Personal Guarantee enforceable?

[Oli2000]

I under duress signed a personal guarantee to my CA for invoices outstanding by my limited company. He forced me to sign when he realised liquidation was looming. My company was liquidated by HMRC and he is now chasing the amount due personally. He has closed down his accountancy firm and assigned the debt to himself. He is seeking payment to him personally under this guarantee I made to his company. Can he do that??

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I've moved your thread to the general legal forum, where the guys should be able to help you. Here's a link in case you need it.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?418777-Personal-Guarantee-enforceable

 

My best, HB

[steampowered]

How under duress? Who is your CA and how did he force you to sign a personal guarantee?

[Oli2000]

Duress as in sign here to guarantee your bills or I can't work for you an longer. Anyhow, point is his company no longer exists - has been dissolved and the debt has been assigned to him personally as an individual. He is using the personal guarantee as a means to get payment. However, I didn't sign a guarantee with him as an individual but with his Ltd company. Is the guarantee still valid as basically its terms have changed?

[sequenci]

From what I understand, if there was a legitimate PG - then the right to bring the action would lie with the liquidators and not him personally.

 

I'm sure Steampowered will give you further help with this, it's certainly more his area than mine!

[renegadeimp]

How did he assign the debt to himself? I thought unless he was a company and held a relevant credit licence he couldnt assign and collect on debts. If you were in liquidation, then he cant go after you anyway.

[steampowered]

Do I understand correctly that the accountant required a personal guarantee in order to continue working for you?

 

If yes, his actions sound reasonable. Why would be continue working for you if he knew the company was going into liquidation and that his fees would therefore never be paid. He isn't running a charity. It would only be a duress situation if he was refusing to do work he was already legally required to do. If you didn't want to pay him you shouldn't have got him to do work for you under a personal guarantee.

 

Does the personal guarantee allow assignment? You need to check whether there is an assignment clause in there. You also need to check how it was assigned (it would need to be assigned before the liquidation, I think).

[sequenci]

(it would need to be assigned before the liquidation, I think).

 

That would certainly be the case as any rights pass to the liquidator upon liquidation.