Anybody had any experience in doing this.
I have one customer who was renting a property who ran up a bill with us
and blagged it every time my guys cleaned.
I have done Thomas Higgins on him as his ex landlady gave me a forwarding address
and telling me he has done her too and lots of others by the look of his mail.
He actually called me on withheld number to find out how I got his new address and said he would pay in full.
Yeah right nothing paid and another few weeks gone by.
Higgins are saying it could cost me £200 mark to get him to court with no promise of winning.
Money claim online its £25 as he now owes total of £114.
Here's the problems for you that i see.
[1] He doesn't have a permanent address. i.e he's renting and moving about and not a homeowner.
[2] Your claim (assuming he does not respond/or fails to defend) will gain an automatic CCJ against him . If he still does not pay it will cost you more to try and enforce it.
[3] If he does defend, how can you 'prove' your claim, did you have a contract? Or will you just say you carried on cleaning and running up a bill with no contact. Did you have contact? Did he promise to pay, did anyone witness this?
I'd chalk it down to experience and learn never to let a customer rack up such an expense. Also its bad form to threaten court action (as per Higgins) and then not follow it through.
This is where your Admin and Business comes into it.
1) Via Tracing him you could find him such as Asking Landlord if they have a forwarding address.
2) Under English Law you could take your County Court Judgment to the High Court which cost about £60 and which High Court can then issue a Writ of Fieri Facias which empowers a High Court Enforcement Officer to seize goods to the value or take payment of the Outstanding Balance Plus Court Costs Plus HCEO Costs.
3) How do you prove, This is the easy and hard one.
If you got prove of a Text saying 'Can you clean my windows' then bang! However If you don't have prove. You can still make a judgement however its up to the courts to make a decision. However I always advise to do following
3.1 - When somebody asks for your services. Get them to sign an agreement.
Its a Simple one. There name & Address, Our Details Plus Services and Price plus we sign it and they sign and date it.
We simply say 'This agreement is simply a service agreement, You can cancel within 24hours prior to the work being carried out by simply calling us on [Number] and quote [REF NUM]. If you were not happy with the work then this is all your details for where you need to complain to. [Company Name] works with Fraud Prevention and Debt collection agencies if for any reason that payment was not made we would pass your details to these agencies to collect any outstanding balances' You just need to stick to your boots and if anyone asks why you just need to say 'I got stung before so I need to cover myself now'
Hope all that helps and remember you may be a Window Cleaner but if you owed a company money, they will be quick on shoes to collect the balance.