Problems with non-paying customer

Acc72

ILW wrote: »

Go round and "undo" any work he has done. Tends to bring things to a head.

How do you propose the OP gets access to the bathroom to remove items that the home owner has paid for ?

Jarndyce

Setting aside the substantive point, if I was your main employer, I might be wondering why you were doing self-employed work while you were on leave from my employment - leave which is supposed to be used for rest and recuperation. Does his contract allow you to do this? Are you registered as self-employed? Will you be declaring the income on a tax return? What if you were injured while doing this work?

Cherry_Bomb

Acc72 wrote: »

You need to consider how much he is owed before deciding how to proceed.

As it looks as though your husband is a full time employee on PAYE, was he intending to include this income on his tax return ? (also, does his employer allow him a second job whilst he is on leave ?).

If your husband does write to the "customer" he is effectively providing proof that could be used against him should the customer decide to inform his employer / HMRC.

Is it worth the hassle ? - or, just chalk it up to experience ?

If he does decide to go down the legal route he needs to write a polite letter today detailing exactly what has been done, what has been paid for and what is outstanding - and request immediate settlement of the outstanding amount.

If it is not paid in 7 days, write again (slightly more assertively) referring to the initial letter stating that payment has not been received and that he is requesting immediate settlement.

If it is not paid in 7 days, write again a "7 day letter / Letter Before Action" specifying that if the outstanding amount is not paid in full within 7 days that you will commence legal action without further notice.

If it is not paid in 7 days, then commence legal action.


Do a search on Google re : credit control letters and LBA's etc. for the wording (although avoid American sites !) and also the on-line service to commence legal action.

TBH I don't know if it's allowed or not! He's in the army and has always done private work whilst on leave. Always declared as he can make a decent amount of money. Too much to explain anyway!

Is it worth the hassle? It's hard because if we have to go down the CCJ route it'll probably be left for me to deal with as he's away a lot. But then it's a good bit of money he's owed so far which we were looking forward to having for xmas (£600)
Is it really worth it for £600? I don't know!

I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that. I'll get him to do a letter tonight and I'll send it recorded delivery tomorrow so she can't say she never received it

Sambucus_Nigra

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

TBH I don't know if it's allowed or not! He's in the army and has always done private work whilst on leave. Always declared as he can make a decent amount of money. Too much to explain anyway!

Is it worth the hassle? It's hard because if we have to go down the CCJ route it'll probably be left for me to deal with as he's away a lot. But then it's a good bit of money he's owed so far which we were looking forward to having for xmas (£600)
Is it really worth it for £600? I don't know!

I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that. I'll get him to do a letter tonight and I'll send it recorded delivery tomorrow so she can't say she never received it

Does he do a self assessment and declare this as income for tax purposes though?

Acc72

Hi Cherry Bomb,

Assuming the other factors are in order, your first action needs to be to write the letters as in my earlier reply (signed / recorded delivery is a good idea).

You may find that the customer pays or makes an offer - but you need to give them the opportunity to do so.

If it gets to the 3rd letter / LBA then you need to look at the on-line service (it is really straight forward - again, google search etc.).

Despite the macho replies you see on internet boards, most people do not want to receive any kind of legal letter and will look to reach a compromise.

DVardysShadow

ILW wrote: »

Go round and "undo" any work he has done. Tends to bring things to a head.

It tends to preclude legal action.

Cherry_Bomb

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Does he do a self assessment and declare this as income for tax purposes though?

I'm curious as to why this is important to our problem?

But to answer your question yes I do it and have done so for the last few years.

Uncertain

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

I'm curious as to why this is important to our problem?

It's not! It is completely irrelevant!

All that matters is the contract (i.e what was agreed) and whether the work was of a satisfactory quality. If it was then they have to pay the agreed price. If it wasn't then normally they would be expected to give him an opportunity to put it right. Failing this they could then get it put right by somebody else and deduct the reasonable cost from your OH's bill.

Cherry_Bomb

Bit of an update.

This customer has just phoned my OH back. Obviously I didn't hear the conversation but he's said it was bizarre. She's basically said there's £250 worth of money 'missing' She said she paid £500 for materials but the invoices only account for £250 worth. This is untrue and easy to prove as OH has all the invoices and the amounts do tally.

She is refusing to pay him a penny and said if he takes her to court (he never said he was going to) she'll deny ever hiring him in in the first place.

Like I said before all we have is a few text messages and a voicemail along the lines of 'yeah Saturday is fine' None of them actually say yes you can come round to continue work on my bathroom so where do we go from here?

Would OH have to prove he was actually there and did the work?

whitewing

Make full notes of exact wording used in the telephone call and date and time.

Keep calm and continue action as you have already been advised above.