Small claims court worth it? Self employed and not paid by customer

cider13

My OH is a self employed builder and has recently done some work for a customer who is refusing to pay the final instalment. Basically he got the job done quickly because he works his butt off and is very busy with other work, so the customer doesn’t want to pay the full amount be a it was done quicker than he thought. We’re not sure whether it’s worth going to the SCC or not. He’s now picking silly faults with the work to effectively threaten my OH and say he’s done a bad job. We’ve also found out the customer has a pretty bad reputation locally (if only we’d known that before).
Anyone been in a similar situation and have any advice?

Savvy_Sue

How much are you talking about? 

Have you seen whether there are any court judgements relating to this person? ie is it likely to be successful if you do go to court?

cider13

It’s just under £5k. The customer is very well off with lots of property.

McKneff

Did he issue him with a quote  or an estimate .

TELLIT01

If the customer accepted a quote for the work he has no grounds not to pay simply because the work was completed more quickly.  In your husband's situation I would be writing to the customer giving them 14 days to pay or court action will be started.

macman

Absolutely. LBA, then small claims process. You must send an LBA first or the judge will consider it a negative point against you. Make sure that you claim against the correct body: is it him as an individual, or his company (you said he has 'lots or property)? He may indeed, but the assets of the company that commissioned the work may be near zero.
The defence here is frankly ludicrous. If your OH had taken longer than planned to do the work, would he have offered to pay him extra?

cider13

Thanks for the replies.
It was an estimate. Unfortunately the job then required extra materials because some parts that my OH thought might be able to be reused, couldn’t be as they were too decayed (but you couldn’t know that until they were removed). The customer verbally agreed to pay for the extra but my OH foolishly didn’t get his agreement in writing to the extra cost.

cider13

Forgot to also say that the customer keeps asking to see OHs raw materials invoices too! 

MalMonroe

I assume that your OH gave the customer a quotation, with his Terms and Conditions, completion dates, etc before any work was started? And then invoiced the customer when the work was done, outlining payment terms (i.e. payment within 30 days, etc.)?

You have to go through a formal process before you can take someone to court, see the info in this government link - 

https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/payment-obligations

If the customer is not happy with the work, then he should outline his complaints in writing but he should have done that on completion of the work - I know that builders usually inspect work with customers, so that any snags can be sorted before a job is signed off.

Just under £5k is far too much for your OH to lose and this does need pursuing, hopefully without having to pay for solicitors and court fees. He is well within his rights to charge a late payment fee as well. 

This customer is obviously just trying to get away with either not paying or paying a reduced rate. Don't let him get away with it. 

cider13

It was an estimate but clearly stated the instalments payable and when they were due - these were paid so it’s the outstanding balance for completion that he won’t pay. The invoice is from Xero so has due date etc on it. OH tried calling him 6 times on his final day on site so he could check the customer was happy with the job and he didn’t/ wouldn’t answer his phone. OH sent him a text that night to check he was happy and the reply was that it all looked great!

ACG

Your husband does not need to provide invoices for the items - that is of no relevance unless the customer paid separately for the materials and the work. 

Letter before action (you can do this yourself), then file it with small claims court. 
If the customer says work is not up to scratch, ask if you can come down to put it right - if they refuse that is their problem. 

If your husband was paid by the hour/day - then the customer is probably in the right, but I dont know a single tradesman who works direct with customers and charges a day rate. They all charge for the job. Would the customer have paid more if it took longer? 

Thankfully we do not get many customers who refuse to pay, it does annoy me when it happens though. Although we are a business and it is "just business" as a small business it means more that customers are happy as it is not just a job. I do not take it personally anymore though, I just follow the process:
Try to get in touch, 
If not, Letter before action,
Court (none of our LBAs have ever got this far).