how to claim for bad debt??

dandare

Hi i'm a self employed photographer and a client is outstanding with some invoices to me and i have a feeling he may try to stiff me for the lot, it's not happened yet but i'd like to have the right info available should i have to go to a small claims court or some equivalent, i noted from the small claims court, in scotland anyway, they can only deal up to £750. i'll be owed considerably more :eek: this is still my 1st year so i'm just trying to keep things a float at the moment. this would be a hammer blow if i lose it all.
what steps should i be taking should this client decide to rob me??
any pointers/ links appreciated.
dan

superfly_2

Explain your situation to your client and inform him that you cannot do any more work until the outstanding balance has been cleared. i am not sure how the legal side of things work but hopefully it wont come to that.

dandare

this is part of the problem as the bulk of the work that i do for them could be taken away from them by their client, this is why i reckon they're overdue on some cheques, and are only wanting to discuss it once they've had a meeting with their client. so i don't have that as a bartering tool

richt71

You can go to court for different amount but the more you claim the more costs are involved in terms of filing through the courts.

dandare

is legal aid an option as i'm quite skint, and earn marginally more than i'd get on the dole.

joggyb

Hi Dan

Sorry to hear you're having (potential) problems.

You might find some useful tips here, particularly if you have to pursue the guy on your own:

http://www.payontime.co.uk/

have a look down the right side of the page, in particular, for template letters etc that you can send him.

Hope that helps - and hope you get your money!

dandare

joggyb nice one, thats the sort of advice i was looking for, we don't have a signed contract in place but the site seems to have all the info to go about pursuing the debt, should i have to.

mikewebs

If you end up having to write off this person's debt remember the following:

you can claim back any VAT (from HMRC) charged on the original invoices so long as the debt is more than 6 months old, and has been written off in your books and you have a copy of the original invoices. It would be sensible to work into your accounts some provision for bad/doubtful debt (over-estimate then you will get a better profit if you do not have to use all of your provision allowance).

dandare

i'm not vat registered so how would that work for me, do i just calculate the amount it would be and deduct? i seriously don't want to write it off it's worth about 1/4, 1/5 of the years income to me, i guess if i could deduct the whole amount for tax it'd be a bit of relief but i doubt that is possible.