Unpaid invoice advice

[keenz83]

Hi, I have been trying to get payment for work I did 3 and a half months ago for £500
They just keep making excuses up every time I ask for payment.
I've sent the invoice through email 3 times and it was addressed to their limited company name and show room address (which is now gone)
When checking the company name online I found that the registered address, trading address and office are all the same and it's an address of an accounting company.
In the last email they said they would defiantly pay within the next 2 weeks (which is nearly up) and the excuse (this time) was they had moved house. I asked them what their new address was and as expected I got no reply.

I get the feeling I'm going to get the "we've gone bankrupt" email soon.
So any advice on what I should do?

 

[Feldon]

Why not call in, you could say you were just passing and thought you would call in to collect your payment and see why you had not been paid.

 

[Newchodge]

Why not call in, you could say you were just passing and thought you would call in to collect your payment and see why you had not been paid.

Call in where?

 

[SWGlobal]

Hmmm Difficult. You can't send a statutory demand as they don't owe enough. It will cost you more than you stand to recover to go to court and even then I think your suspicions of them having liquidated are probably well founded.

If it is a ltd company you are chasing then run a credit check online and see what you can find. You should also find registered addresses. Sadly, due to the amount owed, you are pretty hamstrung. You could engage the services of a collection agency. They will add their costs to the amount they collect from your customer and many do a no collect no fee. Try Daniels Silverman, not dealt with them for a few years but they used to do this. Sometimes a letter from them is all it takes. Good luck

 

[weblisterltd.com]

Try Thomas Higgins, costs about 3 quid to send a letter before action, you are under no obligation to go further, if not try threatening them saying you will contact known suppliers and tell them the situation. I would consider further action if it cost me and say it will go on their company record a ccj etc.

 

[keenz83]

Thanks for the replies.

Been thinking of using Thomas Higgins but would they be able to find where they've moved to?
Also do they just send letters out without investigating the status of the company that owes the debt?
I'll take a look at Daniels Silverman.

They still haven't paid btw (not that I expected them to) and have made another excuse up saying they can't pay for another 30 days.
No accounts have been filed on companies house or company check but the status is still green.
I did manage to find an annual return document on companies house dated 13/10/2014 that shows a capital of £1 hmm.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Thomas Higgins does work for some it's certainly worth trying. Th documents will go to the accountants address but they will/certainly should be passing all correspondence to the company.

Sadly if they are serial non-payers the reality is that you probably aren't going to get paid.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Without sounding daft here, what kind of work did you do for £500?

If a product has been supplied, simply pop back and retrieve it... your invoice should state that all parts belong to you until payment in full has been received.

 

[gordano]

Assuming you can contact the business here is something I found that works

Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 ... updated in 2013 and now makes it easier for small businesses (less than 50 employees) to get payment response. It is best to search online for the step by step process. In brief...

If invoice is in arrears more than 60 days then the Act can be applied. You send a polite notice to the client that the Act is now being applied and here is your additional invoice for the admin fee (£40 legislated for less than £1000 owed) and that interest will be applied to total owed at BBR + 8%.

We rarely have late/non payers one the two occasions where we applied this Act we had our invoices paid promptly ... and the customers remain with us ... we took the polite but firm approach.

Might be worth a try?

PS - If you need help in finding the business drop me a message I will see if I can find anything for you

 

[KeithGreen]

I've used a debt collector a few times - very effective. He starts by sending the company a winding-up order. No upfront fees. He only charges 10% on successful collection.

 

[Carl S]

I've used a debt collector a few times - very effective. He starts by sending the company a winding-up order. No upfront fees. He only charges 10% on successful collection.

I think winding up orders can only be issued if the debt is over £750, whenever we've proceeded with this action its always been above that anyway which is why I'm not sure, but something I'd heard, I'm sure Keith Green will confirm. Either way in my experiance it is the most effective way to get payment.

Also the interest is a great point to add, Get them on the phone if you can also.. get some money any money, even if it's £100.

Overall it doesn't sound good, which basically means do all you can to get what money you can as quick as possible.

 

[MikeHindle]

Small claims court might be worth a try? We are in the process of recovering an unpaid invoice this way. We paid £60 which we claim back from the client, they get 2 weeks to pay after receiving a letter from the court, before it actually goes to court.