Final Letter Before Action template

A final Letter Before Action is sent after the response period for the first LBA has expired without payment or meaningful engagement. It is not a strict requirement of the Pre-Action Protocols, but it is good practice and often produces a payment that the first LBA did not.

Final Letter Before Action template

When to send a final LBA

The reason is psychological. The first LBA arrives, perhaps gets opened, perhaps gets discarded — many defendants assume the creditor will not actually go to the trouble of issuing. The final LBA, marked clearly as final and spelling out the credit-file and enforcement consequences in concrete terms, removes that assumption. It signals that issue is imminent and irreversible.

It also strengthens your position at any costs hearing. A judge looking at pre-action conduct will see two letters, two attempts at engagement, and a defendant who chose not to respond. Costs sanctions for failure to engage almost always follow.

Copy the text below, fill in the bracketed fields, attach a copy of your first LBA, and send by Royal Mail Signed For. Allow 14 days from the date of the letter before issuing.

Diary the response deadline (date of letter plus 14 days). On expiry, if no payment and no acceptable proposal has been made, draft your particulars of claim and issue via MCOL or paper N1. Attach copies of both LBAs to your particulars.

Keep all correspondence in a single matter folder. The court may ask to see the LBAs at the directions stage, and it certainly will if costs become contested. A clean paper trail is your best protection against a defendant who later claims to have known nothing about the claim.

Start My Claim drafts both LBAs, your particulars of claim, and the MCOL filing for £29 fixed. Most users issue within 24 hours.

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Particulars: unpaid invoice

Settlement offer letter