Limited company unpaid invoice

xyz111

Hi 
I was working as a limited company consultant and dealing with a number of projects for engineering consultancy. My line manager asked me deal with a number of projects and getting progress for projects and asking me to complete the tasks and assigning me projects. I was managing my own hours but was billing client 40-50 hours per week (for initial few weeks 50 then limited to 40 per week). So I was spending much higher number of hours than 40, as demanded by the workload. I was turning around multiple jobs and each hour spent could be tracked back to the job completed, therefore justified. I kept all proofs of emails sent, screen shots etc.

Now, my contract has been terminated (as they found cheaper staff people) and manager is not willing to pay for all surplus hours which I could not claim due to invoice size had to be limited to 40 hours per week. The line manager is being rude also.

Please advise what to do. 

fisher66

If the contract you were working under stipulated you were paid by the hour and you have proof of all hours worked then I suppose you would add up all hours worked, deduct all hours already invoiced and send a final invoice for the resulting hours not yet invoiced. Make sure you have payment terms on the invoice (e.g. 30 days from date of invoice). If they don't pay then start sending reminders with accrued interest if you like (look up statuatory interest on business debts). After a few reminders send a Letter Before Action and finally start a Money Claim against them. Ideally the amount will be within the limits of the small claims track otherwise it will get more messy.  Look up the term "dunning".

More advice can probably be found if you post here: https://forums.contractoruk.com/accounting-legal/

fisher66

However .... you need to be certain what your contract says. The fact you were limited to billing 50 hours a week at first, later reduced to 40 hours somewhat suggests that's all they were willing to pay for the period you worked for them. Study your contract first.

xyz111

line manager kept assigning work and kept asking for progress. 
I managed my work and progress and hours were spent doing that. The work had been delivered but not getting paid for it. Now they have blocked the unpaid but approved invoices from payment too. 

DullGreyGuy

xyz111 said:

line manager kept assigning work and kept asking for progress. 

Line Manager is a term of employment but you say you were the director of a limited company and therefore can be inferred as outside IR35. 

What does your contract state? 

I'm a dayrate contractor so by the letter of my contract if I work 5 minutes or 23 hours I get paid the same. Obviously when I check my work emails on a Saturday I dont bill them a day and on the occasions I've done 100+ hour weeks I've taken advantage of lighter weeks that followed. Some weeks you win, some weeks you lose, as long as you're happy where it averages then it's all good. 

If your contract had a 40hour cap and they asked you to do work that would require more than 40 hours the correct approach would have been to remind them of the cap and propose what of the assigned work can be completed within the time limit or have their express agreement that you go over the cap and you get paid for the additional hours. 

If the cap is in the contract and you failed to get their approval and worked the hours anyway then you like did so pro bono 

Bookworm225

xyz111 said:

line manager kept assigning work and kept asking for progress. 
I managed my work and progress and hours were spent doing that. The work had been delivered but not getting paid for it. Now they have blocked the unpaid but approved invoices from payment too. 

does not alter the fact your contract pricing is the only legal basis upon which you will be paid. 

what did your contract state was your price of your work?
- by the hour with, or without, a celling as to total number of hours billable?
- day rate?

xyz111

contract is per hour based
time sheets are 40 hours per week.
work has been done so line manager (client) can charge the companies for that work but not paying me.

xyz111

contract says: provide services no less than 40 hours and no less than 5 days per week.

QrizB

xyz111 said:

contract says: provide services no less than 40 hours and no less than 5 days per week.

There's no cap on the hours, then? And no limit-of-liability on the entire contract, capping the total cost?

xyz111

it was a per hour contract .. no clause re overall cost etc.
so my plan is to add 8% penalty on late invoices then get them notice via small claim court..

i hope this works.. 

xyz111

my contract is with intermediate company who pay me based on approved timesheet which I directly raise to end client.  I have always communicated with end client using email. They are renowned company. My line manager is also home based. How to find their address to serve them court notice. I think I should serve notice to intermediate company, which I have address of. Can I use the line manager's email to serve them notice as all communication is using emails. thanks.