Construction debt recovery in New Zealand
If you work in construction or a construction-related trade, we have an effective process to recover your bad debts quickly
With the right documentation and terms and conditions in place, we can recover your unpaid invoices, retentions, and disputed payments. Our commission-only pricing means if we don't recover, you don't pay.
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With the right T&C's and invoice details you don't have to put up with payment disputes
Making sure that you have effective Terms & Conditions is more important than you probably think. It's critically important that you provide these to your clients before you agree to do any work together — putting terms on the back of your invoices won't cut it. Don't be put off by doing this — your clients won't mind, and it makes you look more professional. Most of the suppliers you use have probably given you their T&Cs in advance as well. Even if you didn't do this before now, you should do it before your next jobs as they will make it much easier to enforce payment in future.
Can you recover collection costs from your bad debtors?
Absolutely, if you have the right documentation. With properly drafted Terms and Conditions, the majority of our commission can be recovered from your debtor as part of the recovery. If you get in touch we'll be happy to talk you through what's needed free of charge and with no obligation. We can also provide you free templates to use when taking on new work or invoicing that contain the minimum terms that you need to make it simpler to recover any bad debt in the future as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will it take to recover my debt?
It very much depends on the situation. Sometimes the mere involvement of a collection agency is enough to get prompt payment from your debtor and we can make recovery in weeks or days. For construction-related debts and payment disputes we typically make recovery within 6 weeks. If issues become more serious and more formal legal approaches are required, the process takes about a month longer. For highly complex matters, this may stretch out to many months to a year or longer before recovery is achieved. Very few matters are highly complex.
What is the process?
Our first priority is to get you paid as quickly as possible. We will negotiate with your debtor to get them to pay you now. Usually we can negotiate with them and make a payment plan when that isn't possible. If your debtor still won't come to the table and make a reasonable offer to settle then we have no choice but to take legal action against them. Our recovery success rates are exceptional, but sometimes it takes longer when debtors are particularly difficult.
How much do you charge?
Our commission is 30% of what we recover for you. If your Terms and Conditions are properly structured, we can usually recover most of this commission from your debtor too, so the net cost to your business is much lower than the headline rate.
Are there other costs involved?
There can be third-party costs in some matters, but we don't charge anything without talking to you first. Our commission is the only fee we charge for our own work, with no separate setup fees, document preparation fees, or monthly retainers on top. Any costs that come up are external ones like court filing fees, process server costs, and solicitor fees if your matter needs legal proceedings. We agree any of these with you in advance, and with properly drafted terms and conditions most if not all can be recovered from the debtor as part of the recovery.
How do your fees compare with other debt recovery agencies?
Our commission reflects what we deliver: full-service recovery with deep specialist expertise in construction and trades debt. Lower-commission agencies tend to be generalists running the same process on every case. Their headline rate looks cheaper but is often offset by fees charged at each step, including debt loading fees, document preparation fees, and sometimes fixed monthly retainers you pay whether or not your money is recovered. We don't add any of those on top of our commission. With properly drafted terms and conditions in place, we can usually recover most of our commission from your debtor, so your net cost often ends up the same, or even less. The real difference: we don't charge you unless we're actually putting money back in your pocket.