Advice on renting a room for business

Cheesecake67

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

Savvy_Sue

I'm not sure they can change YOUR invoice terms unilaterally, but pretty sure they can change their own. What does your original contract say?

lincroft1710

Will depend entirely on the terms and conditions of the contract between you and the charity and if any penalty clauses apply in the case of late payment.


As you do not state the amounts involved, it is impossible to say if this is worth making a fuss over

Grumpy_chap

Cheesecake67 said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

I don't know what LADO is in this context or how they relate to the situation.

Essentially, this is a business relationship that has broken down.
When are your relationships (you renting the room and doing the work) ending?
Probably best sooner than later.
Reach that point.  Send them the final invoice for work.  Receive the final invoice for the room hire.  Pay them.  They pay you.
Walk away.

Marcon

Cheesecake67 said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

If you've referred them to LADO that's a hugely serious step. You might be 'really upset' about how you feel you are being treated, but put yourself in their shoes - they aren't going to be thrilled that this has happened, whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation.

As to whether they can do what they say they want to do - read your tenancy agreement and your contract. But is it worth making a fuss when you are about to have a parting of the ways? Depending on what the agreements currently say, maybe you could issue a final invoice discounted by the amount you owe them for room hire?

DullGreyGuy

Grumpy_chap said:

Cheesecake67 said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

I don't know what LADO is in this context or how they relate to the situation.

LADO is to raise concerns about professionals or volunteers that work with children that their behaviour, environment or criminal record is inappropriate. Normally referrals are about an individual rather than a whole organisation. https://national-lado-network.co.uk/the-role-of-the-lado-local-authority-designated-officer/

How it relates to the situation of the OP remains unclear.

Cheesecake67 said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

I dont know if your referral to LADO is related to the breakdown or a consequence of the breakdown but I imagine they too are upset about your referral. 


Ultimately you need to read the contracts which will specify payment terms, it could be their invoice was payable on demand and the fact they've given you 30 days has been an unrequired act of reasonableness and so they would be entitled to request payment earlier. 

In the highly unlikely event that the contracts dont state payment terms it would be an argument over if past performance effectively sets what is acceptable or if they should be considered as payment on demand given there is no clauses to say you have more time. 

Given the two way movement of monies do the contracts not have the right of offset? I assume yours is the higher bill so seems silly for you to pay them £4,000 and then they pay you £3,000 shortly after... much better to simply pay them £1,000 net as an offset payment and be done with it

Undervalued

If you had proper grounds to refer then to LADO then that was the correct thing to do. However, I trust that decision wasn't influenced by an unconnected contractual dispute? Perhaps your OP was badly worded but it comes across as though that has happened!

That aspect aside you say "but can they even do this?". Well, they have done it so yes they can! Whether they had any contractual right to do so is another matter but nobody can answer that without seeing your contract.

Even if they shouldn't had done it, whether there is any useful and cost effective redress is another matter again.

Consumer law doesn't apply to business to business transactions so it is all down to the contract.

Grumpy_chap

DullGreyGuy said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Cheesecake67 said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me some understanding of where I stand. I rent a room from a charity for my business and I also do some work for them. We have however fallen out and I have had to refer them to LADO and will no longer be working for them or hiring a room from them. They have consequently changed the payment terms on both their invoice to me and my invoice to them. Previously they would pay my invoice at the end of the month and then I would have 30 days to pay their invoice. They are no saying that they will pay me within 15 days but I have to pay them within 8...basically making sure they get their money from me before they pay me. Having worked for them for 5 years I'm rally upset with how they are treating me...but can they even do this?

I don't know what LADO is in this context or how they relate to the situation.

LADO is to raise concerns about professionals or volunteers that work with children that their behaviour, environment or criminal record is inappropriate. Normally referrals are about an individual rather than a whole organisation. https://national-lado-network.co.uk/the-role-of-the-lado-local-authority-designated-officer/

How it relates to the situation of the OP remains unclear.

Yes, that's the only LADO I am aware of - to report safeguarding issues.
I wondered whether there was another "LADO".

I assume the OP's report to LADO was not related to either the OP doing work for or the OP renting the room from the charity.
The OP does indicate that the termination of relationships is because of the report to LADO.
If so, and there was a genuine safeguarding issue, then the report is the correct thing to do whatever the consequences.
The charity terminating relationships with the OP because of the report seems to be the wrong thing.
We are, of course, only able to comment based on one side of the events being relayed to us.