Do I have a legal right to claim 8% interest on a return of a late payment?

IndiP

Sorry this is a long one, but I thought context is needed.
When helping to develop my sister's flat, the freeholder wanted me to pay £1,000.00 towards any damage from my builders to the communal areas.  This money was refundable if there was no damage.  The builders finished work in late August 2019 and I email the management agent on the 1st September 2019 to find out how to get back the £1,000.00 as no damage was made.  I chased this payment for months and wasn't not getting anywhere.  My contact at the freeholders had left the firm and I was not informed of this for months.  I managed to track down her replacement in December 2019 and emailed him asking for my money back, I received a reply stating that he would look into it. He didn't.  In early February 2020 I drove a 70-ish mile roundtrip to track him down at a residents meeting and confronted him, to which he said he would look into it.  Again I didn't hear back from him, until I got so annoyed that I sent him an invoice giving him a month to pay it and an 8% bank of England rate late fee, if it wasn't paid on time. It wasn't paid on time and I only received any correspondence from him to actually deal with it after I sent him the invoice.  He stated he would look into it again, but would not be paying and 8%.  It took another few weeks before I finally got the money back.  I work freelance in TV and am in hardship, I have had to borrow money to survive.  Even though this isn't for goods or services, am I entitled to claim the 8%? If so, seeing as I have not received it, am I also entitled to continue adding 8% to the interest until it is paid in full?  
 
P.S. I have since found out that another flat owner was not asked to pay any money for damage when he developed his flat.

DoaM

I guess it depends on if this falls into the "commercial debts" realm ... the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 is what you're thinking about, so maybe take a read through and see if this scenario qualifies.

MobileSaver

IndiP said:

Even though this isn't for goods or services, am I entitled to claim the 8%? If so, seeing as I have not received it, am I also entitled to continue adding 8% to the interest until it is paid in full? 

Firstly, are you aware that the 8% cannot start until at least 30 days after the debt was due and has to be pro-rata'd across the whole year? So if you just added 8% to the £1000 earlier in the year then it's not surprising they (quite rightly) refused to pay it.

Secondly, assuming they finally paid up a month or so ago then if you are entitled to anything it would only be around £40 and although you could continue charging interest it would only be on the outstanding £40 which would be around an extra 27 pence for each month it remained unpaid...

Some fights are not worth fighting.

pinkshoes

By the sound of it, you didn't send the "Pay my money or I will charge you interest" letter until March 2020, and they paid the money a few weeks later. Is that a few weeks AFTER the 30 days you gave them?

If a few weeks is a month, then 8% of £1000 is £80, so for 1 month it would be £6.67. Although if a few weeks was only say a couple of weeks after the 30 days you gave them, then this would be even less.

You cannot add a T&C then try and backdate it.