Money owed to a small business.

niceguymart

Hi all,

First time on here so if I go on I'm sorry.

Here goes. My Girl friend owns a small cleaning company and she did a house clean for someone moving out of rented accommodation, they didn't have to money to pay on the day and after several months of phone calls with husband and wife thinking each other had sent a cheque we still have no money. In the end we found there new address and rang them saying they were coming round to collect a cheque. We collected the cheque and banked it the next day, Now its come back to us with REFER TO DRAWER on it from Lloyds TSB. unsure what to do next, threaten with small claims court or try bank the cheque again? Unsure if we get billed for this?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Martin

marleyboy

There is little point in trying to deposit the cheque again, it means the cheque has bounced either as a result of cancelled cheque or insufficient funds in the senders account. Contact them again and tell them the cheque has bounced, ask for cash or a bank transfer. If they refuse, it will be a case of small claims courts to force them into paying.

Savvy_Sue

And never again should your g/f do a one-off clean without payment up front or at the very least a decent deposit!

grdcredit

What was the cheque value?

If it is worth pursuing then issue a letter before action - give 7 days to pay and then go through Money Claim OnLine (straightforward process but drop me a PM if you need any help)

The fact that you have a returned cheque makes it easier to push ahead with a claim as they will be unable to dispute the debt - make sure you take legal action on the bounced cheque

niceguymart

Thank you for the reply,

It was for £150 so it's worth pursuing. I've down loaded a template letter to put the details in and I'll send it recorded delivery and see what happens.

Do you know if small business's are are able to use small claims court or is it for consumers only?

ChiefGrasscutter

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

And never again should your g/f do a one-off clean without payment up front or at the very least a decent deposit!

While on the otherhand householders are advised never under any circumstance to offer money up front to any tradesperson.

CKhalvashi

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

While on the otherhand householders are advised never under any circumstance to offer money up front to any tradesperson.

It will generally be down to discretion, and how genuine the company looks.

CK

timbo58

I hate it when people bounce cheques: surely this used to be a serious offence?

paddyrg

timbo58 wrote: »

I hate it when people bounce cheques: surely this used to be a serious offence?

Until earlier this year, it was a criminal, not civil offence in the UAE to bounce a cheque

mel48rose

Just wondered if their bank will charge them for a bounced cheque? Hope so, hate people that do this kind of thing. Good luck and hope you get your cash.

Wywth

mel48rose wrote: »

Just wondered if their bank will charge them for a bounced cheque? Hope so, hate people that do this kind of thing. Good luck and hope you get your cash.

I think many banks charge their customers a fee for writing a rubber cheque.

The question the OP raises relates to a charge a bank may apply for attempting to deposit what turns out to be a rubber cheque. Particularly in the case of business accounts, many banks do make a charge.

Therefore our terms and conditions of supply state that any form of payment that is refused by our bank will incur the client in an additional charge (which we state plus VAT). This charge reflects the cost incurred to us by the bank plus a small administartion charge.

In fact, as we also get charged for depositing any cheque (and even more for cash) in our business account, some of our customers will suffer an additional charge if they don't pay us direct to our bank account. This is made clear to them in advance in our terms of supply agreement with them.