Free Legal and Business Helplines

Law Express

The CPA in attempting to improve its services for the membership has brought in a new legal helpline provider, Law Express, from the 1st February 2011.

They are an established and respected business, and will be able to deal with most enquiries - Commercial Law, Company Law, Employment Law, Health and Safety and Taxation. They will not, however, be able to assist Members on issues surrounding the CPA Conditions.

We would request that Members initially contact the CPA to ascertain whether we can be of assistance before contacting Law Express.

In the event that CPA staff cannot be of assistance, or are unavailable, the new helpline number is 0800 092 1980;

Law Express's call centre hours are from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm Monday to Friday, and from 9.00 am to 12.00 (noon) at weekends (excluding Bank / Public Holidays). If they cannot deal with your query immediately, they will endeavour to return your call within the hour.

Can you please ensure that all relevant personnel within your organisation are notified of this change of service provider.

Top Service Ltd

We have been providing specialist credit information for more than 16 years. There are currently 2,500 subscribers exchanging credit information, via our service. Subscribers range in size from multi national companies to sole traders, however, all take the same risk when hiring goods.

Credit checking your potential customers is all well and good, but how do you ensure that their circumstances don't change once you are dealing with them? We have solved this problem by providing our subscribers with a free monitoring service. As a subscriber you have unlimited use of this free service which alerts you by email or fax every time a limited company:

· Files a new set of accounts.

· Has a county court judgment registered against it.

· Has an increase or decrease in it’s suggested credit limit.

· Has a change in its company status (eg. Administration, Liquidation etc.)

You can monitor as many limited companies as you wish, for example, we can keep an eye on your current customers, ex-customers, potential customers, competitors or suppliers. You can add and delete companies on your list at the touch of a button. Nothing could be simpler.

Sometimes slow payers and bad debtors need a push from a third party. As a subscriber you are entitled to up to ten chasing letters every month, produced and mailed out at our expense. Sent out on our letterhead these letters will have a huge impact on your bad debtors, in fact, 78% of all letters sent out result in a payment within seven days. There is absolutely no charge to subscribers for this service. Choose between a mild letter for your slow payers or a stronger letter for your bad debtors.

We also provide, exclusively to Top Service subscribers, a debt recovery service. If you would like one of our dedicated advisors to chase a debt for you via letters and telephone calls we will. We are one of the few agencies that put our money where our mouth is and only charge commission if we collect your cash.

Discount

All Construction Plant Hire Association members are entitled to a 25% discount on our subscription. Please contact us on 01527 503990 or email emma.bridges@top-service.co.uk for further information about subscription and the costs.

Free Monitoring

We will monitor four limited companies on behalf of any CPA members, regardless of whether you subscribe to our service or not. This means that we will email or fax you whenever one of these companies:

· Files a new set of accounts.

· Has a county court judgment registered against it.

· Has an increase or decrease in its suggested credit limit.

· Has a change in company status (e.g., winding-up petition presented, administration, etc.).

Free Credit Control Advice

Construction Plant Hire Association have negotiated a free credit control advice service for its members. With years of experience dealing with credit control & debt recovery, we will be more than happy to try and answer your question.

To ask your question telephone Emma or Matt on 01527 518800 or email emma.bridges@top-service.co.uk and they will be happy to help. Please note: We are not lawyers. If your query is of a legal nature we will attempt to obtain some free advice from a solicitor on your behalf.

There is absolutely no obligation; we simply understand that in this day and age everyone is looking at ways to enhance their current credit control procedures.