In order to coincide with their 30 Years Anniversary and having conducted an anonymous survey of the membership, the current BGIA (British Golf Industry Association) Executive Board and Chair Nigel Freemantle decided that the BGIA needed to re-access their member benefits in order to offer a more wide ranging service to their members.
With this in mind they approached Steve Allinson who is a Consultant Solicitor and Licensed Insolvency Practitioner at Shoosmiths LLP to ask him to offer his expertise in these areas on behalf of members should they ever become involved as a creditor in an insolvency dispute and need proxy management on insolvency matters.
Steve who recently conducted an informative seminar for BGIA members entitled ‘Corporate Insolvency for Creditors: The End or is it?’ agreed and suggested that the member benefit should also include creditor meeting attendance (organised by Shoosmiths). Steve said: “Additionally we can include the completion and lodging of proxy and insolvency papers and monitoring of the progress of any insolvency in which your member is a creditor, free of charge. Payment will only be made (at an agreed percentage) if any actual dividend is received in the insolvency. If no dividend is received then no payment will be required for this service.”
Steve is an experienced Insolvency Practitioner he has specialised in credit, debt and insolvency work since 1987, he has extensive experience in dealing with the full range of these procedures. Part of Steve’s role at Shoosmiths is to manage the proxy and creditor meeting relationships. He has a number of Insolvency Practitioners that he works with in this regard on different projects and they are based up and down the country (and in Scotland). Furthermore, Steve has put forward a second proposal which we also believe will be of benefit to members if they have an unpaid judgment that needs enforcing.
In simple terms, the two fold proposal that the BGIA are offering members is as follows:
Part 1 – A Free Insolvency Management Service
- A free Insolvency Management service whereby on a pro-forma spreadsheet the BGIA member uploads details of any insolvency proceedings in which they are a creditor.
- This form is sent to Steve Allinson.He ensures that the claim is lodged; any insolvency meeting is attended and he effectively becomes the member’s administration manager for this matter.
- No costs are charged as this is a free service, subject to 5 below.
- Ongoing monitoring and chasing is undertaken by Steve who reports back to the BGIA member via regular spreadsheet reporting.
- If a dividend is paid in the insolvency then it will be remitted to the BGIA member subject to a deduction of 20% of that dividend to pay for the services above. If no dividend is declared then no charge will be made.
- Part of this service also includes free advice by Steve Allinson on the insolvency situation in which the BGIA member is involved.
Part 2 – Transfer Up of an unsatisfied County Court Judgment to the High Court for enforcement.
- This is a service provided by Shoosmiths (through Steve Allinson) in conjunction with High Court Enforcement whereby any BGIA member who has an unsatisfied court judgment in excess of £600 will have the opportunity to “transfer up” this judgment to the High Court FREE OF CHARGE. The only payment that needs to be made is the court fee of £60.
- High Court Enforcement will then seek to enforce this judgment and will be paid from any realised assets that are seized to satisfy the judgment. They will liaise direct with the BGIA member on each case and provide free enforcement advice on it moving forward.
- If the debt is not successfully enforced then regardless of the amount of work undertaken by High Court Enforcement there will only be one abortive case fee charged of £75 plus Vat (£90).
- If enforcement is successful then the costs of using a High Court Enforcement Officer will be recovered from the debtor and added to the debt.
BGIA Chair, Nigel Freemantle said, “Both these proposals add value to the BGIA membership as they take the pressure off a company when they have difficulties with bad debts. The benefit will enable them to move forward on more productive matters and leave the management of the case entirely in Steve’s capable hands.”
If any BGIA members would like to take advantage of this benefit, please contact Association Manager Ciara Morgan – Ciara@sportsandplay.com in the first instance who will pass on Steve’s contact details. In addition, if any member has any general query on these areas this can also be passed on to Steve if required.
The BGIA are committed to representing their members by promoting participation and excellence across all areas of the sport of golf.
British Golf Industry Association (BGIA) is the lead trade body representing UK manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of golf products and services www.bgia.org.uk