Accountant & CCJ

[tiaposy]

I have a problem with my old accountant and a CCJ!!

My husband and I run a ltd company and In Feb 2006 the accountant brought our yearly books round with an invoice for £2k. The books were supposed to be filed at Companies house by March 2006.

 

In Aug 2006 we moved house, but the mail was re-directed until March 2007. (When the accountant brought the books round, he offered to put his address for our company on companies house as we were moving about so much. We didn't intend not to pay him, and thought we would still be using him, so let him do it)

 

Long story short, we have never paid the accountant (lack of money and thinking we had got away with it to be honest) and since feb 06 we haven't heard a word from him, haven't seen our books or old paperwork.

 

We now have a new accountant and he had to get in contact with the old one, so I knew we might be getting a 'reminder' for the outstanding bill. Our new accountant found out that the old one had not filed our books at companies house until August last year, when they were due in March!! I know we hadn't paid him, but I couldn't understand what made him do it August and not chase us for payment - until now!

 

In May we received a letter threatening to make us, as directors, bankrupt for not paying his invoice. with the help of some great person on here I sent him a stiff letter back saying

1. We have never seen our books, so what are we paying for?

2. He cannot make us as directors bankrupt as we did not sign an indemnity form

3. please can he break down the cost of the invoice, because we thought it was excessive.

 

now, here is the thing that I think put him off chasing us further.

I added at the bottom of the letter that I was concerned that he had filed out books 5 months late and that we could have recieved a financial penalty from companies house.

We haven't heard a word from him since May.

 

Finally the twist...

I have had to find another Business bank account, due to the kind bank manager at Lloyds taking our overdraft away... another story.

So Barclays had to check our details at companies house to open an account for us. They also did credit checks on us both.

It turns out that we have a CCJ against the company, from Feb 2007, that we knew nothing about. Its for £326 and hasn't been satisfied.

Luckily it isn't on our personal credit files as we are hoping to get a mortgage next year. I rang the court to find out what it was about and it turns out we did get a fine from companies house for the books being filed late. This was for £250, + charges that we knew nothing about.

So the first accountant must have had all these letters, for our company, not forwarding them on or contacting us - he had our numbers/email that hasn't changed for years. Now because of him we have recieved a CCJ - I cannot tell you how mad I am.

 

I know we didn't pay him, but as far as I am concerned he has proved he is incompetent and I would like some advice on what to do next.

Ideally I would like to get the CCJ removed, but is it too late? Can I sue the accountant?

Incidently, the lovely lady at Barclays still gave us an account, however she said lending to the company would be hard now we have a CCJ - so no overdraft!!

 

Thanks for reading this saga, and any help would be gratefully received.

 

tiaposy

[tiaposy]

Sorry - I'll start my own thread

[tiaposy]

I have a problem with my old accountant and a CCJ!!

My husband and I run a ltd company and In Feb 2006 the accountant brought our yearly books round with an invoice for £2k. The books were supposed to be filed at Companies house by March 2006.

 

In Aug 2006 we moved house, but the mail was re-directed until March 2007. (When the accountant brought the books round, he offered to put his address for our company on companies house as we were moving about so much. We didn't intend not to pay him, and thought we would still be using him, so let him do it)

 

Long story short, we have never paid the accountant (lack of money and thinking we had got away with it to be honest) and since feb 06 we haven't heard a word from him, haven't seen our books or old paperwork.

 

We now have a new accountant and he had to get in contact with the old one, so I knew we might be getting a 'reminder' for the outstanding bill. Our new accountant found out that the old one had not filed our books at companies house until August last year, when they were due in March!! I know we hadn't paid him, but I couldn't understand what made him do it August and not chase us for payment - until now!

 

In May we received a letter threatening to make us, as directors, bankrupt for not paying his invoice. with the help of some great person on here I sent him a stiff letter back saying

1. We have never seen our books, so what are we paying for?

2. He cannot make us as directors bankrupt as we did not sign an indemnity form

3. please can he break down the cost of the invoice, because we thought it was excessive.

 

now, here is the thing that I think put him off chasing us further.

I added at the bottom of the letter that I was concerned that he had filed out books 5 months late and that we could have recieved a financial penalty from companies house.

We haven't heard a word from him since May.

 

Finally the twist...

I have had to find another Business bank account, due to the kind bank manager at Lloyds taking our overdraft away... another story.

So Barclays had to check our details at companies house to open an account for us. They also did credit checks on us both.

It turns out that we have a CCJ against the company, from Feb 2007, that we knew nothing about. Its for £326 and hasn't been satisfied.

Luckily it isn't on our personal credit files as we are hoping to get a mortgage next year. I rang the court to find out what it was about and it turns out we did get a fine from companies house for the books being filed late. This was for £250, + charges that we knew nothing about.

So the first accountant must have had all these letters, for our company, not forwarding them on or contacting us - he had our numbers/email that hasn't changed for years. Now because of him we have recieved a CCJ - I cannot tell you how mad I am.

 

I know we didn't pay him, but as far as I am concerned he has proved he is incompetent and I would like some advice on what to do next.

Ideally I would like to get the CCJ removed, but is it too late? Can I sue the accountant?

Incidently, the lovely lady at Barclays still gave us an account, however she said lending to the company would be hard now we have a CCJ - so no overdraft!!

 

Thanks for reading this saga, and any help would be gratefully received.

[patrickq1]

FOR YOUR ACCOUNT TO BE RUN AND AUDITED CORRECTLEY THE ACCOUNTANT MUST BE A CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT FOR LIMITED COMPANY IF NOT THEN HE CANNOT RUN YOUR LIMITED ACCOUNTS UNLESS THEY ARE VERIFIED BY A CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT sorry for shouting lol but has he been proccessing your accounts and an ordinary accountant,THIS MAY BE THE REASON FOR WITH HOLDING YOUR INFORMATION YOU CAN ASLO REPORT HIM IF YOU FEEL (BUT YOU NEED A SPECIALIST AUDITOR TO VERIFY)HE HAS ABUSED HIS POSITION BUT EITHER WAY IT WILL COST YOU MONEY BUT YOU CAN REDUCE THE BILL ON AN AUDIT OF HIS CHARGES....HOPE THIS HELPS

[lookinforinfo]

I am surprised that noone has yet said that as you didn't pay the guy why would you expect him to carry on working for you for nothing? I certainly

wouldn't, and I daresay you wouldn't either were the situation reversed.

 

That being said, you could point out to Barclays that despite them having more ccjs than you could shake a stick at [whatever that means]it doesn't

stop them getting credit or affecting their credit rating with Standard & Poores. So why should a ccj that you knew nothing about until they drew it to your attention affect their decision to give you an overdraft?

[payingonlyencouragesthem]

 

That being said, you could point out to Barclays that despite them having more ccjs than you could shake a stick at [whatever that means]it doesn't

stop them getting credit or affecting their credit rating with Standard & Poores. So why should a ccj that you knew nothing about until they drew it to your attention affect their decision to give you an overdraft?

 

wish I had thought of that one:grin:

[Goldlady]

You don't need a chartered accountant for a limited company unless the turnover is over I believe a couple of million.

 

You should certainly be able to negotiate a substantial reduction in the amount you owe him for his failure to file your details and (more importantly) you might be able to get the fine (and therefore the CCJ) from Companies House cancelled if you can prove that he said he would notify change of address and file your accounts. I have managed to do this for a client whose previous accountant led them to believe that he had done everything.

 

And yes I do work for clients before they have paid me - it is not an excuse.

[patrickq1]

thanks goldlady for putting me wise

[tiaposy]

Re post 3 - I didn't ask him to carry on working for us for nothing! My point was we had no contact from him for 14 months and up until the 12 month mark we had the same address or post forwarded to our new address. Our telephone numbers & email address were the same yet we didn't hear a word.

I just wandered why, if will still hadn't paid him the August, why did he choose to file the accounts then?

[tiaposy]

Barclays have given us an account which is what we were worried about. We will go through the overdraft route in 6 months time.