[gwrightson]

do any of you guys know exactly what the law is when it comes to late payment charges , (if their is one )
I have a customer owing me from £800 from november, although invoice said 14 day payment terms unless otherwise agreed.   after repeated reminders, phone calls a visit was made by myself last week, his responce was he was sorting his bank affairs out as had trouble with one of his banks and could he pay me half now and the rest in a fortnight :   thinking , it was at least some thing i agreed , i asked for the cheque, oh i havnt got my c book with me . ill pay you by bacs   if thats ok,   :   well some hope is better than none i agreed, guess what still no payment, so i want to start adding charges,
So answers please   when can i starting adding interest from? how much ?   and any other relevent info .
tls geoff

[Dean Cudd]

Hi  I give my customers 30 days to pay on agreement. If they run over the 30 days I then charge them 5 % on top of the invoice cost, then every 7 days another 5 % ,   

[Paul Heath]

Register on here: www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Issue a court order, all done on line, used this service a couple of times and works everytime so far.
It sounds like he is trying it on

[Mike Halliday]

if he hasn't paid you do you think the fact you will add 5% on the bill will make him pay any quicker? he won't pay it any how. What you should be asking is how do you get him to pay.

you need to be calling him and asking where his cheque book is then meet him there to collect it

[Simon Gerrard]

Goeff,

Sounds as if you have had the misfortune of coming across, not only a shister, but one that knows what he is doing. You can charge interest from the day the payment is late but with people like this you need to concentrate your efforts on getting your original £800 back. Send him a recorded delivery letter stating that you need payment in full within 10 days or you will issue proceeding in the county court, if he doesn't pay - do it. If nothing else a CCJ will blunt his ability to get credit in future.
Very annoying place to be, feel for you.

Simon

[mark joyce]

take it its some sort of commercial place go give them a visit asking for the money

[gwrightson]

Mark,yes it was infact a nursing home and i did visit the place and confonted him infront of his staff, were upon he asked if he could talk with me outside.
Mike inclined to agree with you about the interest been added on and still not getting paid but though perhaps it just propmt them to pay. The ironic thing is whist working there we were discussing small buisnesses and the problems of late payers  : 
geoff

[Paul Heath]

Nursing home won't want a county summons against it, i would send a registered letter stating that unless payment is received within 7 days from the date of the letter, court proceedings will be instigated and no more reminders will be sent.

[Carpet Dawg]

I also dont think intrest added to an invoice is going to make him pay any quicker. Plus, if you didn't state that you where going to charge intrest if payment was late in your orignal quote with his signuture, then legaly it wouldn't  stand much ground.

[Steve Rothwell]

Hi Geoff, Simon and Paul 23 are almost right, you must issue the person or institution a letter before action, and as stated it must include the exact amount you are owed, and a fixed date for it to be paid.
However do NOT send it recorded delivery, as if he refuses to sign for it, he has proof that he did not receive it.
You just have to get proof of posting from the post office, and start the deadline from 2 days after you post it. That is a legal proof of receipt then.
If after your deadline he has not paid in full, then go to the moneyclaim website, the judge is more inclined to favour you if you follow all the rules, that said once he receives a court paper on his mat he may just pay quickly.

[nevil]

I would visit again. Ask for it, and wait for it. Tell him you have plenty of time. Doubt he will use you again but do you want his custom. If he is unwilling to talk about it inside in front of staff and ressies I think you need to use that to achieve your objective. Take your flask and make yourself comfortable.

I hate providing credit for anyone. I just don't have the means to credit check. It messes with your cash flow. If they need that they should see their bank manager.

[AJB]

You need to write stating the amount owed, the date it is owed
from. Give him 14 days from the date of posting. tell him in the letter
If nothing recieved you will go down the small claims route.
Claiming the original £800, plus interest at 8% pa, which equals 17.5p
per day from from the date the work was done, plus the court fee, and
a reasonable amount for each correspondance you have sent, ( the courts
consider £5 - £10 per invoice/letter fair)

The other option as he has a business is to threaten a winding up order
if not paid within 14 days, on the grounds that you feel he is not in a
position to meet his debts. This has even shifted British Gas when customers
have gone this route.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Agree wit AJB.

You can bankrupt a millionaire if the debt is for more than £750 and he cannot pay in time.

(You can bankrupt a dead person as well , not that their likely to care but the deceased's estate may not be too happy about it. )

Rog

[Simon Gerrard]

The problem with the legal route is that if this guy knows what he's doing, and people like this often do, he can drag this out for years and hardly pay you a penny. It is a popular misconception that if you take someone to court you end up getting your money - not true.
If I were you I'd try and settle this amicably.

Simon

[premiermaids]

Geoff, try hand delivering  a letter to him stating that if payment is not received within x days then you reserve the right to instruct baliffs without further notice.

If he owns/ runs a nursing home that should scare the c**p out of him - I did this once for a very later payer and it worked.

Regards

Jim 

[Dennis]

You just have to get proof of posting from the post office, and start the deadline from 2 days after you post it. That is a legal proof of receipt then.

Unless I've misread you meaning, proof of posting is not proof of receipt, he can just say it's "lost in the post" and the onus is on the sender to report it to the Post Office to investigate.

[Mike Halliday]

'instruct bailiffs'....... when he stops laughing he'll tell you to p1ss off : :

bailiffs for a non government debt are months ( even years away)

the nearest you can do is use a debt collector who have as much powers as a paper boy and are even less scary to anyone who knows about debt

[premiermaids]

Mike, the advice given was intended for Geoff and not for you.

Your assertion that bailiffs for non-government debt is ‘months’ or ‘years’ away is simply untrue.

If Geoff went through the small claims court and won and the debt was still unpaid, then he can instruct bailiffs.

The real point of my post was that, in my experience, the threat of Bailiffs was enough to get a debt paid when just about everything else had failed.


Regards

Jim

[Simon Gerrard]

Jim,

That may well be the case, but bailiffs are a long way down the line and someone who knows what he is doing can have you incurring court costs after court costs, all of which is payable by the palintiff in advance and added to the debt, if it ever gets paid, so you can end up even more out of pocket than when you started and STILL not get your money.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

Jim this is not a private forum for you and geoff : : anything you post is for all of us to read,


read your second & third sentences, how long do you think it will take from now until the bailiff knock on this person door if geoff goes to the small claims court?

the threat of bailiffs is laughable to any one who knows about being in debt, I know this because i am in massive debt and my fear of bailiffs is none existent