One of the services that we operate heavily in debt recovery for small and large scale businesses. But what do you think of when you hear that term?
When the term ‘debt recovery’ comes to mind, do we only focus on the monetary side of things? Or do we focus on our assets as well?
To us, debt recovery is more than just retrieving the finances that an individual, or a business owes you. It’s also about your assets.
Many business’ lease out certain assets such as vehicles, machinery, tools & equipment.
But one of the most valuable things that is leased out, and often taken advantage of, is property.
In the past, we’ve worked with real estate agents, landlords and other property rental companies in legally regaining land, buildings and property that are unfairly being used outside, or past their contracts.
We’ve been hired in the past to recover property and conduct property lockouts to tenants who are working outside the terms and conditions of their contract, or have not paid for the lease of the property. This is a form of debt recovery, and happens more often than you would think.
After all, if your tenant isn’t paying rent, or is using the facility/property past their contracts, then you deserve to have something done. So, what do you do before you conduct a tenant lockout?
Read over your Contracts
Before any claims, lockouts or letters/emails are sent, you need to ensure that you’re legally in the right and can conduct a lockout.
Go over your contracts to ensure that all parties are aware of the dates in which they signed on to, or the finances that they agreed to pay, as well as the regularity/basis in which they wanted to pay them.
You also need to ensure that the tenants were made aware of these details, and if the contracts have been signed, then they should be aware of these conditions.
The worst thing you could do is perform a lockout outside your contract simply due to a clerical or administrative error. So before you conduct a lockout, go through your contracts.
Seek Legal Advice
If you’re owed finances, or need to break this contract due to a tenant not being able to pay for months, you should seek legal advice.
A lawyer will be able to assist you in ensuring that all your actions & decisions will be above board and legally viable. This is to again ensure that you don’t put your business, agency or property in jeopardy. We can also only perform lockouts if we are legally entitled to, so it’s always better to seek counsel before you act.
Hire the Professionals
Lockouts shouldn’t be performed by everyone. It’s more than just putting bolts around gates or asking someone to pack their bags and go. We’ve been conducting tenant lockouts for many years, and through this have gained experience in how to approach tenants and know the legalities of doing these lockouts.
As we do with most things, we cannot stress to you more that you do NOT conduct lockouts yourself. This can be dangerous, and can potentially end poorly.
Debt recovery is a serious issue that can affect landlords and real estate agents. Your business shouldn’t have to suffer due to someone else. If someone can’t afford the rent, then perhaps they need to look at other properties. If someone is overstaying their welcome, then they too need to seek alternative options.
If you’re a real estate agent, property leaser or landlord and are in need of debt/asset recovery, feel free to contact us to see how we can help. We’ll help decipher whether or not it’s viable, and be able to help you safely and securely regain your property or assets.