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90 days to pay...


dogman
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I pay staff and subbies and end of week without fail. I pay bugger firms within fortnight I get paid from the likes of Balfour Beatty or railways 3-4 months and much hassle later. Means you need a big buffer in the bank and not touch it.

It sucks but commercial is far better and more grown up and better paying than gnome dodging in domestic.

If you like to blow your turnover each week on beer and birds you prob best stick to topping connies.

If you want to progress your business and buy kit and invest in your staff then hang in there soldier, commercials the way to go

 

Your right ive never had a problem with my commercial customers they pay normally within 30/40 days of invoice

 

 

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

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I did some tree felling works last November for a large construction company, terms were 90 days and that's from the end of the month in which you invoice

 

We finished the job on December 5th, so payment was due end of march!!!

 

March came and went with no payment, so then followed multiple phone calls, emails, reminder letters - kept on getting fobbed off with excuse after excuse.

 

So I looked at going down the legal route, you can't proceed with a small claims until the payment is past 30 days overdue, so there I am having sent all three reminders and a notice before action waiting for 30days overdue to send the court papers (with a fee of £400+).

 

In the meantime I've ended up phoning the site engineer to see if he can shed any light on payment..."oh that's terrible" he says "I'll get it sorted for you, by the way we want you to do some more work". So I arranged for a site visit, quoted (very very high) on the day for a bit of planting - right when can you do it, we need it doing yesterday - booked a date for the works and left site knowing full well that I wouldn't be carrying out anymore works until I'd been paid for previous.

 

Couple of days before due to start, I phoned site engineer to say we can't commit to the date as we still haven't been paid for previous works, " I'll get it sorted" again was the answer. So I get a call back saying its all sorted but I can't promise you will receive payment before you're due to start.... Well I'm not doing the job then! A discussion ensued promising payment (this is from a site engineer) but I stood my ground and said we can't do the works so you will have to get some other mug to do it.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long rant but it turns out we received payment in may...MAY! For a job we carried out in November! This was a 5 week long job where we hired machinery which we had to pay on a 30 day account so we really really struggled, this could have put our very small business under!

 

We survived thanks to borrowing on personal credit cards. Never again will we even contemplate working for these big construction companies, whom I have no problems in naming and shaming as McGEE CONSTRUCTION, steer well clear unless you can afford to wait 6 months for payment...

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You can't beat gnome dogging and doing the Tom cruse mission impossible above a green house it keeps you on your toes]

 

Lol, don't forget dog mess..Went to do this guys hedge, & the only access was through the house. The grass had'nt been cut all year, and was actualy growing through the lawnmower, which when i asked him, was only a few months old, he'd just left it outside as he "could'nt be arsed"(his words).

Anyway, it was like walking across a minefield, i pointed this out to him, & the possiblelity that some would get tramped in to the house, was'nt botherd at all.

 

Rob

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Its whatever you stipulate on your conditions of contract when you quote for the work. I have this problem and its causing major cash flow problems for me. Its not too bad if you've got a regular flow of contract work coming in from the person who owes you, but when its occasional jobs it can be difficult. I don't usually work for Estate Agents, as I've found them to be untrustworthy in the past, but I have one I work for. I quote, he bills the tenant, then when he gets paid, I do the work and get paid with the week...its worked so far (still don't trust them though!).

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I did some tree felling works last November for a large construction company, terms were 90 days and that's from the end of the month in which you invoice

 

We finished the job on December 5th, so payment was due end of march!!!

 

March came and went with no payment, so then followed multiple phone calls, emails, reminder letters - kept on getting fobbed off with excuse after excuse.

 

So I looked at going down the legal route, you can't proceed with a small claims until the payment is past 30 days overdue, so there I am having sent all three reminders and a notice before action waiting for 30days overdue to send the court papers (with a fee of £400+).

 

In the meantime I've ended up phoning the site engineer to see if he can shed any light on payment..."oh that's terrible" he says "I'll get it sorted for you, by the way we want you to do some more work". So I arranged for a site visit, quoted (very very high) on the day for a bit of planting - right when can you do it, we need it doing yesterday - booked a date for the works and left site knowing full well that I wouldn't be carrying out anymore works until I'd been paid for previous.

 

Couple of days before due to start, I phoned site engineer to say we can't commit to the date as we still haven't been paid for previous works, " I'll get it sorted" again was the answer. So I get a call back saying its all sorted but I can't promise you will receive payment before you're due to start.... Well I'm not doing the job then! A discussion ensued promising payment (this is from a site engineer) but I stood my ground and said we can't do the works so you will have to get some other mug to do it.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long rant but it turns out we received payment in may...MAY! For a job we carried out in November! This was a 5 week long job where we hired machinery which we had to pay on a 30 day account so we really really struggled, this could have put our very small business under!

 

We survived thanks to borrowing on personal credit cards. Never again will we even contemplate working for these big construction companies, whom I have no problems in naming and shaming as McGEE CONSTRUCTION, steer well clear unless you can afford to wait 6 months for payment...

 

 

This is all to often the case I often wonder about writing contracts but and clauses but don't know how to do this and have a hatred for solicitors.

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I just told companies that if they can pay me within 14 days, I don't want to work for them...problem is they lie through their teeth!...I'd rather not do the job that wait 3 months for payment on a job I've paid overheads and wages on :(

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Imagine if on a prestart meeting after they've gone through all of their terms etc you pulled out an equally long and detailed document for them to sign?

 

They are an Irish company with offices in Dublin, London and somewhere in the north.

 

To them it's a almost like a game, but I can assure you to me it wasn't. To make it anywhere near worth the wait I should have trebled the pice, no joke!

 

Just something to bear in mind when your quoting chaps...

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