Unpaid invoice, suspended services possible legal action against me

[Scruff]

Do yourself a favour and stop generating more/different invoices.

Every invoice that you raise, generates a demand for payment, for services.

My advice to you is to take all of the invoices that you have so far generated, and if the first one covers all of the work that you have done, use that as your document of record, since it will be the earliest dated invoice. Don't alter it, but send a reminder letter, Special Delivery, to the offices of the customer including a copy of the original invoice, a separate explanatory note of what it contains and your reconciliation as to what is outstanding and the due date, explaining what is overdue. IIRC, by default the payment made so far will be applied to the oldest debt first, unless they send you a payment reconciliation, disputing any outstanding items. Inform them that since they have not paid for the Web Hosting services, that they have been suspended with immediate effect and will not be resumed until the debt has been cleared.

You need to remove any doubts as to which invoice you are referring to, since theoretically, each of them is a separate claim for payment.

Once the debt has been cleared, do yourself a favour and send them an email informing them that you are no longer hosting for them, giving them 14 days notice to find another hosting company, from the date of the emai, and a copy, again by Special Delivery, containing the email.

At least this way you are minimising your risk and formally going on record. I am sure that the the collection agency will offer similar advice, however, IANAL and IANYA.

Happy Chrismukkah

[anonymousseeker]

Once the debt has been cleared, do yourself a favour and send them an email informing them that you are no longer hosting for them, giving them 14 days notice to find another hosting company, from the date of the email, and a copy, again by Special Delivery, containing the email.

Happy Chrismukkah

Thanks Scruff, if they paid the outstanding debts that will cover the 12 months hosting so how can I legally revoke this saying I am not going to host them? Or have I misunderstood

[Scruff]

Thanks Scruff, if they paid the outstanding debts that will cover the 12 months hosting so how can I legally revoke this saying I am not going to host them? Or have I misunderstood

Inform them that you can no longer host for them, and you offer them 14 days to transfer their website to alternate hosts. Issue a credit note for the months that you are not going to be hosting and include this with your reconciliation, so it is separately deducted from the invoice.

Invoice000043

£1200.00

Credit Note 01

£ 420.00

Total Amount outstanding

£780.00

[Willapp]

To be honest if this chap has a reputation for messing people around then the last thing you want is to get tied into an agreement to host something for 12 months.

I've been where you are and my honest advice is take the money you've received so far as some recompense for your time and effort and walk (run) away from this deal as quickly as you can. The lesson you've already learned is never do business without a clear written contract, and don't assume because you're friends with someone that things can't (and won't) go wrong.

[anonymousseeker]

To be honest if this chap has a reputation for messing people around then the last thing you want is to get tied into an agreement to host something for 12 months.

I've been where you are and my honest advice is take the money you've received so far as some recompense for your time and effort and walk (run) away from this deal as quickly as you can. The lesson you've already learned is never do business without a clear written contract, and don't assume because you're friends with someone that things can't (and won't) go wrong.

Yes lesson learnt the hard way. Unfortunately at this stage he is stating that he has paid for 12 months hosting however there is still is an outstanding amount. It is at this stage I just wish for the remaining amount to be paid and having to suspend his hosting was the only way I could get communication from him.

[SueEllen]

Yes lesson learnt the hard way. Unfortunately at this stage he is stating that he has paid for 12 months hosting however there is still is an outstanding amount. It is at this stage I just wish for the remaining amount to be paid and having to suspend his hosting was the only way I could get communication from him.

Before you run away you need to do as Scruff said. That way he can't sneakily send you a legal letter and start action against you.

Then keep a copy of everything for 6 years as he has that time to chase you. This means keep a copy of the special delivery receipts and the letters. (I would keep both an electronic version and a paper version. )

You need to use special delivery to send the letters because people like him, and even companies you should be able to trust, frequently lie when they are found to have done wrong and claim that they didn't receive the letters. Of course the letter can be returned to you but if it is keep the envelope and the letter inside it.

[Safe Collections]

Hi anonymousseeker,

Thanks for the further details, just making sure we know what the situation is so we can try and give you the best advice possible.

Currently their emails and name servers are pointed to my server

Stopping the emails will certainly get his attention, no doubt about that. But similarly it does make a case for potential damages stronger...

On the 19th of October client never explicitly stated I am not paying for this he said he would be in touch soon, I have not heard from him since the 19th of october until yesterday 20th December which is an unacceptable time to leave someone you owe money to.

OK. This isn't the same as the client saying they wont pay the invoice so we take your point as far as that goes. However the fact remains you did issue a further two further invoices, so you have split the original fee in to two distinct parts.

I can raise many invoices but if they refuse at every stage to not reply to any of my correspondence and say "this is for Invoice X" and do not put any reference in the bank transfer how am I to know what they are paying for.

An invoice is a legal business document and must be treated as such and by splitting the original invoice in to two parts (with no contact from the client in the intervening period) you have weakened your claim. Had you pursued the full original balance you would, in our opinion, be in a much stronger position than you are now.

This man I have since found out over the past few months has a reputation for not paying people and lives pay cheque to pay cheque so as such I seriously doubt he has the financial ability to take this anywhere above a few solicitor letters

This news does not come as a shock to us and that being the case have you checked to see if the company has the money or the intention to pay you if you do pursue a court claim? If you haven't already done so we would recommend you secure a credit report on this company and ascertain the following:

1. Do they have the financial means to pay you?
2. Will they pay you if you subsequently secure a County Court Judgment?

If the company itself has a poor credit rating or worse, a string of unsatisfied County Court Judgments, then it is likely any time or money you spend pursuing this will only serve to increase your existing losses as securing a CCJ is often not enough to secure payment.

it is also worth noting that I am 23 years of age in university and as such have no assets of value above my £500 car and laptop - no savings and a very sizeable student overdraft to pay back very shortly

Duly noted, we only make the point in regard to your personal assets as some sole traders are unaware of their liabilities.

normally I would write off this £420 and walk away from the whole situation but to be honest I feel like he has taken advantage of the services I provided to him and his son in good faith and he is intent on making this whole situation a lot worse than it needs to be.

We agree, this company sounds like it is making every effort to be as awkward and unfair to you as possible. Our concern remains that ultimately this amount may prove uneconomical for you to pursue and we would hate to see you lose more time and money on this.

To be honest I do not think I will gain anything but he seems bent on not paying me and trying to cause me additional unnecessary stress, he has a full-time business to run so it would be of more annoyance to him. Probably not worth it but I don’t feel he should be able to get away with what he has done without some form of repercussion.

If a limited company is committed to non-payment and is aware of the law (as it would appear your client is) then there isn't much you can do about it. The limited company system in this country is so open to abuse that many fraudsters now use the system to insulate themselves from criminal investigations; as in most cases the police will not involve themselves in what they see as "a civil matter".

Even if you do secure a CCJ we doubt the client will pay, in that instance are you then prepared to spend even more in trying to enforce the judgment?

Could it not be argued that it is not clear what they have paid for as they have included no references and not had the decency to answer the phone or reply to my emails. I had to suspend the hosting as a last resort to get some form of communication which was completely absent for 7 and a half weeks.

It could well be argued that you had no choice, but it isn't something we would recommend unless you have the contractual right to do so for all the reasons previously outlined.

If you would like to DM us the name of the Ltd company we would be more than happy to have a look at the directors and offer our opinion on their current financial standing.

[Safe Collections]

For those interested in the financial standing of the client in question:

Score: 0
Risk: Serious Adverse Information
Credit Limit: £0
Credit Rating: £0

Company incorporated in September 2013. No accounts filed. Two £1 shares issued in the company owned by the directors.

Notice of dissolution issued by CH on the 22nd of September 2015, presumably due to the failure to file any accounts.

[Dylan]

Reinstate the hosting, but remove all the web content that hasn't been paid for so everyone just gets a 404.

That way you are providing the service that he has paid for and not providing the website content he hasn't paid for.

[anonymousseeker]

Reinstate the hosting, but remove all the web content that hasn't been paid for so everyone just gets a 404.

That way you are providing the service that he has paid for and not providing the website content he hasn't paid for.

Only their old website is live, I have not provided this for them I do not know if I am obligated to forward the DNS to their old server.