timsabre Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 If you are having trouble getting them to pay the invoice, you will have a lot more trouble getting them to pay additional interest. If you are going to take them to small claims court or debt collectors then it might work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Is a Sole Trader not a form of business registration? Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Here's the bit about 'business' and looks to my non-expert brain ok for a self-employed.This Act applies to a contract for the supply of goods or services where the purchaser and the supplier are each acting in the course of a business, other than an excepted contract. (5)The following are excepted contracts—(a)a consumer credit agreement; So it looks pretty clear that if the debt is by nature of your business, and you didn't take out any consumer finance, then a sole trader or partnership transaction is fine. I'd expect the business account at the bank, perhaps a VAT number and registration with the HMRC as a business, via the UTR link all set the status of the transaction in something a court would understand. I'm not sure we actually have any legal experts on the forum, but maybe somebody with more experience could comment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 It doesn't matter whether it is a business or a private debt under £100,000 the Money Claim Online service can deal with it and interest can be added. See here! I have used it, it was simple, it worked. Start here!.. E2A to repeat. The directors of the company I used it against are still mates and have called me with offers of all sorts of work several times since. None of us is perfect and these things happen to all of us if we live long enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 If you are having trouble getting them to pay the invoice, you will have a lot more trouble getting them to pay additional interest. If you are going to take them to small claims court or debt collectors then it might work. Well, if you are going to take them to small claims for not paying, you may as well hit them for an extra 50 quid or whatever, help cover the cost of the small claims application. But my experience was that many companies are simply being lazy. It's not that they won't pay, or have no intention of paying, it's just that they have a slack admin department who haven't got round to it. As soon as they see that their slackness is hitting them in the pocket, and the hit is growing every day, it's a good kick up the jacksy to do something about it. Also the £40 late payment fee is a good incentive to pay you on time next month... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Lee Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Sorry to go back to an old thread but I mentioned the above to a few (freelance) friends and they didn't know that either, so I thought it worth sharing. Not too surprised. Most self employed techs are self employed as this is the best way for them to work in this industry (only so many permanent jobs available and the wages can be dire) rather than wanting to be business people so it becomes a steep learning curve on how to deal with other businesses. TBH you were told this advice at the beginning of the thread and you didn't seem to believe it was the only way to deal with it. Glad you realise it now :) and good that you are passing this knowledge on to others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seano Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 But my experience was that many companies are simply being lazy. It's not that they won't pay, or have no intention of paying, it's just that they have a slack admin department who haven't got round to it. As soon as they see that their slackness is hitting them in the pocket, and the hit is growing every day, it's a good kick up the jacksy to do something about it. Also the £40 late payment fee is a good incentive to pay you on time next month... Experience gained remarkably quickly, given that you'd apparently never heard of the late payment fee 30 days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 But my experience was that many companies are simply being lazy. It's not that they won't pay, or have no intention of paying, it's just that they have a slack admin department who haven't got round to it. As soon as they see that their slackness is hitting them in the pocket, and the hit is growing every day, it's a good kick up the jacksy to do something about it. Also the £40 late payment fee is a good incentive to pay you on time next month... Experience gained remarkably quickly, given that you'd apparently never heard of the late payment fee 30 days ago. Well, no. I've known that it's just companies being lazy far longer than that. I've only had 1 or 2 problems of people actually trying to avoid paying at all, whilst most companies whom I've had late payment problems do eventually pay up, just at their convenience, not mine. All companies who I have recently submitted new invoices to c/w late payment fee and interest, have phoned up very apologetic about how it was all a mistake and my invoice had been filed in the wrong place and how they were putting a payment in straight away and how it wouldn't normally happen like that. Although it does make you wonder... if they can initiate a payment 'just like that', why they don't just do it when they receive the invoice, and save themselves the hassle... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 All companies who I have recently submitted new invoices to c/w late payment fee and interest, have phoned up very apologetic about how it was all a mistake and my invoice had been filed in the wrong place and how they were putting a payment in straight away and how it wouldn't normally happen like that. Although it does make you wonder... if they can initiate a payment 'just like that', why they don't just do it when they receive the invoice, and save themselves the hassle... And this straight away payment, did it actually arrive? With your extra interest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 TBH you were told this advice at the beginning of the thread and you didn't seem to believe it was the only way to deal with it. Glad you realise it now :) and good that you are passing this knowledge on to others Well it's just that being a (especially, new) freelancer is tough and I think it's hard to feel that you are not living on a knife edge... people are booking you and giving you lots of work, but slip up and they will take their custom elsewhere. When you've got a good thing going and somebody is giving you a lot of work and you're making a nice tidy amount of money, it does take some confidence (and an element of despair) to replace your normal nicely worded e-mails, into ones of more sincerity. Let me highlight, I'm not saying you shouldn't do... I'm just saying, it does take a degree of confidence. All companies who I have recently submitted new invoices to c/w late payment fee and interest, have phoned up very apologetic about how it was all a mistake and my invoice had been filed in the wrong place and how they were putting a payment in straight away and how it wouldn't normally happen like that. Although it does make you wonder... if they can initiate a payment 'just like that', why they don't just do it when they receive the invoice, and save themselves the hassle... And this straight away payment, did it actually arrive? With your extra interest? Chased 3 up with interest / late payment fee, one paid with and two without. Which yes, it's not really the point, and I'm not claiming perfection. But if levying that fee means that what I was owed in the first place gets paid, I'm reasonably happy with that. I'm happy to stick my neck out chasing a grand for a week's work; less so chasing £40 late payment fee. Only time will tell, but I hope that the theoretical levying of that fee will mean they sort their act out in the future, because if not, I'm not going to even pretend to buy into their 'oh it's a once off mistake' excuses... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Chased 3 up with interest / late payment fee, one paid with and two without. Which yes, it's not really the point, and I'm not claiming perfection. But if levying that fee means that what I was owed in the first place gets paid, I'm reasonably happy with that. I'm happy to stick my neck out chasing a grand for a week's work; less so chasing £40 late payment fee. Only time will tell, but I hope that the theoretical levying of that fee will mean they sort their act out in the future, because if not, I'm not going to even pretend to buy into their 'oh it's a once off mistake' excuses... Well at least they paid. I have had plenty of times where they apologise profusely and tell you the payment is coming, and still don't pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I suppose that if you really get into the country court end solution, you're at least going to get something to cover the facing around chasing the lost client. I've got one late one at the moment, who's latest excuse is that because they have to pay so many people for an event, this has introduced an unexpected delay. The scale of the event before it happened introduced many delays there too, so perhaps not surprising. However, dealing with people in two different countries, one in, and one not in the EU means there's not a lot I can do about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 18, 2013 Author Share Posted December 18, 2013 To be honest Paul, as much as I like working outside of the UK (I just like travel, really), my rule after one too many burns has become that I won't work for more than I can afford to lose... simply because if a Middle Eastern or South African or whatever production company decides they don't want to pay you, there is nothing you can do. Anything you could do would cost more than you'd earned, anyway. I gauge the risk and take it if I feel it looks OK, but twice I've done long jobs out there and been burned by the companies involved, and I am completely helpless, unless I want to pay for a private flight and visit their office in person, with a big stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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