Non payment of invoices

[Mustang]

I am a project manager and I completed a contract at the end of May. It was a 6 month contract that they asked me to extend which I did but only for a week since I had other commitments. I have invoiced them for April which was due at the end of May and for June and the extra week which was due at the end of June. The project was a difficult one due to the state of the product being installed and the mentality of the company (my client). I put in place several basic project management procedures that wasnt there before I started.

The issues is that they have not paid any of these 3 invoices. Previous invoices have been paid although one invoice was 7 days late. I have tried to call them several times and either dont reach the key person or he says he wiill get back to me but doesn't. I have spoken to the finance person who says the invoices are in order and are with this other guy to be paid.

I have sent emails 1) asking when they will be paid, 2) informing them that these invoices are late and by how much and, recently, 3) notifying them that I will be charging them interest according to the act introduced in 2001 for late payments. Still no response.

Yesterday I managed to get the key guy on the phone and he said they would be paying the invoices but not all in one go and would not commit to a time frame. When I pushed him on the subject he became angry and stated that it was because the customer had not paid them and, he implied, that this was down to events whilst I was running the project. This was news to me and there certainly had been no communication of such during the contract.

Any advice from anyone out there? What further action can I take? This was my first contract and, as such, means there is not much capital yet in the business so this is also impacting me personally. At least I now have a 2nd contract so cash will flow soon.....!!

All advice greatfully received!!!

[Funky]

Start charging interest.

You probably should have read this though.

http://www.contractoruk.com/money/la...rs_advice.html

and put this on your invoices (see link).

"Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. We reserve the right to claim statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate for late payment in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998."

[Rebecca Loos]

you are perfectly within your rights to charge daily interest while they don't pay you.
Now tell them you will go through the Small Claims Courts to get them to pay you - this is a way to sue quickly for small amounts, and is less cumbersome than a full suit - the courts can process those more quickly. Check in your local County Court on how to do this
However if your claim is more than a certain amount (think it's £5,000) then you can't use this. Thinking about it, your claim is likely to be higher than that so you may have to just threaten them with standard legal action if they don't pay

[tim123]

For three months invoices the small claims court is not really viable. Unless you want to restrict your claim to 5K and forget the rest it's the county court and all that it involves, for this amount.

tim

[Funky]

The other thing is go to a solicitor and get them to send an official letter asking for payment in FULL and you’re willing to wave interest incurred due to late payment if they pay within … for example 14 days. This will cost you a bit, but if you way up the amount of time (billing time) and hassle its already costing you it won’t seem that much.

It’s amazing how quick some companies react to letters from solicitors (not all though). When solicitors get involved in legal action (which would be the next step) it can become a very costly exercise for them as they will ultimately have to pay your invoices plus legal expenses (yours and there’s).

[Mustang]

If I take legal action, what do I need to prove? That there isn't any justification that my actions have caused the customer to pay late?

[SandyDown]

I think this is called the last payment blues :-) geting the last payment especially when you leave the site is very hard.


I had this problem previously, luckily I have a relative who is a lawyer, so she helped me write a legal letter serving them a Stat Dec (threaten insolvency, this is your right, even if the client is Microsoft or bigger if they do not pay their invoices you have the right to close them down -or so I was told by the lawyers-)...

before you serve this letter, please check who is not actually paying, is it the end client or the agency, if the client has paid then the agency is playing games with you and trying to keep the money as long as possible, but you need to realise that this letter may burn your bridges with the client/agency frankly I didn't want to use that agency ever again, hence didn't care... anyway the content of the lefal letter I sent is as follows (this really worked the client paid me promptly within 4 days and before the rest of the other contractors) here is the letter:


================================================== ==
DEBT COLLECTION LETTER

Agency
address
Your company
address


My ref: your invoice refernces


OVERDUE

Dear xx

Re: Outstanding Debt the sum of £xxx for month x year xxx , and the sum of £xxx for Month x year xxxxx– total of £xxx .

We refer to our above mentioned invoice which appears to remain outstanding despite persistent reminders.

We cannot extend your credit any further. If the sum of £xxx
is not paid within [7] days we shall take this as evidence of Agency name Limited’s insolvency pursuant to sections 122(1)(f) and 123(1)(e) Insolvency Act 1986 and present a statutory declaration requiring payment of the sum invoiced, without further notice.

Please save yourself the consequences of a statutory demand, the possibility and expense of court proceedings, solicitor’s charges, and interest charges, and pay the outstanding amount.

If you have paid your invoice recently please accept our apologies for sending you this letter.


Yours Sincerely,

xxxx

==========================================

Obviously send the letter in registered post, plus email if you like !!

[tim123]

The problem with threatening to wind up a company with cash flow problems is that this may end up happening.

Being the guy that serves the writ give you the cost of doing so, but does not moves you any further up the queue for your money.

Tread carefully.

tim

[SandyDown]

The problem with threatening to wind up a company with cash flow problems is that this may end up happening.

Being the guy that serves the writ give you the cost of doing so, but does not moves you any further up the queue for your money.

Tread carefully.

tim

The above letter is only a threatening letter to the people who are not paying , that's all , you are not actually serving a legal writ or any thing like that, only threatening to do so. , 99% of the time they will pay up within a few days from receiving such a threat.. or they'll write you an explanation which you can choose to act upon on a later stage.

But as I said earlier, its worth doing your research and check who is actually not paying you, is it the agency or the client, if the client is not paying and they are a really large company then I wouldn't worry about it, its usually just delays... and you don't want to burn your bridges with a client, but if its the agency that is playing around, they you need to be firm.. but again do your research, if they are on the verge of being bankrupt, then hmmmm there are two options, both are risky you can serve this threat so that you can get paid quick before they actually close down (as I said this letter is only a threat its not an actual writ with legal implications) or just wait and join the everyone else in the queue

[BlasterBates]

E-mails and telephoning should be backed up with letters. You first of all send your invoice, then a reminder then a final demand. Don't do this with e-mails. This is simply convention, I mean the gas company wouldn't send you a final demand with an e-mail.

If the end client is refusing to pay because they're not happy with the work they are perfctly entitled to this, but they have to give reasons in writing, they ought to pay you something though.

In this case they may well do this, and then you would have to sue them.

You will find that the agency will respond to letters, simply because they have a legal obligation to do so and if they don't then in this case as Sandy says, you can wind them up.