company refusing to pay contractor after 5 months!!!! help

[Quiffedd]

as a contract cleaner i have been supplying staff to a local surgery for 10 years. recently there have been some issues with quality on site with a new team of mine. i have not been informed about any of the problems on site until now and therefore have not had the chance to sort any issues out.
the surgery have cancelled my contract and are now refusing to pay outstanding accounts going back 5 months.
is there any law saying that a company cannot complain and refuse to pay after a certain amount of time?

thanks in advance
Chris

[NotAllThere]

If the service has been provided, they have to pay. Therein lies the dispute - they would say the service hasn't been provided.

At this point, you need to negotiate. You probably won't get the full five months - unless it is an open and shut case and you're prepared to litigate. Start dunning now, if you haven't already, as you must show you've given them opportunity to pay before going legal.

And next time, don't wait five months before wondering why your invoices haven't been paid.

[northernladuk]

If the service has been provided, they have to pay. Therein lies the dispute - they would say the service hasn't been provided.

At this point, you need to negotiate. You probably won't get the full five months - unless it is an open and shut case and you're prepared to litigate. Start dunning now, if you haven't already, as you must show you've given them opportunity to pay before going legal.

And next time, don't wait five months before wondering why your invoices haven't been paid.

and engage with your customer a little better/more often so you can open dialogue about the quality of your service and how you can improve or not get binned.

[Robot]

as a contract cleaner i have been supplying staff to a local surgery for 10 years. recently there have been some issues with quality on site with a new team of mine. i have not been informed about any of the problems on site until now and therefore have not had the chance to sort any issues out.
the surgery have cancelled my contract and are now refusing to pay outstanding accounts going back 5 months.
is there any law saying that a company cannot complain and refuse to pay after a certain amount of time?

thanks in advance
Chris

A little late now that the horse has bolted, but why didn't you carry out a cleaning audit of the surgery, get the office manager at the surgery to sign it off and discuss any issues monthly. Puttting in a new team of cleaners and not carrying out a cleaning audit was risky, after giving them 10 years good service.

[pmeswani]

as a contract cleaner i have been supplying staff to a local surgery for 10 years. recently there have been some issues with quality on site with a new team of mine. i have not been informed about any of the problems on site until now and therefore have not had the chance to sort any issues out.
the surgery have cancelled my contract and are now refusing to pay outstanding accounts going back 5 months.
is there any law saying that a company cannot complain and refuse to pay after a certain amount of time?

thanks in advance
Chris

I see issues on both sides.

1. If your client hasn't paid you within 30 days after the invoice date, I would have contacted them and chased payment and advised 14 days to complete payment or for it to be passed onto a debt collector and considered withdrawing your services, therefore minimising your loss.

2. If the client wasn't happy with your service from day 1, why wait til 5 months before terminating the services?

I feel that you are no being totally honest with us with the information you have provided in your post, but if I were to assume you are telling us the truth, I would consider the following:

1. Contact the client asking them to pay for at least 4 months worth (a gesture of good faith). or...

2. Take the issue to a small claims court and get the monies from the client for services offered and invoiced (assuming you have invoiced the customer). You will need to prove that a service has been provided (signed timesheet, etc), that way you have some proof (not necessarily absolute) that a service has been provided.

I'm sure there are other options available, but to wait 5 months before claiming any payment is pretty silly in my opinion, regardless of how much money you have in your business bank account.

[BlasterBates]

No that's not acceptable....5 months!!

Send the usual reminders and take them to court.

Absolutely not acceptable. If the place hadn't been cleaned properly they should have contacted you and given you the chance to rectify it, they didn't, so they need to pay the full amount, especially after 5 months.

That's my understanding from the law on providing products and services.

In my view a few stern letters and threat of court action will sort this out. A lawyer will probably resolve it quicker, because he can quote a few "scary" paragraphs at them.

It won't go to court this is way too blatant abuse, I'm sure the surgery will see that.

I think their arguments are weak indeed. I worked for a company on a failed project, and the client refused to pay, in the end they paid in full. The onus is on the surgery to prove your team didn't clean properly, and the fact that they never complained means they more or less don't have a leg to stand on.

[d000hg]

A little late now that the horse has bolted, but why didn't you carry out a cleaning audit of the surgery, get the office manager at the surgery to sign it off and discuss any issues monthly. Puttting in a new team of cleaners and not carrying out a cleaning audit was risky, after giving them 10 years good service.

You'd imagine after 10 years they'd have some kind of relationship which would not be ruined so easily. If they are really so quick to drop you, chase them for the money.

[Wanderer]

You'd imagine after 10 years they'd have some kind of relationship which would not be ruined so easily.

And I would have thought that after 10 years in business Quiffedd would be reasonably adept at dealing with situations like this?

[Quiffedd]

I agree that letting this go for 5 months without payment wasn't the cleverest however when you run a small business you sometimes let these things happen in order to keep customers.

We do have a few customers who are long term late payers but only bigger companies and i would rather have the late payers than not have the businessat all.

The surgery have always had a sign sheet (created by me) signed off by my team daily and checked off by surgery staff weekly.

I had assumed that as the surgery was NHS managed i would not run into this kind of problem.
We have had a 10 year relationship with surgery staff but in recent months a local health company have taken over management, the surgery is still NHS based but sub-managed with a different practice manager.

As soon as i found out that there was a problem on site i took measures, the team in question now do not work for me and within a day i had a different team on site.

[d000hg]

And I would have thought that after 10 years in business Quiffedd would be reasonably adept at dealing with situations like this?

After 10 years you shouldn't feel the need to be chasing your clients to check everything's OK... I'd expect them to know they could contact me with any problems.