chasing overdue invoices with letting agents

Adam_Fairfield

I have a property maintenance business and have some well overdue invoices with a letting agents that I work for. There are no reasons why they have not been paid and some are now 6 months overdue. the total of the invocies is approx £1800 ex vat. I have chased them up a number of times and sent out letters but have got nowhere. Most recently they have said they no longer manage the properties the invoices relate to and that I will have to chase the owners (landlords) of the properties for my money.

In my mind this seems to be just an excuse as the invoices and the work I carried out was for the letting agents and not the individual owner. I get orders from the agents and therefore its their name on the invoices. However, on the orders I recieve it does (usually) say on them "care of" and then the Owners name.

Is this the case? or do I need to head to Citizens Advice and aim for a small claims court?

The best part is, is that they have asked me to do work for them recently and had to explain to them that they are ON STOP!

chalkie99

Maybe you could accept the new work and make a start on it.

Get it to the stage when the property is unusable then stop work and hold them to ransom for all the money they owe you.

I once had self employed courier work from a very large parcel firm (now long bankrupt) and they kept fobbing me off with excuses for payment delays but always wanted me to do more work which added to the bill.

One day they asked me to take a van load of parcels to another area very urgently. I loaded up the van and drove home and stored the goods.

When they eventually realised they had not been delivered they went absolutely spare and called the Police, who were not remotely interested and I refused to release them until I was paid in full.

One of the directors immediately drove 125 miles from their Head Office with a cheque. :j

Cleared my account and they went bankrupt soon after so lucky I pushed my luck.

Back to your query, it seems your contract was with the letting agents so it is their responsibility to pay you. I think they may have cashflow problems and are stalling you.

ESKIMO

Good point chalkie - i like your style; hold them ransom! Lmao

Is there anyway you can lower the priority of the work you do for them?

In my mind this seems to be just an excuse as the invoices and the work I carried out was for the letting agents and not the individual owner.

Tada! You answer your own question...

I get orders from the agents and therefore its their name on the invoices.

Thus it's them you have to pursue. Your invoice is your 'receipt' to an extent. A promise to pay therefore a contract for an exchange for goods and services. It's a legally binding contract.

Contd...

However, on the orders I recieve it does (usually) say on them "care of" and then the Owners name.

I wouldn't pay any attention to it. It's more of a 'reference' for their benefit. Merely, just to make sure you are doing the work for the right client (at the right house) so that the paperwork corresponds. Therefore, no accusations of fixing something for someone that didn't need fixing - that sort of thing.

It does sound as though they are fobbing you off. One simple letter saying; x, y, z - i've waited long enough. Next step... Small Claims Court. My patience is waring thin... yada yada... Yours sincerely... Joe Bloggs. - (BIG SMILEY FACE!) Happy days!

Make your intentions very clear from the outset that you are not going to 'play their game' and that you have a business to run.

There are ways of phrasing the letter 'delicatley' - but provided you get the point across that there is a degree of urgency to it, they should 'pay heed'. -

Spin it on it's head and put the pressure back on them. They owe you the money after all. - Accept no further work from them. Decline any ongoing work you have with them. Make them liable. Not you.

I wish you luck and hope you get to some sort of amicable resolution. - But do make sure to check your contractual agreement with them (assuming you have one) for any claues etc just to make sure that you are on the good side of the law and that you are not going to unintentionally incriminate your self.

crazyguy

They have no right to hold back a payment your contract/work was done with the letting agents agreement and therefore its down to them to honour the payments and chase the actual landlord, not you.

Letting agents are renowned for being bloody useless at paying bills for any suppliers, I will not deal with any letting agents does not matter what profit I lose, I would rather have money being paid in on time as per invoice terms.

You could for future reference do one of the following things on your invoices.

Either up the price slightly and then offer a discount to counter act the increase if paid within a certain time ie: 14 days
Or Put on there all invoices to be paid with 30 days or a 5% fee will apply against overdue payments per calendar month.

Savvy_Sue

Who has paid previous invoices, the letting agents or the landlords? If the former, you have your answer: Letter before Action, Small Claims Court.

cavework

Contact them and inform them you are taking them to court and interest will be applied to your claim. Give them 7 working days to respond then make the claim on line.
They instructed you to carry out the work so they are responsible for paying the invoices.
Please do not accept any further work from them .. they don,t pay!

dharm999

The situation may not be as clear as previous posters have suggested. Who do you actually invoice? is it the owner, and you put care of the letting agent on the invoice as the letting agent deals with the property? We have that situation all the time, where we deal with a managing agent, but the invoice is always to the property owner but care of the managing agent. if we take legal action it is always against the owner not the managing agent, as all the managing agent is doing is processing the invoice on behalf of the owner. Who is your contract actually with? What the letting agent says about chasing the landlords may be right, in which case what we do is send a letter before action to the managing agent, who passes it on to the owner. You'll need to check carefully who exactly you invoice and who your contract is with.

cavework

OK , if there is a Letting Agent involved then surely they are the ones who contract any works required with the permission of the Landlord who is (I assume) paying them for this service?
The fact that they are no longer acting for the landlord is not the issue if the work was completed when they were the agent acting on his behalf.
If the letting agent hired you for the work, then the letting agent is your client and it is up to them to chase the landlord after they have paid you for the work completed.