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

[jmo21]

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

Surely this is all you need?

And maybe PayOnTime

[pmeswani]

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.

If the surgery have checked off any timesheet / sign sheets, they have accepted that the services provided has been adequate and therefore are obligated to pay. I would, either directly or via some other legit means, write a letter to the Practice Manager with copies of all the Sign Sheets / Timesheets stating that they have accepted the service for the the period of the work carried out and provide an invoice for that period in give them a period of time to pay the invoice in full or the issue will be taken up with a Small Claims Court. Make sure the letter is sent by Recorded / Registered Delivery (as this would be seen as proof you have sent the letter and that they have received it).

I think the company is looking for ways not to pay you, and pinning the blame onto you, when you have documentation that says the work was carried out to their satisfaction is not acceptable.