Unpaid Contract Work

ta2

I did some web programming work (backend stuff) recently for a web design company. Sent the invoice on 12th of March, that's 36 days ago - still not been paid. If I do not receive anything by the end of this week, what are my next steps? Should I file in a small claims court? Would I be within my rights to contact the end customer and ask that my work be removed from their website?

Thanks

MyRubyRed

What was in your contract re payment terms?

ta2

MyRubyRed wrote: »

What was in your contract re payment terms?

No formal contract, just email/phone/IM. Previous work has been paid within a couple of weeks. I have all the emails to prove that there was a contract between us, but there was no specific agreement regarding payment terms.

I just got a reply from the owner of the company "28 days from invoice = law. Get a grip.", to which I replied it has been 36 days... I have received no response from that.

MyRubyRed

First point. You should not undertake work without a Purchase Order or formal contract in place and you should have a clause in place that determins your required payment terms and interest rate if your customer does not pay on time. ( you should also have other terms in there to protect yourself)
Re his note re 28 days from date of invoice, is that date of issue or date of receipt? When did you invoice?

ta2

MyRubyRed wrote: »

First point. You should not undertake work without a Purchase Order or formal contract in place and you should have a clause in place that determins your required payment terms and interest rate if your customer does not pay on time. ( you should also have other terms in there to protect yourself)
Re his note re 28 days from date of invoice, is that date of issue or date of receipt? When did you invoice?

I have done A LOT of work for them before now with no problems, this time it's for the modest amount of £50.

Invoice issue and recieve date would be the same as it was via email.

getmore4less

£50 a few(3max?) hours work, no more, till they pay up.

Good idea to include terms which requires payment if the software is used since that implies acceptance.

If they insist on live testing limit that to a few days.

ta2

getmore4less wrote: »

£50 a few(3max?) hours work, no more, till they pay up.

Good idea to include terms which requires payment if the software is used since that implies acceptance.

If they insist on live testing limit that to a few days.

It has been live since before I invoiced them (there is no testing environment so I have to do it on the live server)... 37 days and counting.

I don't mean to be rude but I still don't know the answers to my questions:

If I do not receive anything by the end of this week (that'll be 44 days since supply and invoice), what are my next steps? Should I file in a small claims court? Would I be within my rights to contact the end customer and ask that my work be removed from their website?"

Thanks!

getmore4less

If you have just worked for a few hours then I think that is all you can claim since if you have failed to protect any IP you create not sure you can do this in retrospect if you were contracted to just to provide programing skills.

Has the company they are supplying paid up

It normaly helps to find out if it a can't pay or a won't pay

ta2

Oh sorry, I forgot to mention - I was asked to implement two specific features, and provided specific prices (£30 + £20) for these two features, which I then implemented. It was not a per hour job. These prices were mutually agreed.

HO87

In the absence of any query as to the quality or completeness of your work send a statement showing that the amount is now overdue and requesting remittance be made by return. If this yields nothing send then a letter enclosing a copy of the invoice, restating your standard terms "30 days net" or whatever, requiring that payment of it be made within a further 14 days or you will issue proceedings without further notice. Should this still fail to produce payment then register your claim against the company using moneyclaimonline.

If you failed to state your standard terms then you may well have to wait until you can persuade your contact to pass your invoice for payment.