Customer not paying

[Petej999]

Anyone got any advice on what to do please? I'm owed nearly £400 for various work for a customer. The work included replacing light fittings and accessories, all of which I supplied. I also, soon after doing this work, did two EICRs for her. To cut a long story short she was very unhappy that I'd failed them both, despite being for very good reason. Unknown to me she got another electrician to do the inspections a few days later who apparently passed them both, which I find hard to believe. When I sent the invoice she replied and said she'd give me £60 for my time and that was being generous. I pointed out the price is for all the work I did before the inspection and that I was being generous for not charging for those. She seemed ok with that but two months have since passed and not had any response to two reminders, so now working out what to do next.

Send the Boys around? joke

 

[LukeD]

Send the Boys around? joke

Why a joke... ? Sometimes its a lot quicker .

 

[jc_150]

Hi, when I had this situation, I researched what to do and I found this on a UK governmet web site :

Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery

Late commercial payments - interest and debt recovery costs you can charge businesses for late payments

www.gov.uk

Here is an extract. It is for companies only I think but not sure. Mine was company to company.

Interest on late commercial payments​

The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ - this is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions. You cannot claim statutory interest if there’s a different rate of interest in a contract.
And here is an example of how to work it out:
If your business were owed £1,000 and the Bank of England base rate were 0.5%:

• the annual statutory interest on this would be £85 (1,000 x 0.085 = £85)
• divide £85 by 365 to get the daily interest: 23p a day (85 / 365 = 0.23)
• after 50 days this would be £11.50 (50 x 0.23 = 11.50)

Send a new invoice if you decide to add interest to the money you’re owed.
I mailed the accounts dept. of the company and told them a new invoice would be written after 30 days using these calculations and this worked for me. Did not have to action the threat.
Hope this helps
JohnC

 

[Petej999]

Why a joke... ? Sometimes its a lot quicker .

Being PC mate that's all but totally agree

 

[Risteard]

Hi, when I had this situation, I researched what to do and I found this on a UK governmet web site :

Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery

Late commercial payments - interest and debt recovery costs you can charge businesses for late payments

www.gov.uk

Here is an extract. It is for companies only I think but not sure. Mine was company to company.

Interest on late commercial payments​

The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ - this is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions. You cannot claim statutory interest if there’s a different rate of interest in a contract.
And here is an example of how to work it out:
If your business were owed £1,000 and the Bank of England base rate were 0.5%:

• the annual statutory interest on this would be £85 (1,000 x 0.085 = £85)
• divide £85 by 365 to get the daily interest: 23p a day (85 / 365 = 0.23)
• after 50 days this would be £11.50 (50 x 0.23 = 11.50)

Send a new invoice if you decide to add interest to the money you’re owed.
I mailed the accounts dept. of the company and told them a new invoice would be written after 30 days using these calculations and this worked for me. Did not have to action the threat.
Hope this helps
JohnC

It applies to any business to business transaction. You could include something in the contract to cover late payments for a business to consumer scenario though.

Don't forget under Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation you can charge statutory compensation on top of the interest also.

 

[I Trippet]

Deadline been and gone, no payment so made a claim. Not sure what will happen but she's seems that crazy it wouldn't surprise me if she put in a counter claim. I know I've done nothing wrong and rightfully owed that money but can't help stressing about it.

 

[Risteard]

Deadline been and gone, no payment so made a claim. Not sure what will happen but she's seems that crazy it wouldn't surprise me if she put in a counter claim. I know I've done nothing wrong and rightfully owed that money but can't help stressing about it.

I've had to make a claim a couple of times. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[James]

8 out of 10 will just pay it or ignore it and you win by default

 

[Electrics]

Anyone got any advice on what to do please? I'm owed nearly £400 for various work for a customer. The work included replacing light fittings and accessories, all of which I supplied. I also, soon after doing this work, did two EICRs for her. To cut a long story short she was very unhappy that I'd failed them both, despite being for very good reason. Unknown to me she got another electrician to do the inspections a few days later who apparently passed them both, which I find hard to believe. When I sent the invoice she replied and said she'd give me £60 for my time and that was being generous. I pointed out the price is for all the work I did before the inspection and that I was being generous for not charging for those. She seemed ok with that but two months have since passed and not had any response to two reminders, so now working out what to do next.

Small claims court, charging for everything plus interest, plus lost time to sue, plus advice taken to sue, plus damages to reputation, plus mental and emotional stress.

You have to take these people on otherwise they will just keep trying to drag our industry down to the pits.

Once a court summons lands on her mat she'll pay up. Always take photos and have evidence of work too.

 

[7029 dave]

She sounds like trying to bully you because it aint gone her way, go all the way with your claim hope it works out in your favour.
PS I hate bully's