Specialist debt collection law firm, Welbeck Law LLP, based in London, has launched a specialist debt collection service to trace non paying community fee debtors.
“As a consequence of changes in European legislation it’s now possible for Communities to pursue UK based residents for Community fees”, explains founding partner, Jeremy Boyle.
Jeremy says “My parents emigrated to Spain in the 1970’s. In those days Europe was a very large continent. However now even if the claimant Community is based in Spain we can sue the UK resident whether they are in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland. You can run but you cannot hide!”.
In Spain many litigants complain about the time it takes a Community of owners to secure a judgment against the non paying resident.
“I have heard that the Spanish Courts have back logs of thousands of cases which cannot have been helped by the austerity measures and that it can take over a year apparently to obtain a judgment. In the UK however the procedure we use is much faster and an Order can usually be obtained within 30 to 60 days of lodgement of the court papers.”
One further frustration experienced by Abogados and the Administradores de Fincas in Spain is that even when they have a judgment, they cannot enforce it because the non paying debtor is in the UK and the Communities do not have the debtor’s UK address.
“That is not a major problem in the UK jurisdiction”, opines Jeremy Boyle. “We work with professional and fully licensed expert tracing agents who use modern technology to track down errant debtors. We had one case recently where the Community had almost given up trying to trace the debtor. The community administrator and their Abogado were thrilled when the debtor was traced to Birmingham and an offer to repay the ?6829 soon followed. I also think it helps that my firm is based in London and the debtors then realise that there is no where left to hide”.
The beauty is that you do not have to go through the Spanish legal system. If the debtor is resident in the UK he can be pursued through the UK courts which are much faster.
“It has always struck me as being fundamentally unfair that the neighbour who diligently pays their community fees on time and has budgeted their money wisely has to pay a higher amount because the UK resident is not paying their fair share”, adds Jeremy.
Today you can do something about the non paying debtors: bring this article to your President’s attention and contact Jeremy Boyle at Welbeck Law LLP whose contact details are: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit http://www.welbectlawllp.co.uk Tel. +44 (0) 207467 3999. Welbeck Law LLP is authorised and regulared by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
