- Original Poster
- #1
I'm self employed and do computer/network support. I had a contract with a company to look after their systems for £400 a month and did so for years. Then one day they started paying me less than regularly. Being a young[er] naive person who has battled with low self-esteem, I let this carry on for a long time. So over a period of ~2 years they slowly accrued more debt.
But then one Monday, I was ill due to working all weekend with very little sleep, and their server crashed, causing them to be completely offline for a couple of days before I managed to call them back to assist. They were obviously incredibly annoyed at me, and were seeking to replace me (understandably). They couldn't get anyone else in other than myself. I came in and fixed the crashed server, which took me several days and £100's of parts that I ordered in using my own money. I did this out of a (misplaced?) sense of responsibility to help get a business with a dozen employees back online. I also felt that if I didn't, then they wouldn't pay me a dime from their historical debt as punishment.
I got it all fixed and reinstalled (took me ~40 hours). But then a few days later, their email stopped working (for an unrelated reason), and that's when they got a new IT company in who phoned me directly asking me to handover operations to the new company, which I did (took me ~12 hours of time because they were extremely inexperienced and had never touched this type of server before).
Then I presented the finalised invoice, to which they have paid 15% of it slowly over a period of one year. But they still owe £8,500.
So I would like to take this matter to court (and enforcement) if necessary. They are a rich company and I am just working class. I am hoping to meet some friendly faces as I am petrified of making a mistake.
My initial questions are:
* Should I file online, or is in-person and the written form better?
* Should I claim for £5000 or £8500? It's a big jump in court fees. If I can only afford the lower amount, should I just write 5000.00 in the amount claimed? But in the detail text, account for the full £8500?
* Does my tax situation enter the frey in any way? I'm a little behind on my self-assessments and paying monthly fines at the moment. I'm working to resolve it of course.
* What do I write in the main claim text? Are there any templates/examples for my situation
* I'll next be sending them a recorded letter with the title 'Demand for payment', detailing their debt, with a latest statement of account.. can the letter demand a 7-day reply or does it have to be longer.
* After this time period, should I send them 2 more letters?
* After all of the above, do you agree I should pay a solicitor to send a final "Pre-action letter"?
I promise to keep this thread updated over the years. Feel free to DM me for any reason, I have all the social networks. Any help or even just emotional support is going to be incredibly appreciated. I have noone else to talk to about this problem. I volunteered 1 day a week at the Citizens Advice Bureau for a whole year, and I have zero faith in asking them.
But then one Monday, I was ill due to working all weekend with very little sleep, and their server crashed, causing them to be completely offline for a couple of days before I managed to call them back to assist. They were obviously incredibly annoyed at me, and were seeking to replace me (understandably). They couldn't get anyone else in other than myself. I came in and fixed the crashed server, which took me several days and £100's of parts that I ordered in using my own money. I did this out of a (misplaced?) sense of responsibility to help get a business with a dozen employees back online. I also felt that if I didn't, then they wouldn't pay me a dime from their historical debt as punishment.
I got it all fixed and reinstalled (took me ~40 hours). But then a few days later, their email stopped working (for an unrelated reason), and that's when they got a new IT company in who phoned me directly asking me to handover operations to the new company, which I did (took me ~12 hours of time because they were extremely inexperienced and had never touched this type of server before).
Then I presented the finalised invoice, to which they have paid 15% of it slowly over a period of one year. But they still owe £8,500.
So I would like to take this matter to court (and enforcement) if necessary. They are a rich company and I am just working class. I am hoping to meet some friendly faces as I am petrified of making a mistake.
My initial questions are:
* Should I file online, or is in-person and the written form better?
* Should I claim for £5000 or £8500? It's a big jump in court fees. If I can only afford the lower amount, should I just write 5000.00 in the amount claimed? But in the detail text, account for the full £8500?
* Does my tax situation enter the frey in any way? I'm a little behind on my self-assessments and paying monthly fines at the moment. I'm working to resolve it of course.
* What do I write in the main claim text? Are there any templates/examples for my situation
* I'll next be sending them a recorded letter with the title 'Demand for payment', detailing their debt, with a latest statement of account.. can the letter demand a 7-day reply or does it have to be longer.
* After this time period, should I send them 2 more letters?
* After all of the above, do you agree I should pay a solicitor to send a final "Pre-action letter"?
I promise to keep this thread updated over the years. Feel free to DM me for any reason, I have all the social networks. Any help or even just emotional support is going to be incredibly appreciated. I have noone else to talk to about this problem. I volunteered 1 day a week at the Citizens Advice Bureau for a whole year, and I have zero faith in asking them.
