Bloody Umbrella Co

[scooby]

i finished my previous contract on 23 November, and the umbrella (former as of yesterday as i'm operating under myco) have just contacted me to tell me the following:

The accounts department has asked me to contact you regarding your invoices with Previous Agency.

Please can you advise if you sent Previous Agency signed timesheet when you were working at Client A? We are having trouble getting paid for the work you did there from Previous Agency, so we may have to get the money back from you if they do not pay. As the amount that Previous Agency owe us is over £10K, I am sure you would not want that and we do not want this situation to come to that either.

If you can contact Previous Agency or have any other contact details, please could you send these to me?

All approved timesheets have been sent by me. Part of their service was to pay me before they receive the invoice payment, therefore i feel this is their risk. i have asked Umbrella to send me copies of all the outstanding invoices that i emailed to them, and to send me the signed written contract where i agreed that they reclaim from me in the event of non-payment.

I have also phone and verbally informed my 'PA' that before they come chasing me, they need to prove they have started legal proceeding on Previous Agency. i've also left the previous agency a call to tell me what is going on.

As i'm now a MyCo and a member of PCGPlus can / will they offer advice? can anyone offer any advice of what more i can do?

[malvolio]

As i'm now a MyCo and a member of PCGPlus can / will they offer advice? can anyone offer any advice of what more i can do?

I dunno. Have you looked into their forums. Any sign of people offering informed and practical guidance in there? Any phone numbers for things like Legal and Tax Helplines, perhaps...?

Of course they can. Go ask.

The umbrella has no right to any monies paid to you anyway, and I'm amazed they think they can. As you say, the service you bought and paid for was for them to factor your earnings. But first, be very sure you've got all the timesheets accounted for.

[scooby]

The umbrella has no right to any monies paid to you anyway, and I'm amazed they think they can. As you say, the service you bought and paid for was for them to factor your earnings. But first, be very sure you've got all the timesheets accounted for.

thought so! first thing i'll be doing tonight is going through all my old paperwork and mail folders! its times like this that make me glad i take a copy of everything at the end of a project!!

[NotAllThere]

If the brolly can't get the money, how can this be of any concern of yours? When I worked as a permie for consultancy, I got paid my salary regardless of whether the client paid.

It must be solely their problem?

[Moscow Mule]

Assuming they don't owe you any money, they are going to have a very hard time getting it back.

I'd write them a very politely worded letter telling them to ram it.

[scooby]

just had this forwarded to me as part of the mail trail

Please see the attached copy invoices and timesheets that are outstanding for Scooby.

It is company policy to pay ‘LLP’ contractors on submission of a timesheet, regardless of whether or not we are paid.

As far as I can see on the contract ref xxxxx there is nothing to say that we pursue the contractor, but I have been told that this is what happens in such cases.

I am sorry that we have to ask Scooby to do this, but there was an error on our side firstly, as the address on Sage was entered incorrectly and all the invoices and statements were going to the wrong company. This only came to light when I started in May and was investigating the debt. I managed to speak to xxxx at Agency, but she does not deal with payments and I have had to wait for Director to respond to a 7 day letter threatening them with legal action if they don’t pay. He finally contacted me, but is saying that as we made an error that took 8 months to rectify (address) and now the end client has changed management, they might not get paid themselves. So we won’t get paid.

Agency know that Scooby did the work, so they should have been aware that they owed the money anyway.

So if Scooby can chase them up, we will be eternally grateful.

doesnt this lay all the blame on them, and therefore is not my fault or anything to do with me, and the admitance that they cant show where the contract says they can recover from me, means that i can use this in court as evidence? the mail has details of sender etc...

i have told them i will ask and confirm the sending of timesheets, but they should commence legal proceedings against agency.

[malvolio]

just had this forwarded to me as part of the mail trail



doesnt this lay all the blame on them, and therefore is not my fault or anything to do with me, and the admitance that they cant show where the contract says they can recover from me, means that i can use this in court as evidence? the mail has details of sender etc...

i have told them i will ask and confirm the sending of timesheets, but they should commence legal proceedings against agency.

I should think your responsibility stops at proving you've sent all relevant timesheets in for processing. Chasing their bad debts - even self-inflicted ones - is not your problem and you have no legal right to do so anyway.

[scooby]

I should think your responsibility stops at proving you've sent all relevant timesheets in for processing. Chasing their bad debts - even self-inflicted ones - is not your problem and you have no legal right to do so anyway.

to Brolly or Agency? i need to prove the agency still, but this should be done once home.

[NickFitz]

just had this forwarded to me as part of the mail trail

Please see the attached copy invoices and timesheets that are outstanding for Scooby.

It is company policy to pay ‘LLP’ contractors on submission of a timesheet, regardless of whether or not we are paid.

As far as I can see on the contract ref xxxxx there is nothing to say that we pursue the contractor, but I have been told that this is what happens in such cases.

I am sorry that we have to ask Scooby to do this, but there was an error on our side firstly, as the address on Sage was entered incorrectly and all the invoices and statements were going to the wrong company. This only came to light when I started in May and was investigating the debt. I managed to speak to xxxx at Agency, but she does not deal with payments and I have had to wait for Director to respond to a 7 day letter threatening them with legal action if they don’t pay. He finally contacted me, but is saying that as we made an error that took 8 months to rectify (address) and now the end client has changed management, they might not get paid themselves. So we won’t get paid.

Agency know that Scooby did the work, so they should have been aware that they owed the money anyway.

So if Scooby can chase them up, we will be eternally grateful.

doesnt this lay all the blame on them, and therefore is not my fault or anything to do with me, and the admitance that they cant show where the contract says they can recover from me, means that i can use this in court as evidence? the mail has details of sender etc...

i have told them i will ask and confirm the sending of timesheets, but they should commence legal proceedings against agency.

Sounds like serious screwups all round, except you - if they agreed in their contract with you to pay you whether or not they themselves had received payment, and said contract didn't explicitly state that they could recover payments from you if they themselves weren't paid, I don't believe they have a leg to stand on. It's between them and the agency, and between the agency and the end-client.

I also strongly suspect that you weren't intended to see that email

(IANAL and all that.)

[Torran]

yup I'm agreeing that that mail was not for your eyes

Confirm your timesheets and then tell them to politely take a hike