Case Studies

Case Study: Caravan and Lodge Park – value circa £2 million

We were engaged following the death of one of the owners of the park to deal with an HMRC enquiry into the claim for Business Property Relief (BPR) on the deceased’s estate.  HMRC were suggesting that no claim was available against their share of the park's value, placing around half of the holiday park into the estate, which would have resulted in an increase in the IHT liability of around £400,000.

Case Study: Temporary recruitment agency benefit from a proactive, full service approach

Background

Armstrong Watson’s predecessor firm was appointed auditors, accountants and business advisers to the Primestaff Group over twenty years ago, and they have always found the service they have received to be of the highest quality.

Why they sought to work with us?

Having previously been with a rival accountancy firm, they felt that the previous advisers did not provide great service for the following reasons:

Case Study: TSP Engineering

Error Free Payroll First time and Every Time

Background

Case Study: International Technology Veterans acquire Wray Castle, Telecoms Training Firm

Cumbria-based, international telecoms training business, Wray Castle Training, has been sold to international telecommunications and technology experts Fraser Curley and Andrew White, for an undisclosed sum.

Case Study: Website developer left unpaid

Escalate dispute service on behalf of a website developer who was left unpaid recieves £35,000

Case Study: Pursuing sub-contractor's insurers after damage caused to underground fibre wiring

The Problem

This was a contractual claim against the insurers of a sub-contractor, who caused damage to underground fibre wiring when digging up a road - despite being made aware of the wiring and its location.

This had left the claimant out of pocket as they had to settle the costs of the damage, in the order of about £150k. They were seeking to recover back the losses from the sub-contractor as they had been the actual cause of the damage, having not taken appropriate care when digging the road up.

Case Study: Unpaid Invoices, IP infringement and a non-responsive client

The problem

A creative agency carried out work for their client (a data and storage solutions provider) for approximately 3 years. Their work comprised of a social media plan, with ongoing account management, planning and strategic development. The agency worked on a number of specific projects, for both the ‘core’ and ‘consumer’ brand - each with their own separate, respective client contacts.

Case Study: Failed Property Investment in US - Recouping Costs

The problem

This claim arose out of a failed property investment by a UK couple, towards a new development in the USA. The claim was against either the US developer and/or the UK property brokerage. Having transferred the investment monies, the development was never progressed. The couple chased the return of their monies without success for two years.

How Escalate helped

Upon engaging us, the Escalate team managed to secure the return of the couple’s full investment plus costs within two months.

Case Study: Recovering negligence costs from insurer

The Problem

An SME within the transport and logistics sector had a two-part negligence claim against both its insurer and broker, for a shortfall in cover. This stemmed from an insurance claim they had made, and the failure to pay out cover when machinery was damaged.

The business had failed to gain any joy via either insurer or broker in its claim on the policy, and was left exposed to the tune of £300k. Lawyers were engaged and failed to secure any return, resulting in causing the company to incur further costs in lost abortive legal fees.

Case Study: Breach of purchase agreement arising from company sale

The Problem

A construction and renovation business was agreed to be sold to one of the company’s suppliers. The sale agreement was documented, comprising of an up-front payment with 70% of the purchase price deferred. The agreement was based around a convoluted and poorly drafted set of consultancy arrangements, that would in theory see payment discharged in line with the performance of the business over the following couple of years.