Legal services

Tender description

Legal services for the recovery of debts owed to Camden Council. The service will provided to the Credit Control and Leaseholder departments within the Council. The service will provided to the Credit Control and Leaseholder departments within the Council. The service will provide advice on the following debt types: — sundry debtors, — adult social care, — housing benefit overpayments, — Leaseholders Services, — former tenants arrears, — current tenants arrears, — commercial and residential rent, — management and recovery of costs from deceased estates, — housing investigations. The provider will also be required to provide specialist legal advice in complex cases and provide training and training materials to staff within the Council. The expiry date of the current contract is 8.7.2019 and the new service and contract will commence from 9.7.2019. To ensure there is continuity of service, the 2-step approach outlined below has been agreed by the Council: Step 1: Should the incumbent provider be successful in the tendering process, the new service and contract will commence on 9.7.2019, as I.T. requirements will remain unchanged. The initial contract term will be 9.7.2019 to 31.3.2022. If the contract extension is applied, the contract expiry date will be 31.3.2024. Step 2: If a new provider is appointed, the Council has taken the decision to extend the current arrangement with the incumbent provider for up to nine (9) months from 9.7.2019 to 31.3.2020, and all current debts will remain with the incumbent provider. During this period, the new provider will ensure that all I.T. related requirements have been fully tested and implemented by 31.12.2019. This process will enable the new provider to be prepared to receive instruction from the Council to recover all new debts and provide advice from 1.4.2020 to 31.3.2023. If the contract extension is agreed, the new provider will provide the service until the contract expiry date of 31.3.2025. To confirm, the above approach is required to align the service in line with the financial year. The Council will ensure that debt recovery services for the LB of Camden will commence from 01 April. The procurement process will follow an open procedure using the one-stage approach. The selection and award documents will be submitted and should be returned together as part of the tender pack. After the deadline for returned electronic submissions has expired, the evaluation process of the selection stage will be undertaken. Tenderers who are successful from the selection stage will be invited into the award stage and their submissions will be evaluated. After final moderation of the tender responses, the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) will be recommended to perform the service; however, we reserve the right not to award using MEAT approach should it provide undue risk to the Authority. Unsuccessful providers will be informed of the outcome via the messaging system on EU Supply and the 10 voluntary standstill period will commence. A panel of Council Officers will evaluate all aspects of the final tender submission. After the standstill period has expired, the successful provider will be confirmed in writing and the contract award notice will be issued and entered on contracts finder. Minimum thresholds have also been included within the quality award criteria. Organisations who do not achieve the minimum threshold score will not have their responses assessed further and the organisation will be excluded from the process. Please see tender documents in EU supply (www.eu-supply.com).