Chasing a debt

[CRI-Inv]

Hi

We have a customer that we've supplied a walk-in chiller to. They in turn have supplied it to an end user who is supposedly complaining about it. We've been back to site to take a look and everything is as it should be, no problems whatsoever. I suspect the end user isn't even aware that my customer hasn't paid me.

I've put a claim through the small claims court and am waiting for a response, but I wanted to know if I'm entitled to remove the box as it's still our property. My customer has said we're also banned from site.

Any ideas?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Does your contract have a retention of title clause?

 

[Blaby Loyal]

You need to look at your terms and conditions of business that operate in connection with the customer/person to whom you invoiced the supply of the chiller.

It is often referred to as Retention of Title or Reservation of Title or if you are miserable old sod like me then a Romalpa Clause.

It can be a very technical area of contract law. Basically, if there is a clause worded along the lines of "all goods remain the property of [company name] until all sums due to [company name] under all invoices between [company name] and you (the customer) are paid for in full".

If there is a valid clause then your direct customer probably cannot pass good title to the end user. However, forcing the end user to allow you to collect it will be the challenge.

 

[CRI-Inv]

Our T&C's state - "Title to the Goods will not pass to you until we have received payment in full".

 

[CRI-Inv]

All of our emails state that our T&C's form the basis of a contract between us.

 

[CRI-Inv]

They're saying that the hotel says the room isn't fit for purpose, but it's still shiny and new, and being used. Was full of stock when I went to investigate.

 

[Blaby Loyal]

You need to revise your terms and conditions in this respect. You appear to have what is referred to as a Simple Clause they are easily challengeable and defeatable. I would suggest you look at an All Monies Clause. Most credit insurers these days will insist on an All Monies Clause. You can find examples by Googling "all monies retention of title" and away ya go.

Were the terms and conditions clearly referred to and the customer given reasonable opportunity to consider them BEFORE the contract was completed. Generally, anything AFTER THE INVOICE is post-contractual and usually cannot be enforced.

 

[CRI-Inv]

Thank you for that. I'll certainly do that instead.

Every email and quotation we send out makes reference to our terms and conditions. Nothing was mentioned either before or after by our customer.