Recovery of collection costs
Recovery
of debt collection outlays
In terms of Article 6 of Italian Law (D.L. n.231 09/10/2002) the
debtor may be held liable for the repayment to the creditor of the
latter’s outlays made in seeking an extra-judicial (in the
pre-litigation phase) settlement of the debt. Said article reads as
follows:
1. The creditor shall be entitled to the costs incurred by him in
the recovery of sums which have not been paid timeously, excepting
where the debtor is able to demonstrate that the delay was not due
to his fault.
2. The costs - always within the limits of the principles of
transparency and proportionality - may also be determined on the
basis of presumptive elements and of the court tariffs regarding
extra-judicial costs.
Quantification of compensation for recovery costs
In terms of the above-mentioned law, the quantification of costs
recoverable from the debtor shall be calculated by reference to the
court tariffs in force regarding extra-judicial credit recovery. The
sums requested from the debtor, therefore, shall be line with those
which would be sought by a legal firm in the first pre-litigation
phase (default/warning of legal action).
These parameters allow us to request from the debtor the total
reimbursement of the costs borne by the creditor (our client) for
the extra-judicial work for the recovery of credits entrusted to us,
relative to sums under €2,500. In addition to this sum, the debtor
may be requested only a partial compensation of the recovery costs.
(see table)
Worked example
If we consider the situation where COMAS receives instructions to
recover a sum of €5,000 which has been outstanding for a period of
12 months, the debtor would receive the following payment demand:
- Capital €5,000
- Interest €543.68 (calculated in terms of the DL n.231 above)
- Bank charges €35.00
- Compensation of recovery costs €450.00
- Total sum to pay €6,028.68
Should the debtor effect payment of all the above-mentioned sums,
the creditor would recover a net sum of €5,359.24 (the difference
between the sum collected and the compensation of €669.44 due to
COMAS on the basis of an agreed commission of 12%, calculated on
capital, interest and bank charges recovered).
Clarification
The missed or partial recovery of the sums requested from the debtor
as heads of compensation of the recovery costs may not in any way
have a bearing on the compensation due to COMAS by the creditor on
the basis of mandate given to COMAS.
The request for reimbursement of the recovery costs may not be
applied to credits dated prior to 8 August 2002.
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DEBT COLLECTION