Contractor refusing to pay

smifferson

Risteard said:

Screenshot any WhatsApps NOW as she can subsequently delete her messages, and it will remove them from your device.

Also NEVER sell materials to someone else without a substantial markup. You are supposed to be a business and not a charity. Make clear in future that she can't have "receipts" - your invoice to her will act as her evidence. She purchased the materials from you and not from your supplier. You are her supplier.

Act with extreme prejudice and aggression.

I have saved all screenshots and voice notes so hopefully have enough evidence should I need to take it further. Appreciate the advice, 

I don't think acting with prejudice and aggression is appropriate and it certainly isn't my style. 

ThisIsWeird

smifferson said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Communicate from now on only via a recordable means - text or WhatsApp, for example, no phonecalls (unless you can record them). See if you can capture and evidence what she's asking of you. Ask her what, exactly, she wants you to do about the invoices. Give her enough rope.

Keep utterly calm and factual. Also ask her to clarify - detail exactly - the issues that she has with your work, then go back to the property and counter it with evidence - eg photographs - to the contrary.

Once you have enough to land a blow, tell her you'll be submitting a MoneyClaimOnLine.org, based on all this information.

I presume that, after this, you'll never want or need to work with her again?

Yes I have saves all her voice notes to me and screenshotted the whole conversation. Thank you for your advice, I feel I have remained professional and calm throughout although have felt very angry underneath it all. I will look into the momeyclaimonline.org. never heard of that before.

And no I will not work with her again, I think she presumed she would get free labour for a day and I wouldn't chase the money.

Well done.
Yes, step 1 - always - remain professional.
Highlight the contrast between you both. 
Are you a member of any professional body, or do you have an advice line via your insurance? It would be useful to know how and who to possibly report her to for her attempted manipulation of your invoices. 
MoneyClaim.org is essentially a Government online equivalent to Small Claims Court, and does the same thing. You make your case, present your evidence, and the other party is asked to counter. An adjudicator decides. With what you have, it sounds open&shut, and should be very satisfying.
I anticipate she'll capitulate as soon as the letter arrives.
Good luck, and please keep us updated should you do this. I bet you'll have many colleagues who'll find this interesting and useful too. 

smifferson

ThisIsWeird said:

smifferson said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Communicate from now on only via a recordable means - text or WhatsApp, for example, no phonecalls (unless you can record them). See if you can capture and evidence what she's asking of you. Ask her what, exactly, she wants you to do about the invoices. Give her enough rope.

Keep utterly calm and factual. Also ask her to clarify - detail exactly - the issues that she has with your work, then go back to the property and counter it with evidence - eg photographs - to the contrary.

Once you have enough to land a blow, tell her you'll be submitting a MoneyClaimOnLine.org, based on all this information.

I presume that, after this, you'll never want or need to work with her again?

Yes I have saves all her voice notes to me and screenshotted the whole conversation. Thank you for your advice, I feel I have remained professional and calm throughout although have felt very angry underneath it all. I will look into the momeyclaimonline.org. never heard of that before.

And no I will not work with her again, I think she presumed she would get free labour for a day and I wouldn't chase the money.

Well done.
Yes, step 1 - always - remain professional.
Highlight the contrast between you both. 
Are you a member of any professional body, or do you have an advice line via your insurance? It would be useful to know how and who to possibly report her to for her attempted manipulation of your invoices. 
MoneyClaim.org is essentially a Government online equivalent to Small Claims Court, and does the same thing. You make your case, present your evidence, and the other party is asked to counter. An adjudicator decides. With what you have, it sounds open&shut, and should be very satisfying.
I anticipate she'll capitulate as soon as the letter arrives.
Good luck, and please keep us updated should you do this. I bet you'll have many colleagues who'll find this interesting and useful too. 

I will definitely look into this. I do have an insurance advice line so I will give them a call. I have also spoken to my accountant who has confirmed she is talking rubbish and believes she's looking for ways not to pay.
Yes I very much doubt it will get much further than the letter. I think she has done this countless times to other people but they clearly let her get away with it. I won't out of principle, in the hope she won't continue this behaviour towards others.

Thank you for your help and kind words. I will keep this page updated!

smifferson

Update::

She has resorted to ignoring requests for payment and has blocked me on WhatsApp..  I'm just drafting her an email and would appreciate input into whether it's appropriate and anything else I should include.

The email is as follows:

Dear *****

This is your final chance to make payment.

If you don't make payment:

1) I am member of a construction scheme and they have a disputes and fraud team. They advise me that I have a strong case to use  MoneyClaim.org or failing that taking you to a small claims court and are happy to assist should i require them.

A contract can be verbal or written and you have breached the payment date you promised. The emails and whatsapps you have sent are enough to act as a contract.

The amount you owe will considerably go up due to paying fees and interest payments. Non payment can end up as a CCJ on your file if it goes to a small claims court.

2) I also have all your whatsapp voice notes saved and have been advised that what you were telling me about changing names on receipts and putting them through your business is actually tax fraud and HMRC would be very interested to hear about this. 

3) Having researched a bit further I see that this probably isn't the first time you have done this, numerous adverts on Facebook asking for multi traders, and you've openly admitted you've gone through several people recently who I presume have received the same treatment.

4) I wonder some of the estate agents who you work with would interested to hear about how you treat subcontractors? Not a good look for your business.

The legislation regarding construction contracts is here for your information:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/649/made.

Simply ignoring this email and blocking me on WhatsApp isn't going to work. I  expect payment to be made by Tuesday or will start proceedings. 

Sincerely 

****

Thanks for your help

ThisIsWeird

If you do have an insurance advice line, then please use them - it's free. This doesn't 'begin' any action, but they will (should) guide you on the correct wording to use. And, if needs be, they should take it further for you, too.

This is all 'good stuff' - her ignoring you and then blocking you on WhatsApp will serve her very poorly indeed should this go all the way to an adjudicator. Keep all this evidence, write your log of what has taken place. Make this watertight.

As for the wording to use, I don't know - sorry. But I suspect the 'legal' way will be short and succinct.

Grenage

Risteard said:

Screenshot any WhatsApps NOW as she can subsequently delete her messages, and it will remove them from your device.

Also NEVER sell materials to someone else without a substantial markup. You are supposed to be a business and not a charity. Make clear in future that she can't have "receipts" - your invoice to her will act as her evidence. She purchased the materials from you and not from your supplier. You are her supplier.

Act with extreme prejudice and aggression.

I'm with Risteard on this. Act with extreme prejudice and aggression. 

This person is scum and they should be treated as such.

Auti

Hello,

I would only write point 1 and miss out 2,3,4 as they sound like blackmail and make the email less professional and to the point. Put in the sentence re legislation then leave out the ignoring bit (not relevant at the moment - will be if she does not pay) and put the ‘I expect payment’ sentence BUT include the date not day you expect payment by (could be any old Tuesday). I would give 1 week if you just send email or 10 days if you also send letter (to account for delivery time) making sure date matches on email and letter - see next paragraph.

Do you have a physical address for her too? I would be tempted to print out a copy of the email (make sure it is dated like a real letter) and post it with proof of posting as well as sending the email (keep a copy).

I would also, once the payment date has passed, ask your construction fraud team as to how you report point 2 (point 3,4 are part of point 2) as that is clearly fraud and you do not want to be implicated (by knowing of the sharp practice she uses and not reporting it).

This is just my opinion and I hope it all gets sorted quickly for you.

smifferson

This is very helpful and i agree with you completely, I want it to sound professional and the further points in hindsight are not the things to say in the first instance. I have an address where her office is and also I presume her own address from companies house as she's the director.

I have yet to send the email for the reason that I wanted to get some different perspectives so thank you for everyone that's commented.

ThisIsWeird

Auti's points are very pertinent.

Smiffy, best to treat this action as if 'assuming' that the witch (spellchecked...) won't pay, and that this will therefore have to go to MoneyClaim or SmallClaims or whatevs, and that you'll be calling on your insurance advice line for further guidance on this, and possibly even to represent you (not that I think it'll go that far). So you need to keep using the correct legal terms and follow the correct process - and that's why you ask your advice team for guidance now.

If you do everything correctly, she will recognise that this is 'proper'. If you use terms which are clearly not 'legal-advice-sourced' but coming instead from you, she will think you are on your own, are likely bluffing, so could drag it out thinking she can wear you down.

And, if there's the remotest chance you will be calling on your Legal Team to handle this case or guide you in future, then don't give them the headache of first having to handle any counter-claimed 'unprofessionalism' from your side. Make this as easy and straight-forward for them as possible, and the way to do that is for them to guide you. 

The first 'proper' legal letter from you will very likely make her capitulate.

Get your ducks in a tidy row.

smifferson

Thank you, again couldn't agree more with your advice.

Latest update now is I have had quite an aggressive voice note from her claiming a family member has died of a pulmonary embolism and paying me is the 'furthest thing' from her mind. ( I can imagine this is a load of nonsense made up again but I'm not engaging her about it).

She then mentioned that nothing is written down in a contract to pay, so still trying to get out of it,  which I replied that the fact she says this in our only correspondence on WhatsApp is contract in itself.

And then she followed up saying she would be deducting pay for problems with my work providing no information into what the problems are. Again I replied that I have photos and videos of all work completed. How this comes to light after I chased her for payment instead of in the week period before suggests that this is nonsense as well. 

She seems very rattled but is very bulshy and aggressive.