Company accounts overdue

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> It is the kind of thig that banks should be offering

 

Well any org that had some trust in the market. I was thinking probably backed by a law firm and/or a credit card/insurance company as it's generally not worth their while for lawyers to deliberately make a cash transfer without the proper conditions/authorisation (stop sniggering at the back there, Bloggins minor). I once sold a domain name through an escrow service, v straight forward, so I was (pretty much) guaranteed to get the cash and the buyer was (pretty much) guaranteed to get the domain. I see that quite a lot of the payment processors, Stripe etc, have some sort of escrow offering.

 

Plucking random stuff out of Google, I'm seeing costs of 1 to 3%. That's for simple 'payment for goods' transactions. It would presumably be more for staged payments because of the extra admin costs. Again from random Googling - I see escrow.com will do transactions in GBP e.g. https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator#GBP - even 'Milestone Transactions' at 1.78%.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Plucking random stuff out of Google, I'm seeing costs of 1 to 3%. That's for simple 'payment for goods' transactions. It would presumably be more for staged payments because of the extra admin costs. Again from random Googling - I see escrow.com will do transactions in GBP e.g. https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator#GBP - even 'Milestone Transactions' at 1.78%.

At those sorts of prices it is worth doing on most transations.

If I have to take a rotten bag of oranges back to Sainsbury, it costs me more.

(Don't think I have done a proper shop in Sainsbury since that incident in 2003)

[Alan Ambrose]

Oh, the 2003 Sainsbury's bagged citrus fruit debacle? I wondered if you were going to bring that up.

[SteamyTea]

Just now, Alan Ambrose said:

Oh, the 2003 Sainsbury's bagged citrus fruit debacle? I wondered if you were going to bring that up.

Were Outspans.

Not Jaffas, like @pocster

[saveasteading]

Our business bought  very big orders of steel buildings, and our credit level rose over the years. We got significant discounts for prepayment....much more than the interest. So most clients jumped at the saving but were rightly nervous of the risk. But the supplier got a personal guarantee from their bank to our client. It was a single page saying that if the materials were not delivered or were wrong, the bank would reimburse " without argument".

 

So it can be done. But the bank is not taking the risk, and won't. A small supplier would have to provide guarantees to the bank.

[Kelvin]

I understand that and agree so much so have been very open with other company names I’ve dealt with thus far and have posted them on here. I’ve emailed the company in question and waiting on a response. When I get a reply I’ll post the name. Susie has very kindly done a credit check and by and large it looks fine albeit it doesn’t have last year’s accounts. 

[Kelvin]

40 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

It is the kind of thig that banks should be offering, but not at 20% of the contract price.

Maybe 0.3% plus a one off set up charge.

 

There are insurance policies you can take out and I looked at that for the timber kit but cost was getting on for 20% of the kit cost so it makes it untenable for the lowly self-builder. 
 

Banks are less eager to help unless it’s their money they’ve loaned you up front. Even section 75 isn’t straightforward. A lot of banks have an automatic response of refusing a section 75 claim and then when challenged try and find any loopholes to get out of it. The biggest one being the number of days you have to make the claim whereas you actually have 6 years. 

[Thorfun]

@Kelvin my 2 cents on this subject. 

1. you have peace of mind with section 75 protection

2. last years accounts were filed 31/3/22 and so they're only a couple of weeks late. 

3. talk to the director about the new company and the late accounts! it might all be very above board.

4. when doing due diligence on our groundworker his accounts were late filed. I asked him about it and he said 'are they? my accountant deals with all of that'. so he didn't even know about the late filing. I ended up hiring him and he built me an excellent basement.

 

I understand the level of paranoia especially considering the other threads going around at the moment but this could all be worrying for nothing.

[Temp]

Just remember the £30k limit on section 75. If the total order value is over £30k you aren't covered. Not even the first £30k.

 

[Kelvin]

They’ve replied saying they have filed their accounts on time but it could take weeks to update. Is that normal? 

[Mr Punter]

38 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

They’ve replied saying they have filed their accounts on time but it could take weeks to update. Is that normal? 

 

Yes.

[bassanclan]

I would be inclined to stall whilst you arrange storage, then pay and collect at the same time

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> They’ve replied saying they have filed their accounts on time but it could take weeks to update. Is that normal? 

 

I've had it approved filed and and up on the Companies House site within hours. I'm sure an admin person at their accountants can take a few weeks to get round to it though.

 

You can always ask them for a copy of the accounts - they're going to be up for the public to see shortly anyway.

[Susie]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

They’ve replied saying they have filed their accounts on time but it could take weeks to update. Is that normal? 

If they filed on the 31st March and we have had two bank holidays so yes it could take a few weeks but definitely before the end of the month I will get an automatic alert when the accounts hit the credit report and will let you know. 

[Kelvin]

I checked Companies House again today which has been updated to say the accounts have been filed and are being processed and will be available in 10 days. The company is Ashley Ann kitchens.