demand letter from a solicitor possible scam or compromised email system?

[Nico Albrecht]

I was wondering if somebody can advise about demand letters from a solicitor that were sent by email only.

Background story:

We received a demand letter coming from a solicitors to pay around £400 within 7 days by email. No post received.

Here are my questions and were it gets weird in my humble opinion.


Solicitor attached a pdf file letter phishing for information in this case they ask to verify ownership of a bank account. Which seems odd to me as the claimant should have that anyway. They threaten if I don't provide information they will sue all 3 possibilities 2 x business ltd and 1 x personally. No evidence attached either. Just we want £400 or take legal actions within 7 days on behalf of our client.

Fun fact: I sue their client ( Ltd ) for moneys owed for not paying an invoice which is in small claims to be heard in 8 days. So they want payment by 21.9.202 and I have a small claims on the 22.9.2022 hearing. They dispute and say they paid but made they made a mistake and send it to the wrong bank account and company. That's their defence and I have to fix it. They dont even tell me what bank details they used.


My questions are in regards to the demand letter from the solicitor and need some clarification

1. can a solicitor send demand letter and not include any evidence at all. We want x amount or sue you style

2. Can they fish around for information with a demand letter

3. Can they sent it by email only. They send it to an info@ with some of my personal information and also to an email address that I never use [email protected]. Not even sure how they could find out about the 2nd email as it is not listed online or was ever used to send out communications. This is a really big red flag. We checked logs and this email never had a single outbound or is listed online.

4. They don't sign of with a solicitor name just a business name.

5. the email it is coming from doesn't match their email layout they use: for example email came from [email protected] ( 2 letters @ + domain. All the emails they list on their website are [email protected] the email is not listed on their used or is a generic one like coming form info@ sender doesnt use name either just Yours faithful + business name

6. Their website ATM is under constructions and only list a coupe emails that match first.lastname@ but not the one we received the demand from

7. They use a cyber fraud disclaimer " You should also exercise caution when opening emails, attachments and links and when responding to any request for your bank details" and asking us to confirm some account details. Their demand letter ask us to do exactly that. I see some irony in this one.


All in this seems to me very fishy and a possible compromised email system or data breach on theirs end. In their letter it seems they only have a 1/3rd of all information so they use 1/3 personal stuff 1/3 business 1. and 1/3 business 2.

Any idea how to proceed here as we thing something is off a bit and how to respond to them or just ignore them.

 

[Newchodge]

I was wondering if somebody can advise about demand letters from a solicitor that were sent by email only.

Background story:

We received a demand letter coming from a solicitors to pay around £400 within 7 days by email. No post received.

Here are my questions and were it gets weird in my humble opinion.


Solicitor attached a pdf file letter phishing for information in this case they ask to verify ownership of a bank account. Which seems odd to me as the claimant should have that anyway. They threaten if I don't provide information they will sue all 3 possibilities 2 x business ltd and 1 x personally. No evidence attached either. Just we want £400 or take legal actions within 7 days on behalf of our client.

Fun fact: I sue their client ( Ltd ) for moneys owed for not paying an invoice which is in small claims to be heard in 8 days. So they want payment by 21.9.202 and I have a small claims on the 22.9.2022 hearing. They dispute and say they paid but made they made a mistake and send it to the wrong bank account and company. That's their defence and I have to fix it. They dont even tell me what bank details they used.


My questions are in regards to the demand letter from the solicitor and need some clarification

1. can a solicitor send demand letter and not include any evidence at all. We want x amount or sue you style

2. Can they fish around for information with a demand letter

3. Can they sent it by email only. They send it to an info@ with some of my personal information and also to an email address that I never use [email protected]. Not even sure how they could find out about the 2nd email as it is not listed online or was ever used to send out communications. This is a really big red flag. We checked logs and this email never had a single outbound or is listed online.

4. They don't sign of with a solicitor name just a business name.

5. the email it is coming from doesn't match their email layout they use: for example email came from [email protected] ( 2 letters @ + domain. All the emails they list on their website are [email protected] the email is not listed on their used or is a generic one like coming form info@ sender doesnt use name either just Yours faithful + business name

6. Their website ATM is under constructions and only list a coupe emails that match first.lastname@ but not the one we received the demand from

7. They use a cyber fraud disclaimer " You should also exercise caution when opening emails, attachments and links and when responding to any request for your bank details" and asking us to confirm some account details. Their demand letter ask us to do exactly that. I see some irony in this one.


All in this seems to me very fishy and a possible compromised email system or data breach on theirs end. In their letter it seems they only have a 1/3rd of all information so they use 1/3 personal stuff 1/3 business 1. and 1/3 business 2.

Any idea how to proceed here as we thing something is off a bit and how to respond to them or just ignore them.

Does the opposition in the small claims court have legal representation? Is it the same firm?

No reputable solicitor would send a demand for money without a very clear explanation about why you should send them money.

The letter requesting verification of ownership of a bank account. Is it referring to the bank account that your debtor should have paid into or is it another bank account belonging to you or is it a completely unknown bank account. I am not quite sure what you mean when you say ' the claimant should have that anyway'?

My reaction would be to ignore it completely, but take a copy of the whole email with you to the hearing.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Does the opposition in the small claims court have legal representation? Is it the same firm?

No legal representation the defended uses for my claim against him. Sum is about £500, he made no counterclaim in Small claims either. Just the likes of we paid but doesn't provide details or bank account either.

The letter requesting verification of ownership of a bank account. Is it referring to the bank account that your debtor should have paid into or is it another bank account belonging to you or is it a completely unknown bank account

It seems completely different bank account. During pre action we ( LTD) asked them ( LTD) to send us proof including account details, date payment they used to send the payment.

We never got a response from them and advised the money was never received to the nominated account and company. Prior to this 10 payments were made to correct company and a couple after as well.


This demand letter seems to be a big mess and all over the place, things like " unless we receive " ( no accounts or howe to pay moving half way to " if this amount is not returned to client " and of course if I dont pay they will sue for damages, negligence, tortious interference




My thinking here is almost to make a SAR request for the email address they use [email protected] under GDPR personal data. I have no idea how they got this email address as it was never used for outbound or listed online.

They address me personally in the attached letter but sending it to an info@mycompany. Is this realy possible that a solicitor can sent a demand letter addressing a person n this letter and using a general email address ?

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Also they use as a subject on the letter: Company name -v- You & Ors. What does Ors mean ?

 

[Newchodge]

no legal representation the defended uses for my claim against him. Sum is about £500, he made no counterclaim in Small claims either.


It seems completely different bank account. During pre action we asked them to send us proof including account details, date payment they used to send the payment. We never got a response from them and advised the money was never received to the nominated account and company. Prior to this 10 payments were made to correct company and a couple after


This demand letter seems to be a big mess and all over the place, things like " unless we receive " ( no accounts or howe to pay moving half way to " if this amount is not returned to client " and of course if I dont pay they will sue for damages, negligence, tortious interference




My thinking here is almost to make a SAR request for the email address they use [email protected] under GDPR personal data. I have no idea how they got this email address as it was never used for outbound or listed online.

They address me personally in the attached letter but sending it to an info@mycompany. Is this realy possible that a solicitor can sent a demand letter addressing a person n this letter and using a general email address ?

If they know detail about the court case it's probably not a scam. It could be the debtor pretending to be a solicitor? II wouldn't stress about the email address - lots of people guess email addresses based on existing information, I would ignore that completely as well as the rest of it.

 

[Newchodge]

Also they use as a subject on the letter: Company name -v- You & Ors. What does Ors mean ?

Ors is Others. The Court case should be You -v- Them! Have they included a case number? Is it your case number?

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Have they included a case number? Is it your case number?

they have not included my case number or even mention the upcoming court case at all. Nothing mention court case at all and the want payment 1 day before my case goes to hearing.

This is where my thinking is coming in form a point of possible data breach. He might have went to a solicitor with some information and somehow they system was compromised and they got bits and pieces but no full picture.

people guess email addresses based on existing information,

This is really important to me to understand. You say a solicitor can send a demand letter containing personal information to an email address he guessed or several

so it would be ok to randomly send to :

[email protected] and another one [email protected] and so on which contains your address details account details. Would you be happy with that knowing that such info went to random emails ?

 

[MBE2017]

In my experience, solicitors rarely say they will sue, they would say they may sue.

 

[Newchodge]

they have not included my case number or even mention the upcoming court case at all. Nothing mention court case at all and the want payment 1 day before my case goes to hearing.

This is where my thinking is coming in form a point of possible data breach. He might have went to a solicitor with some information and somehow they system was compromised and they got bits and pieces but no full picture.





This is really important to me to understand. You say a solicitor can send a demand letter containing personal information to an email address he guessed or several

so it would be ok to randomly send to :

[email protected] and another one [email protected] and so on which contains your address details account details. Would you be happy with that knowing that such info went to random emails ?

I couldn't care less, frankly, and I would never know as none of my email addresses are anything like that. When i said based on existing information, i meant they start with the extension and put something else at the front, like 'info'.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

In my experience, solicitors rarely say they will sue, they would say they may sue.

Our instructions are that unless we receive payment in full of the said sum within 7 days from

the date of this letter ( pdf file only ) , we are to institute legal proceedings against you ( do they mean me personally or my company? ) for the recovery of this amount without further notice or warning. Not mention

best part

We therefore invite you to confirm within the stipulated 7 day period which legal person has control of this account ( I have no clue who owns this account ). On such confirmation being provided, with satisfactory supporting evidence, we will direct our claim to that specific legal person. If no such confirmation is provided, use of this correspondence shall be made in connection with any issue relating to the costs of such proceedings, if such are issued against all three parties.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I'm not loosing to much sleep over it and value is to low to even get a solicitor involved. I was more wondering if this could be a very advanced scam due to a high jacked email system.

These things came to my mind. 7 days only way to short, no bank account nominated to actual pay them, return money to client next paragraph. All over the place with me personally and ltd, email addresses send to not in use one , no evidence attached , no paper copy posted and a very aggressive tone just raised to many flags on my part. no name signed off either just the business name.

As this is the first time I ever got a demand letter from a solicitor I was wondering if this seems about right how they work?

 

[Michael Loveridge]

It sounds like a scam, but if you state the name and address and email address of the alleged solicitors I can check in 5 minutes if they're genuine.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

you state the name and address and email address

send you a personal messages with details.

 

[MBE2017]

Our instructions are that unless we receive payment in full of the said sum within 7 days from

the date of this letter ( pdf file only ) , we are to institute legal proceedings against you ( do they mean me personally or my company? ) for the recovery of this amount without further notice or warning. Not mention

best part

We therefore invite you to confirm within the stipulated 7 day period which legal person has control of this account ( I have no clue who owns this account ). On such confirmation being provided, with satisfactory supporting evidence, we will direct our claim to that specific legal person. If no such confirmation is provided, use of this correspondence shall be made in connection with any issue relating to the costs of such proceedings, if such are issued against all three parties.

I doubt ANY solicitor would issue three legal actions without knowing the true person or entity to pursue. At best this sound like they are fishing for information at worst a poor quality threat come scam. I would ignore it personally, and reply to any court papers, or you could reply all paperwork threatening legal action should be posted to your solicitors, and include a schedule of costs for any costs incurred by any vexatious actions on their part. £150 per letter, £85 per telephone call etc should be fair.

 

[DontAsk]

Why not 'phone the "solicitors"?

They must be members of some solicitors trade body (Law Society?)or be registered somewhere, ask for their details.

 

[IanSuth]

Just a guess

I wonder if your original creditor did pay the wrong account and that that account is the one they are trying to get details on the ownership of.

They have however so badly confused themselves that they or a legal representative are trying to see if it might actually be a different account of yours that they accidentally paid - in the hope that it makes their case all go away.

As for email addresses there are many services like rocketreach and apollo.io that search for addresses and also give you "emails to this company are often in the form of" type info. I use them extensively and they are pretty accurate.

Personally I would ignore it - or you could try replying saying "I have received this communication and it appears misdirected, I have no knowledge of the account in question. Is it that account number the answer to the request for detail of payment we made to you on x date ? If so I can confirm it is not one of ours and therefore as previously stated you still owe us £x for invoice y and in the absence of it's prompt payment this will be decided by the court on y date as previously directed"

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Why not 'phone the "solicitors"?

it is a good question and the reason why I would put in the min afford is that this business we are suing since March had over 30 invoices paid late ( +30 days overdue on 30 day net. ) and made many mistakes in work orders. It cost us a lot of resources and admin so we not getting paid for an invoice and they now want somewhat £400 from us for their mistakes. I put the burden of proof to them and do very little. I would expect a solicitor to send out a proper letter with evidence attached and me not chasing a company that wants to sue us.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

as a quick update a reply was given by email advising as a courtesy that their email raised suspicion and was blocked. We advised to send a recorded letter to our registered office and we take it from there.

so they got back around 3pm having me in as CC emailing civil processing asking for more time. And this " We invite the Applicant to confirm their consent or otherwise to the proposed adjournment by replying to this e-mail. " What do they want from me?

also

We would respectfully now apply to the Court for an adjournment in respect of that hearing. This would be to facilitate a Small Claims Application to be brought by our client pursuant to the attached Letter of Claim.



We would then be proposing that both matters are dealt with simultaneously by the Court, with a view to the parties adhering to the Court’s Overriding Objective. All is subject to the Court. We say that both claims will refer to the same nexus of circumstances and facts.

Really, 7 days before the hearing the push for a delay they had 5 months time to file a counter claim which they didn't do. Anyway of stopping it their req.

Any ideas here. Looks like I need to pay a solicitor as half the stuff in there is complicated and I am now going up against trained legal professionals.

 

[nelioneil]

as a quick update a reply was given by email advising as a courtesy that their email raised suspicion and was blocked. We advised to send a recorded letter to our registered office and we take it from there.

so they got back around 3pm having me in as CC emailing civil processing asking for more time. And this " We invite the Applicant to confirm their consent or otherwise to the proposed adjournment by replying to this e-mail. " What do they want from me?

also

We would respectfully now apply to the Court for an adjournment in respect of that hearing. This would be to facilitate a Small Claims Application to be brought by our client pursuant to the attached Letter of Claim.



We would then be proposing that both matters are dealt with simultaneously by the Court, with a view to the parties adhering to the Court’s Overriding Objective. All is subject to the Court. We say that both claims will refer to the same nexus of circumstances and facts.

Really, 7 days before the hearing the push for a delay they had 5 months time to file a counter claim which they didn't do. Anyway of stopping it their req.

Any ideas here. Looks like I need to pay a solicitor as half the stuff in there is complicated and I am now going up against trained legal professionals.

Have you confirmed this is an actual firm of solicitors, or just the customer pretending to act like one, or a scam?

A real firm of solicitors would probably not be acting like this.

 

[WaveJumper]

Agree with the above it really does sound like someone is pretending to be a firm of solicitors they certainly not acting like any I know. have you checked them out with the law society?

 

[WaveJumper]

Actually this has just reminded me of a case we had many years ago when someone was trying to claim against one of our commercial landlords. The whole situation did not sit right at the time (bit like yours perhaps) in short it turned out it was the receptionist in a law practise using their headed paper, they obviously knew nothing of her actions and she was subsequently fired.

 

[The Byre]

A real firm of solicitors would probably not be acting like this.

Lawyers send out letters. You may remember those things - on headed paper and they are delivered by a postman.

As for some bogus payment to some bogus wrong account - that's their problem. Commercial debts are what is called in German 'Bringschulden' (obligation to be performed at creditor’s residence) and not 'Schickschulden' (debt is discharged by remittance).

 

[Newchodge]

Lawyers send out letters. You may remember those things - on headed paper and they are delivered by a postman.

Not strictly true. These days lawyers often send out letters as an attachment to an email.

 

[fisicx]

Not strictly true. These days lawyers often send out letters as an attachment to an email.

We are dealing with 3 different lawyers right now and they all send emails. 2 don’t even send attachments, you login to a portal to access the documents.

This whole thing @Nico Albrecht is experiencing feels like someone is messing about. I’ve had a number of these over the years all from clients trying to get out of paying their bills.

 

[Bob Morgan]

Not strictly true. These days lawyers often send out letters as an attachment to an email.

I do exactly that.

 

[The Byre]

These days lawyers often send out letters as an attachment to an email.

As do government offices and all sorts of people everywhere - but never if it is to have legal status. I am having a good old email natter with someone within the German Ministry for Administrative Affairs (Bundesverwaltungsamt - yes, there really is such a thing and not just on 'Yes Minister'!) but we send one another official stuff with legal status in the mail!

I have 167 unread emails today in my inbox. Nearly all will be deleted unread. I pick off the ones I intend to read and come from some entity I recognise and have had dealings with.

You want a job - send a letter!
Threatening legal action - send a letter!
You want to sell me something - send a letter!
You want my attention for some other worthy cause - send a letter!
But if you want me to ignore you, an email will do the job almost as well as not doing anything!

 

[fisicx]

That’s just you @The Byre. These days very few documents are actually signed in the UK. Many companies now use services like DocuSign.

 

[The Byre]

I don't care if they are signed in blood - digital or otherwise. Fortunately for all concerned, I am unlikely to be the first point of contact for official bumpf, so lawyers and accountants can kid about with our office online if that floats their boat. I have it on the best authority that that is exactly what happens.

But in this case, our main protagonist is being threatened with legal action and that is best done the old-fashioned adult way.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Actually this has just reminded me of a case we had many years ago when someone was trying to claim against one of our commercial landlords. The whole situation did not sit right at the time (bit like yours perhaps) in short it turned out it was the receptionist in a law practise using their headed paper, they obviously knew nothing of her actions and she was subsequently fired.

It does a lot and all the send over is very confusing and contradicts themselves

Lawyers send out letters. You may remember those things - on headed paper and they are delivered by a postman.

I was under the same impression that I would get a decent good old letter if they want to serv.

Not strictly true. These days lawyers often send out letters as an attachment to an email.

It makes sense and we do that a lot with barristers and solicitors we work for but before any emails are exchanged we confirm and verify in person or on the phone etc....

Many companies now use services like DocuSign.

True but their attached letter as pdf didn't have any security features enabled or a digital signature. All my reports or any docs that are important I send out via zoho sign digital verified.

.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

As a quick update where we are:

1. this company threaten to sue is apparently legit I had some help over the weekend and a solicitor and barrister came over to my house for some sociable beers and whiskey.

They had a look at everything and most of the words they used where WTF is wrong wit them, this is horseshit with WTF followed.

They both agreed to have some fun and wrote a decent letter with words and legal terms I don't even understand but apparently I haven even been served properly etc....

word like . .....To date both have failed to provide any supporting evidence/documents to prove that any such payment was ever made. The intended adjournment by xxxxxx has this payment at it’s very core, as it is on this purported payment, that a counterclaim is to be based.


and more words

At only 7 days before the hearing trying to bring two unrelated parties to an existing claim, without providing a scrap of evidence is, respectfully, unreasonable, and the fact that this evidence has not been disclosed is contrary to common sense if it existed

and many other things......

Yes they try to adjourn etc... and others things but don't have any evidence and fish around and didn't consent to any adjournment.

 

[Michael Loveridge]

I’d reviewed the whole thread again, particularly the posts from Friday afternoon, and it suddenly occurred to me that you might be in Northern Ireland. I'd already seen that the firm of solicitors who sent the letter were in Belfast, and your reference to “civil processing” made me think that you weren’t dealing in an English court, as this isn’t a term used by them.

If you are in Northern Ireland and the case is being handled by the Northern Irish court then it’s a different system to that in the English courts. However, there are some similarities, and I think I can see what’s happened.

Basically, you have issued a legitimate claim and the defendant, realising that the court hearing was imminent, has panicked and gone to see the solicitors. What they’re essentially saying is that the defendant thinks they have a claim against you and that despite the fact they have never raised it before it would make more sense for it to be dealt with at the same time as your claim against them.

They have therefore asked the court to adjourn the hearing this week in the hope that the defendant can then file a formal defence and counterclaim and the two claims can be heard together at some point in the future.

This now all makes sense, and, as your friends have confirmed, it isn’t a scam as such. However, there is a high possibility that the so-called counterclaim against you is fabricated, simply to stop you obtaining judgement against them.

As it seems as though your friends already assisted you with the matter there’s probably no need for any extra help. However, if this had happened in the English courts I would be recommending you to write to the court pointing out that the defendant has had every opportunity of raising this issue in the existing proceedings and that it would be quite unjust to allow them to disrupt the process at the very last minute. I would also point out that if they do have a genuine claim they can quite easily bring it as a separate action, but that you should not be prejudiced by their failure to deal with it so far.

Unfortunately, if the NI small claims court is anything like the English one they are only too happy to have an excuse to adjourn a hearing, and even though the defendant has acted completely unreasonably they may nevertheless grant the request for an adjournment, and order them to file a defence within, say, 14 days.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Let us know what happens.

will do Michael and thank you for offering help.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Let us know what happens.

Dears Sirs,

With reference to the above matter, please note that the Adjournment Application has been refused at the Direction of the Judge.

The case remains listed for tomorrow, 22nd September.

Regards,

 

[Michael Loveridge]

It's very refreshing to see the Court taking a sensible approach - maybe the NI courts are better than the English ones at dealing with matters like this.

Good luck with the hearing, and looking forward to hearing that you obtained judgment.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Just a couple more questions. Their solicitor send me over by email a Responded Discovery Bundle 26 pages " 22 hours before the hearing. Is this normal to have it done on such a short deadline. Dispute was lodged 1st week of June 2022 . Nothing really in there I'm worried about but I have 26 pages no page numbers on them and half their pages contradict the other half.

I'm honestly lost and in disbelieve a solicitor would send out discovery like that. I couldn't even point out to anything on their part as it doesn't have structure or page numbers.

Meanwhile all my pages are structured with facts only and nice appendixes send to claimant and court 2 weeks ago by post.

 

[Michael Loveridge]

Unfortunately, without seeing the bunde I can't really comment. However, in general terms it's completely unacceptable in an English court to serve evidence so late. I assume the court would have made some sort of directions regarding the service of evidence by reference to a timetable, and if so then by definition the solicitors must be in breach of that order.

In a `proper' court the chances of them getting the evidence accepted would be minimal, but in the English small claims court (and maybe in NI) judges tend to be a lot more lax about breaches of court orders.

Nevertheless I would say as forcefully as is consistent with being polite to the judge that having only received the documents 22 hours before the hearing you have not had time to read and interpret the evidence; that the Defendant is in flagrant breach of its obligations to both you and the court; and that they should therefore be debarred from relying on the evidence.

Unfortunately, it's possible that the judge will adjourn the hearing to enable the Defendant to get their house in order, and, again, if it was a proper court he would order the Defendant to pay all the wasted costs of the hearing. Unfortunately, you don't have any costs, so probably the most you could hope for is a few quid representing your time and travel expenses.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

some sort of directions

Direction from court: Not to be send by email and must be send by post 5 days prior to hearing.

Unfortunately, it's possible that the judge will adjourn the hearing to enable the Defendant to get their house in order,

I was concerned about that part as they might use it to get their adjournment after all via this router.

It's such a small sum after all £500 incl. court fees. Not even sure why they would bring in a solicitor for such small amounts.

 

[kulture]

The problem is this sounds like they have emotion invested in this. It’s as if they suspect that you have stolen the money – they are determined not to pay it again.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

As the Byre said on UKBF once there are toxic people and also toxic customers out there.

Between both parties there was a 4 year working relationship and many invoices were raised in the thousands on my part with 30 net terms. So over the years I was willing to give credit towards that party and kept up with their notorious late payments e.g 45 - 80 days overdue.


Now they make a mistake not me and instantly it is my mistake I need to fix it on my part. We haven't done anything wrong. From day 1 I advised in writing and verbal I dont have access to this account and ask them to put their problem in writing . E.g when was paid, what amount , what bank details. This was ignored and never provided.

I think this is a matter of principle to be firm with such people and stand your ground and just follow good business practise.

As a side note I was looking into their account and previous payments that were received extreme late with advise of late fees on each invoice and payment request. There is double that amount I'm claiming for in late fees and interest alone Also they have some gear they never returned another couple hundred there .


I'm not getting emotional involved here with them and will make my case based on fact and move on . Not even sure I wanna come after them for all the late fees etc....

 

[kulture]

As the Byre said on UKBF once there are toxic people and also toxic customers out there.

Between both parties there was a 4 year working relationship and many invoices were raised in the thousands on my part with 30 net terms. So over the years I was willing to give credit towards that party and kept up with their notorious late payments e.g 45 - 80 days overdue.


Now they make a mistake not me and instantly it is my mistake I need to fix it on my part. We haven't done anything wrong. From day 1 I advised in writing and verbal I dont have access to this account and ask them to put their problem in writing . E.g when was paid, what amount , what bank details. This was ignored and never provided.

I think this is a matter of principle to be firm with such people and stand your ground and just follow good business practise.

As a side note I was looking into their account and previous payments that were received extreme late with advise of late fees on each invoice and payment request. There is double that amount I'm claiming for in late fees and interest alone Also they have some gear they never returned another couple hundred there .


I'm not getting emotional involved here with them and will make my case based on fact and move on . Not even sure I wanna come after them for all the late fees etc....

I am not suggesting that you are being emotional, you are acting professionally, it is the other party that seems to be overreacting.