Late payment interest rate specified in contract

[Safe Collections]

I'd go back to B&C and ask why they didn't flag it up to you as an unfair term, and see what they say.

+1

Somebody should really have picked up on this clause.

In all honesty much as we support the use of the late payment legislation, in this instance you may well find it doesn't cover your company.

As stated earlier the way the legislation is worded means that the statutory interest has to precede the addition of the fixed costs and in this instance you have effectively signed away that right (possibly not legally, but for the purposes of the here and now).

Our suggestion would be to issue the claim for the fixed costs on this invoice, plus any other invoice they have paid late in the past (you can go back six years). Chase it as a "normal" overdue balance and see what happens.

But we wouldn't recommend issuing proceedings for the claim based on what we know at the moment.

Or you could just invoice for it and then pass it to Credit Management & Debt Recovery Specialists if they refuse to pay....

Cheers for the plug but we only get involved in chasing costs and interest if the debtor has been particularly unpleasant... Generally we encourage anyone with a single claim to just issue proceedings, as a recent case has set a precedent that claims for fixed costs under the legislation can not be reduced by the court.

[malvolio]

To address your first "point", you think I should just let it go? Were I to do so, what would this accomplish exactly? Build "goodwill" with the agency? They were given ample opportunity to get the issue remedied (the root cause for which was their fault) so payment could be made on time and they failed to do so.

All I'm saying is that you're going to spend more than you recover. "Principle" may be a good thing but I prefer to work on net income.

And IMVHO, making that level of fuss over fourpence is wasting everyone's time: I missed two weeks' deadlines recently because of a cockup over who signs off the timesheets when someone is away. I didn't go bankrupt, I didn't sue anyone and I didn't down tools. I did drop a polite but very firm note to the client that I wasn't impressed and please don't let it happen again.

YMMV. That's your problem - but as I said, you signed up for it.

[Wanderer]

In terms of how late they were, we're talking about a few days so even if the interest portion won't amount to much, I fully intend to stick them for the fixed cost element.

If it was a couple of weeks and they had no reasonable excuse then I would definitely stick it to them but if it's only a few days then I would be reluctant to be honest. Principle is one thing but a penalty for a first offence where they were a few days late is being a bit pedantic even for me....

[Boo]

Sigh...


So why did you sign to say you accepted it?

Given that you are apologista in chief for those stinking parasites the PCG, I am surprised to hear you ask about signing terms with which the OP disagreed ? For isn't it the PCG's position that the ridiculous own goal in the form of "the opt out" from the agency regs can be signed in full knowledge that it is in many cases inapplicable anyway, whether signed or not ?

You are NLUK and I claim my £5.

Boo