[Cleaner Windows]

Ive been cleaning quite a large country pub inside and out every other month for the past 3 years. Ive always done a good job and never had a problem with payments as I have always handed the invoice over to which ever member of staff was on the till when Id finished the job and they would put the invoice in the till and hand me £48 in cash.

Cleaned it recently though and no staff seemed to be around but the cleaner says the pub has new owners that took over in september last year (first Id heard about this!) and she said somone would be down in a min to pay me, so I went out to my van and waited and along comes a pretty lady who I assume is the manager, as she explains the owners happen to be away on hols in hong kong at the moment. She also goes on to say that she doesnt know about us cleaning the windows and cant authorize a payment without speaking to them on the phone... she took my number and said she'll ring me back later.  She rung back as promised but says the owners are saying they didnt know anything about me cleaning the windows and that they are NOT paying me anything and not to clean the windows any more!! I had to hold my tongue at this point because I was already fuming but explained to the girl that they must have noticed the dirty windows had magically become clean once every two months and the tills surely had my invoices in.... apparently not the case :S

Now Ive got a record of all the work done printed from george on my pc which shows all the dates ive cleaned the pub and all the payments made by them which I can take in and show them. The thing is, Im assuming the owners are going to be very uncooperative since they've flatly refused to pay and I dont want to lose my temper and do anything I shouldnt!    what would you do and where do I stand within the law seeing as there isnt really a contract on paper as such?

[elite mike]

hope it has a good outcome for you CW, but it don't look good .

[SeanK]

If they are new owners then I don't think there's anything you can do as your agreement was with
the previous owners.
You could go after them for not informing you that they where selling up.

[dazmond]

how many times have you cleaned them without payment?

if you didnt make an arrangement with the new owners to clean the windows then nowt you can do mate.

just write it off and move on pal.

my missus has been done over to the tune of £5,000 recently.

puts things into perspective.

[Ben wood]

If they don't pay up. Go have a nice meal with the other half then refuse to pay.

[SeanK]

If they don't pay up. Go have a nice meal with the other half then refuse to pay.

Don't do this as you will be done for theft.

[Carl2009]

As a caveat i'm not sure whether what i'm about to say has any legal standing, but here goes...

Before they took over they had the books and should be aware of all revenue and expenses vis a vis the pub, including your £48 bill every 2 months. That is after all £288, no small beer. If they took over in September last year and you have cleaned it since then (say in November and February, and have been paid by them then I would have thought that any court might agree that there was a tacit continuation of service - they could have cancelled you after all. A contract would be implied.

I would personally write a final letter outlining the above, saying that you accept that they no longer want your services and you have cancelled them, but that their bill is still outstanding; give them 30 days to pay; if they don't pay I'd get Thos Higgins involved - a Letter Before Action costs £2.40. If they still don't pay, forget it.

Best of luck.

[Stephen.C]

If they don't pay up. Go have a nice meal with the other half then refuse to pay.

That's what I would do, say your very unsatisfied with the meal and don't pay.

[JackieW]

Go in when the pub is open and announce in a loud voice that you need to be paid for the window cleaning.
 
Make the customers  uncomfortable with the situation.

Keep doing this every night until paid or arrested.

Either way will affect their business.

Or ask nicely and try and reason with them.

[Cleaner Windows]

As a caveat i'm not sure whether what i'm about to say has any legal standing, but here goes...

Before they took over they had the books and should be aware of all revenue and expenses vis a vis the pub, including your £48 bill every 2 months. That is after all £288, no small beer. If they took over in September last year and you have cleaned it since then (say in November and February, and have been paid by them then I would have thought that any court might agree that there was a tacit continuation of service - they could have cancelled you after all. A contract would be implied.

I would personally write a final letter outlining the above, saying that you accept that they no longer want your services and you have cancelled them, but that their bill is still outstanding; give them 30 days to pay; if they don't pay I'd get Thos Higgins involved - a Letter Before Action costs £2.40. If they still don't pay, forget it.

Best of luck.

that's the sort of info I'm looking for,  cheers mate I was thinking along those lines.  I will try exactly that and I think you are probably correct there. They've been paying me between last Sept and the clean previous to this last one so how didn't they notice the payments and invoices when they tally up at the end of the day/week! ?  Cheers

[bobplum]

As a caveat i'm not sure whether what i'm about to say has any legal standing, but here goes...

Before they took over they had the books and should be aware of all revenue and expenses vis a vis the pub, including your £48 bill every 2 months. That is after all £288, no small beer. If they took over in September last year and you have cleaned it since then (say in November and February, and have been paid by them then I would have thought that any court might agree that there was a tacit continuation of service - they could have cancelled you after all. A contract would be implied.

I would personally write a final letter outlining the above, saying that you accept that they no longer want your services and you have cancelled them, but that their bill is still outstanding; give them 30 days to pay; if they don't pay I'd get Thos Higgins involved - a Letter Before Action costs £2.40. If they still don't pay, forget it.

Best of luck.

agree....except for the forget it bit, small claims court last thing a landlord wants is a CCJ....MIGHT effect his licence application

[Michael Peterson]

Carls reply is a business mans reply im willing to bet he runs his company well

[Carl2009]

As a caveat i'm not sure whether what i'm about to say has any legal standing, but here goes...

Before they took over they had the books and should be aware of all revenue and expenses vis a vis the pub, including your £48 bill every 2 months. That is after all £288, no small beer. If they took over in September last year and you have cleaned it since then (say in November and February, and have been paid by them then I would have thought that any court might agree that there was a tacit continuation of service - they could have cancelled you after all. A contract would be implied.

I would personally write a final letter outlining the above, saying that you accept that they no longer want your services and you have cancelled them, but that their bill is still outstanding; give them 30 days to pay; if they don't pay I'd get Thos Higgins involved - a Letter Before Action costs £2.40. If they still don't pay, forget it.

Best of luck.

agree....except for the forget it bit, small claims court last thing a landlord wants is a CCJ....MIGHT effect his licence application

Yep, bobplum, but I'm not sure where he stands legally, Mind you, they have been paying him...

[Carl2009]

Carls reply is a business mans reply im willing to bet he runs his company well

Nice of you to say. I do try. It's best to try and take the emotion out of things like this if you can. Saying that, I'm rubbish at that but, as always, it's easy to give advice to someone else.

[robertphil]

you need to teach them a few manners .    wait a few months then do it right

[deeege]

Wait until a busy period, Valentines night or New Years Eve, then phone up numerous times a few weeks before and book table after table until they are fully booked up. An empty restaurant on one of the busiest nights of the year......that'll teach 'em.

Or a sliver of bamboo in the lock.

[easy clean]

Do they sell food?

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Are you owed £48.00 in total?

[DaveG]

Wait until a busy period, Valentines night or New Years Eve, then phone up numerous times a few weeks before and book table after table until they are fully booked up. An empty restaurant on one of the busiest nights of the year......that'll teach 'em.

This ones my favourite 

[Geoff]

I like the bamboo idea - comes up a few times on the forum - thanks for the tip.

Multiple table bookings - this has to be the way forward.

I wouldn't advise anyone to do these sorts of things as that would be very bad.

And don't pour cement down the toilet if you go in there for a pint.  Ever.