How You Can Recover Debts Owed To Your Company From Another Business
Running a successful business of any kind entails strict adherence to debt collection, especially when those debts line the back bone of your overall profits. Most of the time, you may have no trouble getting paid for your products or services for other companies. However, when the time comes and another company is not paying up, the time to take steps for getting the money owed to you is at hand. Learn more about how you can take out a lien against another company that owes you money.
Filing At The Court
To start the process of taking out a lien against another company, you will need documented proof of how much that particular company owes you. If you have this documentation, your next step is consulting with a transactional attorney about filing an order in court for a lien. While you can do this in a small claims court without an attorney, it is always in the best interests of your business to have legal representation. When your attorney files this type of order, the first step has been taken to making you a lien holder of the company's assets until that company pays the debt owed to you. Before the lien is legal, you and your attorney will need to obtain a judgment against that company in court. Your attorney can help make this process easier and less stressful for you. In court, the company that owes you money will have to explain why the debt has not been paid and if they have any plans for paying it soon. If the court finds the company in default, you will be given a judgment against them so filing a lien will be an open option.
Assets That Will Be Included In The Lien You Hold
Once you receive a court-ordered judgment, you will need to make it public (most companies list it in their local newspaper). Once the judgment is made public, you will be able to learn what kind of assets the company that owes has to offer you in lieu of the debt owed to you. The company's bank accounts, real property and vehicles are some examples of the assets that company cannot transfer or move until the debt owed to you is paid in full. For example, if the company that owes you has a fleet of vans for delivery purposes, the company owner cannot sell any of those vans for any reason while you hold the lien, even it is to get the money up for the debt owed to you.
When The Time Comes For Seizing Property
Once a lien is finalized and the assets of a company is attached to that lien, you have the right as the lien holder to seize the assets for selling and rendering your profit losses because of the debt never paid to you. If the amount of the judgment is fulfilled through the first sale of attached assets, you and the other company are free of one another. However, if the judgment (the amount owed to you by the other company) is not fulfilled by the first sale, other assets will be attached and sold until the amount of judgment is reached.
No one likes to think about taking the assets of another business, especially in the current economic times of today. However, when you face losing your business because of being owed a debt by a company you trusted, a lien can be the best way to secure your profit margins. If you have tried relentlessly to get another company to pay their debt to you without any success, speaking to an experienced transactional attorney about filing for lien is a good idea.
To learn more, contact a company like Metropolitan Lawyer Referral Service Inc.