Fees: Complete debt collection

Bierens strives for justice in trade. Justice for the creditor is our motto. That's why we go beyond No Cure No Pay.

When No Cure No Pay is applicable, customers do not pay an additional fee if the payment has not been collected. If we are successful in collecting the payment, then it is common to charge customers a fee of 15% within the debt collection world.

At Bierens we aim to avoid charging our customers an additional fee, also in the event that we do recover the full payment. We believe that the debtor should cover all costs. After all, it is the debtor who failed to comply with the contractual agreements.

Therefore, we aim to have our entire fee paid by the debtor, and in most cases, we succeed in doing so. In most cases, we settle the case in such a way that you are left with the full principal amount while not having incurred any costs from the recovery.

Note that for these conditions to apply, we should be able to recover at least 1% interest per month and 15% collection costs from the debtor. Of course, this will not be possible if the client authorises us to recover the costs while no general terms and conditions have been established. Or if the general terms and conditions do apply, but do not contain the conditions regarding the interest and extrajudicial collection costs owed by the debtor.

In those cases, it is only possible to recover part of the costs while the client has to cover these. In most cases, we will settle the case in such a way that 95% of the amount recovered is retained by the client after the deduction of our costs. The better the consequences of non-payment have been arranged in your general conditions, the closer you will get to recover 100%. If these have been established correctly, you will not incur any costs.

Feel free to call us for more information, we will be happy to explain our rates to you in detail.

Which conditions should be included in the general terms and conditions?
General terms and conditions sometimes do not contain the correct conditions on interest and collection costs, resulting in clients having to pay a part of the collection costs themselves. That is very unfortunate and unnecessary. With very simple changes, you can ensure that the costs can be recovered in full.

In the Netherlands, we have had a good legal basis for this for a number of years that you can make use of as well.

If you include the following clause in your general terms and conditions, you will recover the maximum result:

1.2         If an invoice is not paid within the agreed payment term, the debtor is in default without a summons or notice of default being required. From that moment onwards, all outstanding and/or not yet due invoices shall become immediately due and payable.

1.3          In the event of default, the debtor will owe a default interest rate of 1.5% per month.

1.4          In the event of default, all costs, including judicial and extrajudicial costs, will be borne by the debtor. The extrajudicial collection costs will become due from the moment the claim has been outsourced for collection and will amount to at least 15% of the unpaid amount, with a minimum of € 250,-"

Please note that these conditions only apply to business contracts. You cannot invoke these with consumers.

Conditions for disputes in general terms and conditions
When doing international trade, it would also be convenient if you can litigate in your own country against a foreign debtor.

Therefore, we advise you to include a clause in your general terms and conditions under the section "disputes" stating that both your country’s court and the court in the buyer's country are competent. The buyer will be pleased since cases can be taken to court in both countries. However, from the moment a debtor fails to fulfil their obligations, you can, on the basis of these conditions, go to court in your own country. If you then start proceedings in your own country, you can have a much higher chance of successfully recovering your payment or reaching a settlement.

We recommend including the following conditions:

"Both the court in the country of the client and the court in your country are competent to take cognisance of disputes".