Company Voluntary Arrangement

[trevorwood]

Anyone know anything about these?

I started court proceedings against a company to recover an unpaid bill in January. They now inform me that in February they took out a CVA to which my debt can be added.

My understanding is that I should have had a vote in this. I'm also not sure whether this will protect them against the upcoming court case. In any event I believe they should have notified my company before this

[Mark CP]

Hi Trevor,

I know a little of CVA's and from sounds of it your former customer is blagging hard to avoid payment- as far as I know they must make you aware of the fact they are going down the CVA route, though they only need 75% of there creditors to agree to their proposal for it to be enforceable.

If you haven't received any notification that they were applying for it (and even then if it is genuine and other relevant parties were told in February) their failure to inform you would suggest you are on quite strong grounds legally as the beauty of a CVA is that with the company still trading through, any debts outside this agreement are still repayable. Though arguably they couldn’t have made a CVA without declaring monies owed to you to the auditors so this would lead me to believe its bogus claim in the first place.

Please don't take this as gospel but I spent many a bored hour in my youth studying law and accountancy so hope it helps- if I were you I’d get the ball rolling in terms of getting a court date set and then see how they respond, if it is a delaying tactic they should fold and if genuine their failure to inform you of the agreement should nullify it, so hopefully win win situation for you.

I'd be interested to hear how this pans out for you please keep me posted.

[trevorwood]

I have already got a court date - it's only a week or so away. They have given me the name & address of the insolvency practitioners (no phone number though - I've had to find that myself). I've spoken to the secretary there and she's going to get the practitioner to call me back. When I explained the situation, there was a hint of panic (or at least concern) in her voice, so she knows there's a potential problem.

Thanks for the advice - watch this space

[AboveParr]

It'll certainly be interesting to know what happens - I'm just starting court proceedings against a client and fully expecting them to try every trick they can think of - Good Luck!

[trevorwood]

Well, they've made an offer to pay what they owe + court fees. I've counter offered with what they owe + court costs + interest + compensation that we're legally allowed to claim (dropping my time).

I've spoken to the supervisor of the CVA and he's getting teed off with these guys because more & more debts keep coming out. He's advised me to continue the court case, but anything coming out of the court might then be put into the CVA - hence the counter offer

[Mark CP]

Happy days Trevor, sounds like it's looking positive for you then, I think that's quite telling that even there own CVA supervisor is encouraging court proceedings!