did some (freelance) work aaages ago and they still haven’t paid and are now just ignoring my latest e-mails & letters – is there a legal sounding letter I can get from somewhere or should I just bite the expensive bullet and contact a solicitor?

Thanks.

Small Claims Court?

it’s cheap and easy

this might be stating the obvious, but have you spoken to them? you need to speaking to the specific person who is either making the decision to pay you (or not). explain that if they continue they will be liable for any costs etc, and then yes small claims court, cheap and easy. emails and letters are easily ignored.

1) Speak to them
2) Letter before action. here
3) Small claims – do it online here.

Recorded delivery of said letter.

ring them?

don simon – Member
Recorded delivery of said letter.

Good point, well made.

How much money?

Recorded delivery of said letter.

But don’t put the return address on the envelope or they could refuse to accept it at the signing stage.

IIRC the courts regard a standard 1st class letter as having been delivered – you just need proof of postage.

If you are really bored – http://www.practicalconveyancing.co.uk/content/view/7770/0/

Are they disputing your work? Or just not getting around to paying? Or do you think they are unable to pay

Small claims court as above, is a cost effective solution, or murmuring something about petitioning for bankruptcy .

Quicker though: Pack a flask, a cushion and an good book – arrive at their office 20 minutes before closing time make yourself comfortable and announce you’re going nowhere without a cheque.

Some useful reading here too Late payment of Commercial Depts legislation

IIRC the courts regard a standard 1st class letter as having been delivered – you just need proof of postage.

I believe the strict letter of the law is/was that the letter had to officially enter the post box through the official hole or something equally stupid. Gotta love the law. 😀

thanks all, for links etc.

I sent a recorded letter (which threatened legal action) which got a response (telephone conversation). They don’t dispute they owe me money for the work I did, but have gone cold again and keep stalling and ignoring e-mails again.

They haven’t gone ahead with the project due to the economic state of the country (and theirs I guess) so they haven’t made any money from it, so are trying not to pay me (but it is nearly 3years now and still doesn’t look like they are going to do it, so I said I’ve had enough of waiting). I have a contract that states they still need to pay me regardless of if they did anything or not. In the region of £4,000.

Will send another official sounding letter (recorded) and then look into the SCC.

Cheers

At three years and counting the Late payment compensation calculator on the link I put up above will be fun to play with

The “letter before action” might not be the same as your previous letter. Read about it, and do it, as it’s sort of a legal necessity as a prelude to small claims action.

Writing a Letter Before Action works because it is a final notice of impending litigation.

There is no official legal form that a Letter Before Action has to take, as a spokesman for the government agency the Trading Standards Institute explains. ”Include in the letter all the essential information: what the job was (invoice reference and date), how much is owed, for how long, and your payment information.

You then set a final deadline for payment. This can be any reasonable period, from one week (it would be hard for payment to reach you in less than a week) to 30 days. 10 days is perfectly reasonable assuming you have already been waiting a long time for payment. But you can make it as long as you wish.

Go on go on go on. Do it.

Look on the web for details of what the letter before action should say, and send that. Basically it is the ‘official sounding letter ‘ you describe, but is something you have to do before doing the small claims process. If you send that then it saves you wasting ages for them to do nothing. All you have to do is put the right wording in your letter and you save yourself time and demonstrate to them that you’re serious, not some sucker who will just waste their time writing pointless letters forever.

Search for DIY justice I think it is called , they have a great guide to small claims process.

Don’t waste time over anything, do everything as quick as possible, bang on the minimum times, like if you psend a 14 days or i’ll go to court letter, get the court action in on day 15, then assuming you go to court, apply for default judgement first thing on the allowed day, and the day you get a court judgement instruct high court enforcement (you can do that for debts of that size once you have a small claims judgement ).

Don’t piss around giving them tons of final chances and more time, they obviously aren’t going to pay without going to court, and if it goes to court they pay your costs. The longer you wait, the more likely they go bankrupt or whatever, and your money is lost.

perfect, thanks I feel more confident about going ahead with it now.

I was being (too) nice & sympathetic before, but am just annoyed that they seem to be taking the pi$$ now.

No more Mr Nice 😈