Issuing a statutory demand against ex-employer

[ATD]

I am owed £9000 pounds by my ex-employer for a redundancy pay-off, through a settlement agreement. The debt has been outstanding for over 3 years.

It was originally £30k, and I was paid some of it fairly quickly, but it has been very difficult to get the rest. There have been many broken promises, and I eventually received a couple of partial payments, leaving £9k outstanding now.

I have a record of over 40 attempts to contact them to resolve this, through email, phone and meetings. They are not disputing that the money is owed. I have a letter from them from January 2017, thanking me for my patience and saying that they have every intention of paying me, plus numerous emails where they say they will pay.

However, they never seem to have any money. They make promises, such as expecting a big order in a couple of weeks, but when money does come in, they then say there are higher priorities and I don’t get paid.

I have been threatening legal action for some time, and really feel that I need to follow through on that now to have any credibility.

My house insurer's legal helpline recommended that I issue a Statutory Demand and, if that fails, then a winding up order. They can't take it up for me as they don't cover contractual issues (and the time limit has passed for it to be an employment issue).

They didn't recommend MCOL as they felt that route could take a long time and I have waited long enough. An ex-colleague (contractor) used MCOL for outstanding invoices and still had to get bailiffs involved in the end.

Another ex-colleague (in an identical situation to me) used solicitors to get a winding-up order and incurred £7k legal fees! I think he went the county court route first.

I issued a LBA a couple of weeks ago, but have had no response.

I may well use solicitors if I end up going for a winding up order, and have been quoted about £3k, including court fees and solicitor’s fee. However, I would like to save some costs by issuing a statutory demand myself.

I have prepared a draft. Is it acceptable to post a draft on here and ask for comments?

Thanks very much for any assistance.

[ATD]

I posted this on a Friday night when I guess there weren't many people on the site! Please can anyone help or make any suggestions? I've been trying to find sample Statutory Demands online to check that my draft is on the right lines, without any success.

Thanks.

[paulajayne]

If they do not have the money to pay at this time it might not be the best course of action to bring at this time legal proceeding against them.



Perhaps a final letter to them questioning as the when you will receive the remaining monies. Even consider accepting a fixed amount per month say £500.

Was the agreement documented?

[R0b]

Hello

See attached example of a Statutory Demand against a company.

[ATD]

If they do not have the money to pay at this time it might not be the best course of action to bring at this time legal proceeding against them.



Perhaps a final letter to them questioning as the when you will receive the remaining monies. Even consider accepting a fixed amount per month say £500.

Was the agreement documented?

Hello

See attached example of a Statutory Demand against a company.

Hi Paulajayne and Rob. Thanks for your replies. I haven't been online for a while because my ex-employer made a small payment. They have promised to make another partial payment by the end of August and the remainder by the end of September. It remains to be seen as to whether they keep their promises this time.

If I don't receive a payment this week (by the end of August), I may issue a statutory demand, so thanks Rob for your example. Alternatively, as the amount owed is now £7k it falls within the fast track range for MCOL, so that may be a better option.

In answer to your question Paulajayne, I suggested the payment by installment option several times, but they weren't interested. And I do have a written agreement and enough emails to prove that they don't dispute the amount owed.

Thanks again for your help.