How recovery works
From first call to money in your account
Every file follows the same five stages. You are told which stage you are at, and nothing escalates without your instruction. This page explains what actually happens in each one — including the parts most agencies leave vague.
Free case assessment
You send the invoice, contract or cheque and describe what has happened. We look at three things: whether the debt is documented well enough to be enforceable, who the correct legal entity behind the debtor actually is, and whether the non-payment looks like a dispute, a cash-flow problem, or deliberate avoidance.
You get back a route, a realistic view on likelihood, and your commission rate in writing. If we do not think the debt is worth pursuing, we tell you that instead of taking the file. There is no charge and no obligation.
Verification and debtor profiling
Once instructed, we verify the debtor's registration details and trading status, and check whether the entity named on your invoice is the entity that actually owes the money. This matters more than it sounds: trading names, branch offices and free-zone entities are frequently not the same legal person as the one a creditor has been invoicing, and pursuing the wrong one is unrecoverable time.
We also establish whether the debtor is still trading, whether other creditors are already circling, and whether there is any acknowledgement of the debt on record. The strategy follows from those answers rather than from a script.
Formal demand
A written demand goes to the debtor setting out the amount claimed, the basis for it, the documents relied on, and a deadline for payment or a substantive response.
This stage resolves more debts than any other, and the reason is behavioural rather than legal. A demand arriving from a third party tells the debtor that the creditor has stopped absorbing the delay internally — that the account has moved from a queue of polite reminders into a process with a next step. Debtors who have ignored six emails frequently respond to the first demand.
Negotiation and settlement
Direct contact with the debtor by telephone and in writing, in Arabic or English as the file requires. The objective is payment in full. Where that is not realistic — and with a genuinely distressed debtor it often is not — we negotiate a documented settlement or an instalment schedule.
You decide whether to accept it. We will give you our view, including where we think an offer is worse than the alternative, but the decision is yours and nothing is signed without it. On instalment settlements our commission is charged proportionally as each payment arrives, not as a lump sum at the start.
Escalation, if it is needed
If the debtor will not engage, the file is prepared for formal action: the documentation is assembled into a form that can actually be filed, and the matter is referred to our associate advocates in the UAE, who conduct the proceedings.
We are a collection agency, not a law firm, and we do not pretend otherwise. What we do at this stage is make sure the file arriving on an advocate's desk is complete, and that you have seen the cost basis and approved it in writing before anything is incurred. Court fees and advocates' fees sit outside our commission — see fees.
We will not give you a recovery timeline at stage one that we cannot stand behind. How long a debt takes is governed almost entirely by whether the debtor engages, and no agency knows that on day one. You will get a realistic range for your specific file, and an update when the position changes — not a number chosen because it sounds reassuring.
Process questions
What creditors ask about how this works
Do I lose control of the debt once I hand it over?
No. You approve any settlement, and you approve any escalation to formal proceedings before it happens. We act on instruction, not instead of it.
Will you damage my relationship with the customer?
Contact is professional and made within the conduct standards that apply in the UAE. In practice, a large share of accounts that reach stage three are relationships that have already broken down — but where a commercial relationship is worth preserving, say so at stage one and the approach is adjusted accordingly.
What if the debtor disputes the debt?
A genuine dispute changes the route. We establish what is actually being disputed and whether your documentation answers it. Sometimes a dispute is a stalling tactic that collapses when confronted with a signed delivery note; sometimes it is real and the sensible commercial outcome is a negotiated figure. We will tell you which one we think you are looking at.
How often will I hear from you?
Whenever the position changes, and on request at any time. What we will not do is send activity reports that report no activity.
What if the debtor has left the UAE?
It complicates matters but does not automatically end them. Whether anything is recoverable depends on whether the debtor has assets or an operating entity still in the jurisdiction, and on whether a judgment obtained here could be recognised where they now are. That is a question worth answering before spending money on the attempt, and it is part of the assessment.