Saturday 12 December 2015

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where are my company documents?

I have a problem, around end of September I needed services of a company secretary so I spoke to this other young lady who once told me that she is into that business. I appointed her as my company secretary and also asked her to remove one of the directors in which she is suppose to create share certificate cancellation document.

I was charged P280 for those services which I paid, now my problem is she was suppose to return my company documents within a week but even now she hasn't return the documents and now I can't register for PPADB because of her.

Every time she would arrange an appointment so that she can bring the documents but she will never show up and she would either switch off her phone or ignore our calls. Can you help me get my documents back?

As I send this message she was suppose to drop the documents by my offices she didn't show up and she is not taking my calls. I'm also planning to involve the police because she acts like she didn't do what she was suppose to do.


Clearly she is the wrong person to be acting as anyone’s company secretary. My understanding of what you asked her to do is that it’s actually quite simple to do, it shouldn’t be too difficult, you could have done it yourself. However P280 is probably a very fair price to pay for someone else to drive to the relevant office and stand in line instead of you.

The big problem is that she still has your company documents and you need to get them back from her urgently. I suggest that you write her a letter demanding the documents back within three days. Tell her that you will also expect a refund of the money you paid her within that time as well. Explain in the letter that if she fails to do either of those things you’ll take legal action against her to recover both the documents and the money. You should also make it clear in the letter that she doesn’t have you permission to act as your company secretary and has no authority to act on your behalf.

Make it clear in the letter that you have copied it both to us and to the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority. They’re the people who took over the job of the Registrar of Companies and I doubt they’ll be impressed by someone acting the way your fake “company secretary” has done.

I lent money to friends!

Good morning Mr Harriman and your team. Please I need your help but I don't know if it is relevant to what you do. Two of my friends owe me some cash and every time they have to pay me it's story after story and I don't know what to do. The other one it's P2,700 since last year may and the other is P5,300 this year. I really thought I was helping them.

I would really appreciate your help on this one because I need the money.


You know Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”? Those were wise words. I know you know this now but while it’s fine to lend friends very small amounts of money, the moment you start lending larger amounts you’re asking for trouble. We’ve probably all done it and many of us have learnt the lesson the hard way. Never lend money to friends that you really, truly want to get back. You should always assume that every loan you make to a friend, whether its small or large, will never be repaid. Always prepare to be disappointed. Always be prepared to lose the friendship of the person who borrowed the money.

In your case I think your chances of getting the money back depend entirely on whether you put these loan agreements in writing. If you did then you should be able to go to the Small Claims Court and get an order against them both. If not, then I’m afraid all you can do is apply moral pressure. In other words you’re going to need to beg to get the money back.

The lesson is that whoever you lend money to, get the agreement in writing. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy and expensive legal contract, it just needs to be a note confirming that on a particular date you lent mtheme this sum, to be repaid before another date, signed by both parties and preferably with the signatures of witnesses as well. And be prepared to be disappointed. And minus a friend.

(The fuller quote is:

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.")

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