Paying a bill to a company that is in administration for semi-complete work

eugine100 · 16 November 2017 at 1:07PM

Hi,
this post was partially answered here in a thread titled "Paying a bill to a company that is in administration" (I'm not allowed to post the link)

but my situation is different, it's for a project with 3 staged payments.
1 - 40% upfront payment
2 - 30% after the 1st fix (due on completion of 1st fix)
3 - 30% after the 2nd fix (due on completion of 2nd fix)

I've paid the first 40% and they've done the 1st fix. Now they've gone bust, but I guess I owe them for the 1st fix. The problem is to get someone else to finish the work will cost more than the 60% remaining to pay. And if I pay the second payment to them I'll be severely out of pocket.

Should I pay them? They've invalidate the contract as I see it as they're not going to complete the work.

Any ideas on where I stand?

Thanks

Comms69 · 16 November 2017 at 1:16PM

Should you? Yes
Will you? Probably not
Will you be forced to? Possibly

Pennywise · 16 November 2017 at 1:34PM

What does the contract say? It is often in the terms & conditions (small print) as to what happens in case the supplier is unable to finish the contract or goes into administration.

Have you actually been told that they won't complete the job? "Going bust" usually means administration and sometimes the administrators try to keep it operating to finish work, collect dues, etc either to pay off debts or to keep it in the hope of selling the business.

I think you need to be speaking with the administrators to find out what their plans are and to negotiate a compromise payment to include your additional costs of a different supplier if they aren't planning to complete.

eugine100 · 16 November 2017 at 2:37PM

Hi,
thanks for the replies.
I had a bit of advice that I thought would be worth posting here. Once you receive notice that a supplier has gone into liquidation you should only send money to their insolvency practitioner and they should help to get the work completed.

Comms69 · 16 November 2017 at 4:18PM

eugine100 wrote: »

Hi,
thanks for the replies.
I had a bit of advice that I thought would be worth posting here. Once you receive notice that a supplier has gone into liquidation you should only send money to their insolvency practitioner and they should help to get the work completed.

That's true, but I don't think that was your question...

Paying a bill to a company that is in administration for semi-complete work

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