Staged payments - client not paying

[Electricalserv]

Well tell them. No more work until first payment 'as agreed' all the more reason to get things in writing!n

 

[grantr37]

Personally, I would just be honest with them, explain thatyou are outstanding a lot of money and you are just a small business and cantafford to be without and that’s why staged payment were agreed. If they aredecent folks they will sort you out.

Looks like they are doing what a lot of customers seem to do these days, they will get you to finish the work then tell you to ham-burger off , if you pull out any parts until paid, they will just get another sparky in who will replace the missing components and call you a door-knob...they will then proceed to tell him to bill you for the costs and will probably take you to the small claims seeking compo, and /or report you to any schemes they manage to look up online...if theres any arguements over money they will just turn round and say that you were paid the agreed amount in full (which you were not but they will try to say that) or they will say that the work was not completed so they withheld final sums requested...if you walk now they will get it finished by somebody else and try to bill you for "breach of contract/breach of agreement"

The best thing to do is to finish off the job as quickly as possible, give them 4 weeks to pay up (while away doing other work) then send them a letter, after another two weeks send them a recorded delivery letter, if that doesnt work, take a small claims out, but the costs might well be more than you get back...

from now on, if you dont know the customer or they live more than 30 miles or so away, always get a small contract signed, otherwise they will just ignore your phonecalls etc....a thing to be careful with this one is that the person might sell the house/building shortly after the work is finished by the trades, take the money less tax....and bail out of the area to find more victims, I had a bad experience a few years ago with somebody like that, they built a house, sold it and moved hundreds of miles to build another one...and sold that too....eventually found out that they had been doing that for 5 years or so and are now a multi-millionaire....they stung lots and lots of companies and tradesmen along their path to wealth...

The person bailed out of town owing about 12 grand to a tool and plant hire shop for tools "bought" and for hire of equipment....which he had been tabbing up on slate for about a year....lots of drills and grinders bought and not paid for etc...

 

[PC Electrics]

Murdoch, did you have a contract or not?

Avoiding this question just leaves some of us believing that you haven't, and so you've shot yourself in the foot.

If you haven't got a contract, this could be a deliberate ploy on the part of the client on his way to stinging you. So go in and remove as much as you can and cut off the 'tails' in back boxes (so no-one else can just pick up where you left off). Pull as much cable back out from under the first floor as you can too. And since you didn't have a contract - well, you never went near the place, did you.

What is your gut feeling? Is he pulling a fast one?

 

[rjm]

Hi,
I am very sorry to hear that you have not been paid, i hope you have not releasted any completion forms? dont sign the job off untill you have been paid in full, this will cause them real problems with building control,in future you must get all the money up front by use of a proforma invoice for all the materials required and if they cant pay this it usually means that they cant pay anyway, if for some reson they dont pay you soon please let me know and i will let you have more info as to what to do next...

Rjm

 

[morph]

it wont cause problems cos someon else will sign it off

Hi,
I am very sorry to hear that you have not been paid, i hope you have not releasted any completion forms? dont sign the job off untill you have been paid in full, this will cause them real problems with building control,in future you must get all the money up front by use of a proforma invoice for all the materials required and if they cant pay this it usually means that they cant pay anyway, if for some reson they dont pay you soon please let me know and i will let you have more info as to what to do next...

Rjm

 

[IQ Electrical]

it wont cause problems cos someon else will sign it off

I agree, there is always someone to 'sign off' if the price is right!

Out of interest, does anyone doing domestic installs use this 'proforma invoice material cost up-front' idea?

I can't imagine Mrs Smith going for that if 2 other companies just go the payment on completion route?

 

[geoffa]

I agree with parts of posts.
Busbars are cheap.
i'd be inclined to call his bluff.
Refuse to do anymore work until he honours his agreement.
If he tries to pull in a different electrician call there once a day to see if someone takes it on and fill them in on the facts.
spread the word through the suppliers too with an advert.
If he does pay the stage payment he's likely to take you on completion, so ask for the cash only before signing the job off. I'd remove the busbar, breakers and the rcd's until he paid too.
Avoid cheques at all costs.
hate clients that don't pay.
had to wait 6 months for £2k last year unitl the guys divorce settlement was finalised. didn't stop him spending money that he should have put aside for me on furniture and floor tiles and **** he didn't need like chickens. *******

edit.
that's clever: automatically replaces swear words with *. what i was trying to say was *******

 

[Dan]

Anybody actually checkout out how our sponsor works? Invoice Chasing | Chase Invoices | Failed Billing | Invoices Chasers | Credit Control | Credit Management
It's their exact field. But I'm not sure if you have to get your contracts approved by them, or what?

 

[bugsy]

I get this with commercial quite a bit , and when your refer to the contract they always manage to find a reason not to pay 10 years ago I was stuffed on two contracts I was working on with Overbury ( yes I can name them and they can take me to court if they wish) on one contract they did me for £20k and on the other they did me for £30k both in the same month.
They knew I couldnt afford to take them to court and could'nt give a damn
Just be very careful who you do buisness with!

 

[davetherave1979]

If we do a domestic job for over £1000.00 we get 25% up front on start of job and the rest on compleation or at different stages this seems to be the trend with security companys thay get a percentage up front before thay send an engerne in to carry out any work.

 

[telectrix]

30% up front, 30% on 1st fix. Balance on completion.works for me.

 

[lost-sole]

Rip his arm off then beat him around the head with it

 

[iconnect]

I have a customer at the moment every time the final payment is due she comes up with a snag list !! Four snag lists down the line going back Sat and if she does not pay I am removing the lot as per my terms and conditions, all materials are the companies until full and final payment. The snag sheet she has given me this time is a joke. Things like downlighters not sitting flush to the ceiling x11 lol and I bet when I get there they have decoratored and moved them. People are getting worried about sparks not completing and not certificating the work, I would email them stating the agreement you had and asking for the reason for none payment.

 

[timo1]

I'm gutted for you mate. I unfortunately learnt a similar lesson and it changed the way I deal with people completely. I now make sure that I give a written quote every time (even friends) and create an email trail. I have friends who have been done out of thousands of pounds and it is obvious that some people make a living doing trades out of money, well Karma will get them, but in the meantime if you think they won't pay, I would "by accident" ram a nail somewhere in every circuit where only you can fix - hours of fun for any spark behind you.

 

[grantr37]

I'm gutted for you mate. I unfortunately learnt a similar lesson and it changed the way I deal with people completely. I now make sure that I give a written quote every time (even friends) and create an email trail. I have friends who have been done out of thousands of pounds and it is obvious that some people make a living doing trades out of money, well Karma will get them, but in the meantime if you think they won't pay, I would "by accident" ram a nail somewhere in every circuit where only you can fix - hours of fun for any spark behind you.

they sure do, I have had it happen to me once, and have seen it happen to several other people and small businesses as well, one was for an extension on a house, at the end of it the woman refused to pay over 30k and said that she wanted all the doors to open outwards instead of inwards into the house, the builder said that was not allowed with building control and wouldnt do it, she said- no payment then....and he walked empty handed out of principle...