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Some advice please - non paying customer
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After owing us for a few months, my partner decided not to do the work, however this guy and his brother basically railroaded him into completing it for them for the date required, meaning he worked all one weekend and through the night with the promise that they would pay him all the money owed if he completed the job. (This is artwork we're talking about). He completed their job and still no money showed up.
This money has been owed now since April.
Dont want to seem harsh, but the warning signs were all here weren't they?
Why not use the obvious urgency to say - clear the debts or we dont do the work?Just incase anyone else has any suggestions which way to go.. this guy since the letter/email was sent stating we'd accept £1,700 , w hich is still a big drop, if he paid either the whole amount or half this Monday and half by the end of the month, either in cash or by credit card, is still claiming he should only be paying £1,300 by his calculations! We've told him either pay what we've asked or we send in a debt collector or take him to small claims whereby we'll be claiming the full amount.
From what we can gather, this guy owes at least 4 other people that we know of slightly more than what owes us, each!! In a lot of trouble I think.
Do you have a proper order for the work or an appointment/agreement. Is it on an hourly rate? How do you bill him? Was the invoice clear and did it detail exactly what he was paying for e.g. no of hours. Does he have any reasonable ground for disputing the amount?
If you try and recover this money you need to be on pretty solid ground in terms of contracts or agreement.
At the moment the client seems to be querying the amount you are charging. The first step is to resolve this. You have allowed this to turn into a dispute over the amount which is preventing you getting payment at all. The fact that you have agreed a reduced amount for immediate payment, I fear will allow him to continue to stall for more time, negotiate and not pay. In his mind he may feel that he was justified in reducing the offer of payment.
You need to get him to agree in writing what is owed in the first place. Once he does this the amount is no longer in dispute.
Then if its a business to business transaction notifyi him you are adding on statutory interest from April using base rate plus 8%. You are going to get £100+ back on top of the debt he agrees to pay.
Then send 7 day solicitors letter.
Then begin the debt recovery process as mentioned above.0
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