A client has been locked out by her landlord and owes me money. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I have a problem with a client that currently owes us $10,000 for services rendered. The amount isn’t disputed, just not paid, despite numerous promises to the contrary.

It now appears that she has a problem as they have been locked out of their premises for what I assume is unpaid bills to their landlord.

My problem is that they don’t appear to be placed in Administration as yet, which is a clearly defined legal path for creditors. So I was wondering what actions you think I should take, to maximise the amount of pennies I get back?

Disgruntled,
North Melbourne

Dear Disgruntled,

Things must be in a very bad way if they are locked out of their own offices but are continuing to trade. There is a type of rogue business owner who exists in business by lying and cheating. They lie about the state of their business to themselves and others and they keep the business going long past the time when most people would understand the show is over. Of course, what happens then is they continue to rack up bad debts and cause great pain to their staff, their clients and customers.

It may well be that this client is trading insolvently, which is illegal. To stop others being hurt, perform a public duty and report them to the corporate watch dog ASIC immediately.

Then you have two options. Go and see a debt collector and tell them to chase the debt as aggressively as possible. The second is to save the rest of us any more misery dealing with people like this and to wind them up. This means getting a lawyer to start proceedings against them and it forces them to act: either to pay you or to put the company into administration where, as you say, there is a legally defined pathway for creditors, and you may get something in the dollar which is better than your situation now.

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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