charging interest on late payments...

[sloth]

Hi all, for the first time a client has been particularly bad to deal with. Obviously I don't want to go into specifics, but after being a little 'awkward' to deal with in the first place he is now not paying. I've had people pay late before, sometimes very late, through presumably geniune reasons which I've been happy to accept - some of whom I've worked for again and recieved prompt payment, so my character judging isn't far of most of the time! In this case however I've been given all the classic lines like 'I'm away at the moment' or 'I've lost the invoice' and 'I'll pay as soon as I'm at the office'. Now I've had enough as he stopped answering the phone a month ago, and started only replying to emails, now these get ignored too. It's not even a lot of money, but his dealing with the situation has become highly irritating, so....

I have told him to make payment within 7 days (by this Wed) or further action will be taken. Now, in my T&Cs which he agreed to I have a clause which says 'If the payment of any sum due is delayed the I shall be entitled to charge interest at the rate of 4% above the base rate of the Bank of England for the time being in force on the overdue amount'. If I wanted to send him a revised invoice with this interest added, how would I work it out?

Sorry if this seems obvious to some, maths was never my strong point! The other option is go straight to starting small claims proceedings.

Thanks in advance

[felixthelogchopper]

Hi all, for the first time a client has been particularly bad to deal with. Obviously I don't want to go into specifics, but after being a little 'awkward' to deal with in the first place he is now not paying. I've had people pay late before, sometimes very late, through presumably geniune reasons which I've been happy to accept - some of whom I've worked for again and recieved prompt payment, so my character judging isn't far of most of the time! In this case however I've been given all the classic lines like 'I'm away at the moment' or 'I've lost the invoice' and 'I'll pay as soon as I'm at the office'. Now I've had enough as he stopped answering the phone a month ago, and started only replying to emails, now these get ignored too. It's not even a lot of money, but his dealing with the situation has become highly irritating, so....

I have told him to make payment within 7 days (by this Wed) or further action will be taken. Now, in my T&Cs which he agreed to I have a clause which says 'If the payment of any sum due is delayed the I shall be entitled to charge interest at the rate of 4% above the base rate of the Bank of England for the time being in force on the overdue amount'. If I wanted to send him a revised invoice with this interest added, how would I work it out?

Sorry if this seems obvious to some, maths was never my strong point! The other option is go straight to starting small claims proceedings.

Thanks in advance

 

It's only my opinion but I think a court would look on this term as being too vague to be enforceable as there is no determinable time scale to define the delay. I would be more inclined to go down the small claims route and add a reasonable amount on top for your trouble. Hope you get it sorted ok, Kev.

[LoadhandlerUK]

I would email him - as you need to notify now in advance of proceedings - that you now intend to 'issue proceedings in the County Court'

 

'Money Claim Online' - once you've registered (if your not already 'Government Gateway' registered) is pretty simple and allows you to add interest as well as costs. The interest is pretty simple to calculate - on your sum its your interest rate (4%) + base rate (0.5%) i.e. 4.5% a year on the sum owed. So take waht he owes add take 4.5% of it (a year's interest) and divide it by the number of days past your terms (say thirty days) that he owes you. It's not going to be al lot or perhaps not so worthwhile.

 

Make sure you send the money claim online to the correct address and to the right person. If you're struggling online, you can pop in to your local Court and the Clerk's office will help you.

 

Certainly worth doing unless there's a reason he's not paying you. When you send that 'final' email say something like 'in the absence of any reason by you for failing to pay' i.e. make sure you've given him the opportunity to tell you why he won't / can't pay. If he 'defends it' when he gets the Summons or if goes to Court and he comes up with a reason the Court would think fair, he should tell you that now otherwise you both are wasting the Court's time.

 

Do it properly, clear that he owes you a will not pay for no reason that youve been told and go for it. It's the only way short of direct action or having some lien over goods of his you hold.

 

Get it done today and in future be strong on money chasing. Get the reputation for being firm but fair. The day you make that delivery or complete that work, that money's yours. All this 30 days, 60 days, 90 days etc is bo**ocks originally designed to assist large companies time to administrate and process your invoice and raise the cheque. Don't put up with it. Good luck

[Lee Winger]

If its under the whatever value it is these days, fill the paperwork in for a small claims court hearing.

[Haironyourchest]

I vote take him to court. Even if you lose the case or he turns out to be bankrupt or whatever, you stood up for yourself (well that's how Id feel about it anyway)

 

Its the principle of the thing.

 

I spent for too long treading on eggshells around people out of a sense of 'benefit of the doubt' that in retrospect turned out to be just pathologically self serving... ... Haul him over to coals and maybe next time he'll think twice about contracting for work he has no intention of paying for.

[Shane]

I recently had this.

My final letter - which led to immediate payment included this wording..

 

'I telephoned you and you said you would sort things out as there was an issue with your bank.

 

I subsequently wrote to you asking for payment by Friday 11th July. I have received nothing. If you do not arrange payment of the outstanding debt by Friday 25th July I will take legal action. You should be aware that this will substantially increase the eventual payment (to include court costs, interest and legal fees) and will result in a CCJ against you.'

[Stephen Blair]

Door step them!

[arbwork]

may be some useful info here https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery

[sloth]

Thanks everyone. If I have had no contact by tomorrow I'll be giving him 7 days notice of small claims proceedings. Hopefully that'll do the trick...

[Steve Bullman]

I recently had this.

My final letter - which led to immediate payment included this wording..

 

'I telephoned you and you said you would sort things out as there was an issue with your bank.

 

I subsequently wrote to you asking for payment by Friday 11th July. I have received nothing. If you do not arrange payment of the outstanding debt by Friday 25th July I will take legal action. You should be aware that this will substantially increase the eventual payment (to include court costs, interest and legal fees) and will result in a CCJ against you.'

 

I might steal that if you don't mind!