[benny donnelly]

Have a commercial clean that has gone 3 months now without paying were my terms are payment due within 30 days, im just sick of calling and being told cheque will be in the post so just as a matter of principle should I go down the small claims route or just drop it and move on?

I know the value isnt that big but its bugging me that they have one over on me if you know what I mean.

[Richard iSparkle]

send them a couple of letters through these guys to show you are serious.

http://www.thomashiggins.com/

this will often get the response you are looking for.

if they don't respond follow through with the claims court.

PS. i would give them a call and let them know they have 7 days notice before you start the ball rolling on this process, as they may well pay up right away.

explain you are a small business and cannot accommodate this amount of debt remaining unpaid.

good luck!

[roundbuilder]

So your terms are to pay within 30 days but now you have done it 3 times and 90 days has passed??. No point in having terms if you walk over them and carry on while others also walk over them! A disaster waiting to happen.
If my terms were 30 days and i hadnt been paid then clean wouldnt be done till payment was recieved you have mugged yourself off cleaning it 3 times for it to mount up to 3 lots and risk being knocked and not payed at all.

I hope you get it all sorted defo take it to a small claims if they are refusing to pay you for work you carried out!.

[Paul Coleman]

So your terms are to pay within 30 days but now you have done it 3 times and 90 days has passed??. No point in having terms if you walk over them and carry on while others also walk over them! A disaster waiting to happen.
If my terms were 30 days and i hadnt been paid then clean wouldnt be done till payment was recieved you have mugged yourself off cleaning it 3 times for it to mount up to 3 lots and risk being knocked and not payed at all.

I hope you get it all sorted defo take it to a small claims if they are refusing to pay you for work you carried out!.

He wrote three months rather than three cleans.  He may be referring to three cleans but he hasn't written that.

[richard jagger]

I would do small claims court for sure.To many are getting away with it.

[benny donnelly]

Its a 3 monthly clean I should have made that clear...

I done this job 3 times already and all 3 times it was countless phone calls and months after clean before cheque arrived, I have explained on all occasions I am only a small business and I cannot afford to be waiting months to be paid and I am assured I will be paid on time in future...

Only its due a clean again next week and Im still waiting on payment for April clean, sick of it now to be honest, I might use the method of threatening legal action see if that works first and if not maybe go down the small claims, but with the small claims your waiting months for it to come up, miss half a days work to attend and prob wait months again to even get paid, is it even worth it? If it was for a couple grand then yeah be worth the process.

[Perfect Windows]

Have a commercial clean that has gone 3 months now without paying were my terms are payment due within 30 days, im just sick of calling and being told cheque will be in the post so just as a matter of principle should I go down the small claims route or just drop it and move on?

I know the value isnt that big but its bugging me that they have one over on me if you know what I mean.

No, don't drop it, just keep hassling them.  Get the cash.

Then formally and in writing, requote them at £900 with a 50% discount for payment within 30 days.  Get them to accept the new quote in writing.  They'll pay you in future or you'll be able to claim £900, which will make it definitely worthwhile.

Before anyone says that can't work, I've done it on the small handful of commercial work I've quoted and got the jobs.  To be fair, I've quoted 30% discount but the principle's the same.

Vin

[Barry W]

Read the links and don't be afraid to impose fines on them, I got to the stage where I couldn't keep up with paper work and employed a lady to do it and the first thing she did was to set out the late payment terms on the bottom of the invoices, funny how companies started paying on time and I didn't lose any work from it.


http://www.paylate.co.uk/

http://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legislation-interest-calculators

http://late-payment-law.co.uk/calculator.html

[PoleKing]

Bent, sorry to hear of your predicament.
It all depends on if you're on speaking terms with anyone with any clout IMO.
I will probably get lambasted by a number on here but I am quite laid back about most payments-sooner or later almost everyone pays IMO.
I would call them up and say-in your friendliest voice, 'Hi, it's Benny the window cleaner, (don't use a company name-try for the more informal approach) I'm supposed to be cleaning your windows next week, bet you can hardly see out if them eh? (still keep it casual) its just that you're three payments overdue and I can't clean till they're all paid up. I'm due on Wednesday, can you leave a cheque for £600 please then that'll bring you upto date"
Then, Tuesday afternoon 3pm ish, call again saying "just confirming tomorrow's clean and that (whoever it is) has left my cheque"
If they say no. Small claims court.
If they say yes, and its there (don't clean till you've got it), great!
If they say yes, and its not there when you arrive you know they're pulling your plonker. Walk away, calmly.
Go home, file your claim.
Some people are just rubbish at paying.
There are (again IMO) very few actual malicious customers.

[clarkson]

send them a couple of letters through these guys to show you are serious.

http://www.thomashiggins.com/

this will often get the response you are looking for.

if they don't respond follow through with the claims court.

PS. i would give them a call and let them know they have 7 days notice before you start the ball rolling on this process, as they may well pay up right away.

explain you are a small business and cannot accommodate this amount of debt remaining unpaid.

good luck!

Hi
Agreed they got me 5k that had been owed for a year in a month.

Cheers

John

[Archer]

Benny,

I know exactly your situation as I had this 2 weeks ago with a client owing me some money.

After sending the reminders, I then telephoned them with legal action and was paid in full within the hour £1,200, doesn't always work but its the way I address it, it not being a busy fool for no one, and stressing about it.

[Neil Gornall]

I would do small claims court for sure.To many are getting away with it.

Small claims court is a real pain. I have just taken a van dealer through it and although I won the case, the time involved cost me hundreds of pounds in lost earnings which you will not get back.

I would try every option first before going down that route.