Jump to content


Advice on non payment of invoices

Recommended Posts

Iv ad replies saying payment has been sent and when payment hasn't been received days later I emailed againy

 

In this case yes, I was wondering how Chez2 thinks that you know that an email has arrived somewhere.

For court purposes a registered delivery letter will be much better.

 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/going-to-court/going-to-court/taking-court-action/step-one-write-a-letter-before-action/

 

A letter before action is what is needed, then if they don't communicate or you can't reach an agreement, commence the action (ie file with moneyclaimonline).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Think I'll send final reminders out end of next week just for the benefit of giving them a chance then if payment is not received I'll send a statutory demand

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Its easy Cyclone - you can request 'delivery receipt' on your email when sending it. If a company has an email address for invoices that is sufficient. Small claims were happy enough when we used that method.

 

A debt is an unpaid, overdue bill, rent or similar. They have a debt as soon as you make credit available. Its overdue once passed the agreed T&Cs.

 

I said debt collector not specifically enforcement agencies. There are a lot of companies who you can pass debts, overdue invoicing chasing to. Their methods vary from calling, emailing, writing etc. Ours never got to sending enforcement agencies once we passed it to a debt collector. We never bothered involving a debt collector to chase the nasty customer, just immediately filed the small claims on line. They were totally happy with our procedure as they never got in touch. The next thing we knew a cheque arrived. As I said, they has to pay the interest and our costs for filing the claim.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I routinely disable requests for delivery receipts, so do many other people I suspect.

 

I was only questioning that sending an email is proof that it's received, I don't think it is. Getting a delivery confirmation is, I agree.

 

Spider said to pass it straight to a "debt collector", this would be less effective than filing the court action IMO.

If you are going to file court action then it's best to send a registered post "letter before action" as per the advice on the citizens advice bureau page.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think you are out of date with your information cyclone, legislation changed to help SMEs being messed around by late payment of invoices. I had presumed we were talking about business to business invoices.

 

It seems you will argue black is white but we have been through the process twice as I described. If you are dealing with large corporates you will no doubt know that they often have a third party managing invoices, often abroad. These don't always accept any format other than emails, no post or fax. The ones that will accept post are often PO box addresses so again, no good for sending recorded letters. This has been my experience over the last thirty odd years. Quite a few small businesses don't use their own address either. Many use a company to do their accounts or a factoring company to handle their invoices to aid their cash flow.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I assumed that the OP was asking about business to consumer invoices, not sure what difference that makes though.

I'm not saying not to use emails, I didn't even suggest that. But sending isn't proof of delivery, and if you intend to potentially use court action then the legal advice is to send a letter before action through registered post. There is no reason this couldn't be a duplicate of the same letter sent by email though.

Imagine it from the courts point of view, action starts, you put in your pack a copy of the letter and the invoice, the other party disputes having received them. Saying "well I sent an email" isn't proof that they were received. A signed for delivery by royal mail is proof though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If your customer is a domestic customer follow this advice.

 

Keep all quotes and invoices, T&Cs and any communication between you and customer. Don't verbally contact the customer from now on, do everything via email or letter.

 

Give the customer 28 days from the date on your invoice to get the reasons why they are not paying you in writing and to you.

 

If 28 days pass and you don't hear anything, send a letter before action, debt-guard do one online and are pretty good. You can now start charging interest at 0.08%

 

To work it out - if you owed £500 - £500 x 0.08 = £40 that's what interest you can charge for the year.

 

£40 divided by 365 = £0.11 a day interest ( a joke I know )

 

Try and show you want to sort before taking to court, court should be last option.

 

If letter before action does nothing then file a claim online at MCOL cost £60.00 claim fee

 

When your further down the the road and don't want mediation you'll have to pay £80.00 hearing fee

 

You can claim all this back, plus your interest and expenses, it will take about 6/8 months to get it to court, make sure you have all paper work and prove there is no good reason for non payment

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
If your customer is a domestic customer follow this advice.

 

Keep all quotes and invoices, T&Cs and any communication between you and customer. Don't verbally contact the customer from now on, do everything via email or letter.

 

Give the customer 28 days from the date on your invoice to get the reasons why they are not paying you in writing and to you.

 

If 28 days pass and you don't hear anything, send a letter before action, debt-guard do one online and are pretty good. You can now start charging interest at 0.08%

 

To work it out - if you owed £500 - £500 x 0.08 = £40 that's what interest you can charge for the year.

 

£40 divided by 365 = £0.11 a day interest ( a joke I know )

 

Try and show you want to sort before taking to court, court should be last option.

 

If letter before action does nothing then file a claim online at MCOL cost £60.00 claim fee

 

When your further down the the road and don't want mediation you'll have to pay £80.00 hearing fee

 

You can claim all this back, plus your interest and expenses, it will take about 6/8 months to get it to court, make sure you have all paper work and prove there is no good reason for non payment

 

Spot on and the correct advice for the OP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Another thing to do is fill out small claims form and E mail it to them. That way they know you are serious about going to small claims, because you have bothered to fill out the forms.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If the interest rate is really 0.08% then on 500 £ the interest is only 40p

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
If the interest rate is really 0.08% then on 500 £ the interest is only 40p

 

Where did you get that figure from? Have you read the previous posts and seen the interest rate figures that apply? By law I think (as someone has already posted) the figure in for overdue invoices is 10%.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.