Unpaid Invoice for Freelance Work - advice please

[Davda]

Two months ago I was contracted to do 16 hours per week as a freelance PA for a private businesswoman & 'psychic performer'. No written contract but lots of email contact. The first month - May - was fine & I was paid.

I met with her on 12 June & we agreed what my workload would be for the next couple weeks. She seemed OK but as I have access to all her online accounts, I noticed she had missed a few appointments & blamed it on 'Mercury in Retrograde'.

She was not the easiest account I have ever had: she was constantly giving me instructions & then contradicting herself. In the last month I corrected several bits of work - thus I did some tasks not once but twice. Thankfully her instructions were via email so I have a record of her reversals.

At the end of June she sent me a termination email. I then sent her the final invoice for 64 hours work. She acknowledged receipt & said I was due 32 hours for the last two weeks. It appears she believed she had already paid me for the first two weeks of June. By then I had realised she is scatty.

I checked my account: nothing. I informed her of this. She then accused me of wanting to be paid twice. She then stated that mid month she had told me to stop work until we reviewed the plans. What she actually told me to do (via email) was not to 'book' anything for her 2015 tour until we had reviewed the month of June. I don't book anything without her approval so this didn't mean much to me & I carried on doing other work as agreed. The last two weeks we exchanged emails at least 20 times so obviously she was aware that I was still working.

She has already been sent the invoice via email & registered post. I have accounted for my hours per week. Whereas at first it seemed she would just pay up & we would part company, now she is ignoring me completely.

Do I send her a final demand via registered post (again) & hire a debt collection agency? Or do I file with Small Claims court? She has money & she is a sole trader not a limited company.

 

[ethical PR]

Do you have a contract or terms and conditions that you use with your clients? If not this is something you need to put in place.

If you have sent her a breakdown detailing activity against hours worked and any back up emails and provide her with a letter before action letting her know if payment isn't received you will take her to small claims and then if she doesn't pay act on it.

 

[iJustice]

Send her a '7 day letter' this is a free letter generator that will calculate the compensation and interest due under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act. Post it at a Post Office and ask for a 'Certificate of Posting', this is free and is evidence you posted the letter to her. If you send it signed-for she can just refuse to accept it.

If she fails to pay you then consider making a small claim for breach of contract. You can add interest at 8% per annum from the date the money was overdue and you can add Litigant in Person fixed costs to the claim for the trouble of going to court, these are between £50.00 - £100.00.

 

[thelegalstop]

You may wish to consider claiming through the MoneyClaims Online, it's pretty straightforward small claims tool for cases like this, and you can get the judgement in place relatively quickly and painlessly.

 

[The Sheriffs Office]

I agree that a Letter Before Action is the best route to go.

However, if she does not pay and you do issue a claim if it is above £600, including the costs of the claim, then it is also enforceable by a High Court Enforcement Officer.

Hopefully it won't get to this stage though.

 

[Davda]

Thanks everyone. I always thought I had to send a Letter Before Action as registered post. The first one was signed for - but it was only an invoice.

 

[paulears]

Do it online, she will already know you are going to win, won't she?

One serious comment. As clairvoyance is an unproven art, it's now common practice for them to call themselves psychic performers, and legally need to tell the audience it is for entertainment. I assume she did this? The entertainment industry also have fairly well established problems with self-employed people. If you work in this industry, it's often very difficult to not be an employee in HMRCs view. If you are a manager, and you run their diary for THEM, with you setting the times, dates and places and being mega critical - and being paid a fee for doing it 'for the job', then self-employment works (freelancing doesn't actually exist as a status now) - but you talk about hours, and her telling you what to do? I suspect HMRC would class this as employment, and she would be also liable for the tax you should have paid, plus yours and her NI contributions. Probably best for her to settle up, because she may well also owe you holiday pay! I run theatre productions, and very few people can actually submit invoices now. None of these people have any mention of hours in their contracts, and they can put in reps to cover absence if they wish. As we don't really like that, the majority work as employees - even if they really are self-employed.

 

[Davda]

I sent the woman a '7 day letter' & she has acknowledged it, disputing the hours owed & saying: "I am an honest person and expect everyone around me to be the same and it is probably one of the reasons why I am now in bankruptcy. I have listened to the advice of the trustees of my trust fund (bankruptcy)" & so on & so forth.

Is this woman basically saying she has no funds? Is it worth taking her to small claims court? She is a sole trader not a limited company.

Going bust does not take place overnight. She must have known when she hired me in May that she was in financial hot water. In addition she just came back from a two-week holiday. It seems that the law allows people to be patently irresponsible & dishonest in their business dealings.

I only wish I were that skint.

 

[Newchodge]

Presumably she didn't forsee that she would go bankrupt

 

[GRDCredit]

I sent the woman a '7 day letter' & she has acknowledged it, disputing the hours owed & saying: "I am an honest person and expect everyone around me to be the same and it is probably one of the reasons why I am now in bankruptcy. I have listened to the advice of the trustees of my trust fund (bankruptcy)" & so on & so forth.

So is she bankrupt? Check her out here - https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/eiir/

If she is when did it happen - if after your debt was incurred then little point in doing any sort of claim, just ensure your claim is lodged with the OR