V
vok
Guest
Hi,
I know there's a thread in progress below about retrieving money from a company that's gone out of business but this is a slightly different situation so I thought it deserved a new thread.
Briefly, my situation is this. I'm an IT contractor who's been working in a financial company - Client Company - for the past number of months, placed there through an IT firm that provides short term technical resources - Agency Company.
Client Company is billed by Agency Company who pay me. Or, rather, don't pay me until I jump up and down on their heads.
I finished up in the contract a few weeks ago and was waiting for 2 months of long-promised back pay to come through from them, just before I sent them an invoice for a third month's just-completed work. Instead, my accountants inform me that they've received notice that the firm is going into voluntrary liqudation and that there's a creditors' meeting to be held next Wednesday.
At this point, you may be tempted to ask, why did I let myself get into a situation where I was left with 3 months back pay outstanding. I ask myself the same question, and the brutal truth is that I didn't see it coming. And I did not have as much energy or time or motivation to hassle my accountant to hassle them to pay me, as they had to stonewall and dissemble.
So, as an unsecured creditor, it looks like I'm at the end of the queue of others who will have to be paid before me - Revenue, Banks etc. There's a hugely slim chance that the directors just got bored of the business and this will not be as bad as I fear. But, my working assumption at this point is that I'm going to lose everything.
But I don't want this to be a worst case scenario. What can I do between now and the creditors' meeting to maximise the chances of getting paid what I'm owed?
What happens at these meetings? Should I attend with a solicitor? Or two Serbian heavies? Am I expected to sit there meek as a mouse while these guys tell me there's no money left in the pot to pay me? Or does the most aggressive guy who shouts the loudest walk away with all the spoils?
Or should I be taking an entirely different tack and approaching the Client Company and trying to find some way for them to pay me at least some of the money directly?
Losing money on an investment is tough. But losing money that you never expected to have to do without is particularly hard to take. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
I know there's a thread in progress below about retrieving money from a company that's gone out of business but this is a slightly different situation so I thought it deserved a new thread.
Briefly, my situation is this. I'm an IT contractor who's been working in a financial company - Client Company - for the past number of months, placed there through an IT firm that provides short term technical resources - Agency Company.
Client Company is billed by Agency Company who pay me. Or, rather, don't pay me until I jump up and down on their heads.
I finished up in the contract a few weeks ago and was waiting for 2 months of long-promised back pay to come through from them, just before I sent them an invoice for a third month's just-completed work. Instead, my accountants inform me that they've received notice that the firm is going into voluntrary liqudation and that there's a creditors' meeting to be held next Wednesday.
At this point, you may be tempted to ask, why did I let myself get into a situation where I was left with 3 months back pay outstanding. I ask myself the same question, and the brutal truth is that I didn't see it coming. And I did not have as much energy or time or motivation to hassle my accountant to hassle them to pay me, as they had to stonewall and dissemble.
So, as an unsecured creditor, it looks like I'm at the end of the queue of others who will have to be paid before me - Revenue, Banks etc. There's a hugely slim chance that the directors just got bored of the business and this will not be as bad as I fear. But, my working assumption at this point is that I'm going to lose everything.
But I don't want this to be a worst case scenario. What can I do between now and the creditors' meeting to maximise the chances of getting paid what I'm owed?
What happens at these meetings? Should I attend with a solicitor? Or two Serbian heavies? Am I expected to sit there meek as a mouse while these guys tell me there's no money left in the pot to pay me? Or does the most aggressive guy who shouts the loudest walk away with all the spoils?
Or should I be taking an entirely different tack and approaching the Client Company and trying to find some way for them to pay me at least some of the money directly?
Losing money on an investment is tough. But losing money that you never expected to have to do without is particularly hard to take. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.