A simple estimate is therefore not sufficient to establish a liquid claim. Finally, it is essential to hold a debt due. The payment deadline must clearly appear on the document that certifies your claim. It is once this date has passed, and no payment has been made, that the debt becomes payable.

Procedure

To start the amicable unpaid invoice collection procedure, you must send a registered letter. This invites the debtor to settle his debt as soon as possible. During this phase, it is recommended to diversify the means of contact with the debtor.

You can opt for SMS, phone calls or e-mails. You have several options for this procedure. You can use the litigation department or the recovery department of your company. It is also possible to entrust this work to a traditional external collection company.

Your letter of formal notice must include certain mandatory information to be legally valid. This is the name, the address of the creditor, and possibly the contact details of the structure responsible for collection. Also, you have the amount, nature and details of the claim (invoice number for example), which must also be included.

To these is added the mention of the obligation to reimburse, as well as the applicable legislative texts. Finally, you must mention the consequences in case of non-payment of the debt. If the amicable appeal does not succeed, you will have to turn to justice.

Judicial recovery

It is not because your debtor has not responded favorably to your amicable appeal that you should give up. You can always be reimbursed for your unpaid fees by initiating legal recovery. To this end, there are several procedures for recovering a debt through the courts. It is :

– The order to pay; – The provisional provision; – Allocation to the fund.

Unlike the summons to the merits, the order for payment is a procedure that takes less time. In practice, before resorting to judicial recovery, it is preferable to try to recover the debt amicably, because this is much more advantageous.

The advantages of amicable collection

Amicable recovery is a process, which in the vast majority of cases ensures payment of the debt. You just have to know how to do it, and you will get satisfaction for sure. It has several advantages, the first of which is its simplicity and ease of installation.

This process is also much less expensive. In reality, unless you use a specialized agency, you spend practically nothing. Added to this is its speed compared to legal proceedings. Indeed, the latter involves using a lawyer, which will necessarily have to be paid. Also, the time to find a qualified one and all the time that the procedure can take can seem quite long to you.

It should also be noted that the amicable collection of your invoices prevents you from weakening your relations with your customers. Indeed, it is very likely that by dragging one of your customers to court for non-payment, your collaboration stops there. And even if she were to continue, things will not be like before. In addition, it must be said that sometimes these outstanding payments are not necessarily the will of the customers. They may be due to an oversight or a financial crisis. This is why it is always better to resort to amicable collection first. It promotes a certain appeasement of relations between the two parties.

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