Non-Paying Customers

[bowleya]

Well after almost two years of trading i have finally got a customer who is refusing to pay. Well i think he is refusing to pay(the B**tard won't answer the door,the phone or even answer my texts). So this leads me nicely into my post, What is the best way of getting money from a non-payer Legally ?. I would dearly love to put a drill straight through the lock but that would be petty and probably illegal. So i am open to suggestions

[quicklocks]

[Unlock-IT]

If you want your money legally there are a couple of ways one is via the county small claims court. If the judgement is found in your favour (which it will be) they will have to pay through the court, they wil have to pay the outstanding money they owe you and any costs incurred. If at this point they don't pay up they will be entering a whole new ball game, you can then ask for the county court bailliffs to collect the outstanding debt. If they fail to collect they can then be arrested for failure to pay.

The second way is to write a letter to the customer, post it to them recorded delivery. Explain that you require the outstanding debt cleared (including any interest) within a set time scale. If the debt is not cleared you will be instructing a debt collection agency to collect the out standing debt, and advise them this will incure them a hefty debt collection charges on top of the original debt.

Both of the above are legal ways of collecting outstanding money, it's up to you which you take. You will probably find the second way gets some good results, a letter like this often kick starts people into paying.

Hope this helps!!!!!!!! and don't let them get away without paying

[cred]

hi,
if the lock is a mortice lock you can put what you call a blocker in the lock which stops them using it,sure it wont take long for him to pay up then

[sandwell247]

in febuary 02 i carried out an emergency callout to re secure door jamb,fit new yale lock and to board up glass which was damaged.

the customer agreed price for this callout and signed customer satisfaction note and signed that she agreed our terms of 30 days

after reminder after reminder I finally received a letter of local C.A.B detailing her creditors, upon this letter i telephoned the caseworker who originally asked me to write this off as a bad debt but after i denied this he then arranged her to pay £1 PER MONTH insult for it would have taken her 135 months to pay.
Still i was not prepared to write off this as a bad debt as the damage was caused by her partner after a domestic.
after using my own firm of debt recovery which cost £16 who send a series of 3 letters 1 nice one 1 abit formal followed by a solicitors one,again i received this list of creditors and still again no payment of this £1 per month.
So i pursued this matter by giving them a seven day notice of intention letter explaining that if this debt was not paid in full within 7 days iwould without fail issue a county court claim were all costs will be added to the defendant.
This claim went through and still no payment adding a further £30 to her bill plus interest @ 8% above bank base rate making the total now £207.
And still not a payment made,So in the end i phoned the court to see what options there were, you can send the bailiffs in for a further £50 so me being like i am go for the jugular sent cheque and awaited around 6 weeks and bingo last week I received notification of collection finally they have collected £257 on my behalf.
had to wait in excess of two years.

on another note i remember my first bounced cheque that hurt alot and also the first liquidation and first in administration a bitter pill to swallow.
its called BUSINESS im affraid.

[toomush2drink]

Pass the debt on to a debt collection agency but make sure you add some late collection charges to make up for any losses. If you pass on the debt to some agencys (called factoring) they will pay you the amount straight away minus their fee then its out of your hands so its best to explain this to the non payer. Ive done his succesfully already and they paid straight away after the letter warning of my intentions

[sandwell247]

I would also be very wary of using debt collectors also there are ones out there who cold call all newish businesses (up to 2 years of trading)asking you if you have any bad debts or cashflow problems arrange a consultation charge you a fee for set up say for argument sake £350 then charge you a percentage or fixed fee per account collected,trouble is try and get the money off the debt collector it happened to me about six years ago i had to catch trains to liverpool and collect monies due waiting in reception all day.
Be very careful these guys no who to manipulate best way forward is to be in control yourself, get a credit card machine or use transax to guarantee your cheques,once upon a time i had numerous bouncy cheques from certain types of the community petrol stations,public houses chip shops newsagents once onsite price is negotiated cash or
cheque cleared by transax or credit card cleared to do the job.
Also always make time to send statements of account address your invoices or statements to purchase ledger/accounts dept or do what i do send them a fax copy of original invoice be persistant
currently i use a company based in essex called LPL who for £16 send 3 letters one polite one abit forceful then solicitors letter this usually does the trick.
Does anyone out there have any tips ??????

[oldlock]

Unless it's for a lot of money you are generally wasting your time chasing the debt through the small claims court. it costs you time, money & no end of greif and at the end of the day if the ' customer ' is evasive enough and knows how to work the system you may never see a penny.

Write it off as a bad debt - & it comes straight off your tax bill.

Or - use a lock blocker one afternoon / early morning and advise the customer that as the lock is still yours you don't want them to use it, yes to all who shout - it's not legal - I know that - BUT - I only had to do it twice in 10 years and it was bloody effective & don't forget to charge them for another call out fee - all in cash.

Then remember the golden rule -

PAYMENT ON COMPLETION

with the sole exception of regular commercial accounts - and even then as few as possible, after all we are not banks - we don't lend money and if they went into tescos they expect to pay at the regsister why should it be any different when they call a tradesman ???

[hzatorsk]

Ya know... it wouldn't be a bad idea to politely ask before performing the work something along the lines of:

"We accept Mastercard, Visa, local personal check and of course... cash... which method do you wish to use to pay?"

Hesitation and/or 'digging around for change' should be an indication to ask for the payment up-front.

As far as collections... there are all kinds of laws about what you can and cannot do... you could easily find yourself involved in a countersuit for silly crap if you don't follow the rules.

If this is a isolated incident... and you don't have time to learn the collection laws... A collection agency is likely your best course.

Just because you get a declatory judgement (effectively win in small claims court)... typically the courts do not get involved with the payment itself. Even with a judgement... you could STILL find yourself having to petition for a lien against an asset or even a wage garnishment to collect. (laws vary?!?)

If the guy is self-employed or out-of-work and has only joint assets... you may get nowhere... and at additional work/costs on your part.

Turn it over to experts and give them their cut!

hz

[hzatorsk]

...sorry... Once again, I failed to realize the original poster is overseas.

Please, consider my advice in the context of American laws where victims have little to no rights and the accused are entitled to full due process of the law.

Grrr....

hz

[Unlock-IT]

I think we are a little luckier here in the U.K. The small claims court here are a lot easier to use and like I said in my last post, if the judgement is found in your favour and they don't pay you can ask the court for the county court bailliffs to collect the outstanding money (with all additional costs). If the bailliffs fail to collect a warrant is then issued for the arrest of the people who owe the money.

Also regarding removal of goods to pay the fines by a debt collector/bailliff. Here in the U.K it doesn't matter if the goods are jointly owned if they are in your property the can be levied (listed for removal or removed to pay off debts). The only exeptions to this are if the goods are on hire purchase etc (owned by a loan company or similar) this has to be backed up by receipts or documentation as proof or they will dissapear out of the door to pay off the debts. Also if item in house belong to someone not linked with the household but are on loan. But again you have to provide proof of this.
If the bailliffs come into your property and list goods for removal (the goods will be left in the property allowing time for the debt to be cleared) these items then become the property of the bailliff company until the debt is cleared. If the debt is not cleared within the set time, the bailliff has the right to gain entry into the property (legally break in) and remove the goods that are listed. This is were we the locksmiths come into it we can break into their house again

[quicklocks]

[bowleya]

Cheers Gents, The registered letter is in the Post,But how will i know that he has received it?

[Unlock-IT]

WHOOPS!!!!!!!!
Sorry Quicklocks the phrase just slipped out!!!!!!!!
I must not use the phrase breaking in
I must not use the phrase breaking in
I must not use the phrase breaking in
I must use the phrase breaking in

I'll have to owe you the other 96 its too late now

[Unlock-IT]

Regarding the registered letter they will have to sign for it when it arrives. You may have a tracking number from the post ofice on your receipt so you can track the number on the royal mail web site. If not it will not be delivered and you will get it back as the postman will only leave it if they sign for it.