Tender: Legal Services for Debt, Theft of Gas and Asset Damage Recovery – Cadent Gas

About

Cadent Gas is seeking a supplier for legal support services to manage debt and damage recovery across two internal workstreams, with the intention to award both elements to a single supplier. Workstream 1 covers recovery of contractual sums (including connection, alteration and diversion works), theft of gas claims under the Gas Act 1986, recovery for plant protection works, miscellaneous invoices and recoveries from former employees, requiring full lifecycle management (merits assessment, litigation strategy, advocacy, ADR, enforcement) plus a robust case-management system; Pre-Action Protocol (PAP) letters are required only for business-to-individual cases and otherwise the Civil Procedure Rules apply, theft of gas referrals must include a documented propensity-to-pay score and tracing where addresses are unknown, and SAP (facilitated by Cadent) and Apperio (for costings) will be used. Workstream 2 covers damage claims and limited defence work for negligence, statutory and construction-related disputes split into low value (below £10k) and high value (over £10k) matters, handling activities from Letters Before Action through to proceedings, judgment enforcement and use of High Court Enforcement Officers where required; Evoclaim (access provided by Cadent) and Apperio will be used for case and cost management. Expected volumes include circa 30 small claims per month (generally under £5,000), 20–30 ongoing high-value matters (some between £100,000 and £1–2 million), circa 550 low-value debt recoveries and circa 132 low-value full legal actions per year, and approximately 10–15 high-value claims per year (13 high-value claims were instructed in the last 12 months ranging from £10,500 to £1.5 million). The supplier must provide transparent invoicing, strategic case-specific advice on whether to progress to litigation or use alternative enforcement options, and evidence-based assessments of recovery prospects.