Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

[patchouli]

One of our clients owes us a little over £1,000 for work carried out in July and August. He paid for May and June (all be they 4 weeks late each time). We have texts and emails where he keeps saying he will pay for July and August and lots of lame reasons why he hasn't yet. Then out of the blue he sent us an email saying he revokes his request for us to build his website and is now refusing to pay.
Well the work had been carried out already so we want our money.

I need to know the best way to approach this as he is refusing to pay.

[nightwatch]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

No Idea, but I suspect someone will have in a while xx

[PlanB]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

Was there a cancellation clause in the contract with a specific notice period?

If you've done the work as agreed in the contract then he owes you the money.

The next step could be a Letter Before Action stating (a) what he owes and why he owes it (b) what you expect him to do about it i.e. pay in full withiin 14 days, and (c) what will happen if he doesn't i.e. you will issue legal proceedings without further notice.

After that, if he doesn't pay you could issue a county court claim using MCOL https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

A Statutory Demand is the first step towards forcing a person into bankruptcy which is a bit heavy handed. Anyway from this month the minimum level of debt for doing this rose to £5,000 so it wouldn't be appropriate.

Plan B x

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

Awesome, thanks Plan B!

[nightwatch]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

see told you xx

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

ooh one more thing.. can I email the LBA to him along with the outstanding invoice or should it be sent signed for?

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see told you xx

Everyone on this forum is ACE!!

[PlanB]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

can I email the LBA to him along with the outstanding invoice or should it be sent signed for?

I would send it by post with proof of posting. Email can be a bit abrupt and in-your-face which may not get you the desired result (payment) if it scares or angers your contractor.

There's a LBA template you can download on the Which? website which you can tweak to suit your circumstances. It's actually called a Letter Before Claim (not Action) these days:

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-righ...ms-court-claim

Plan B x

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

Is this letter ok? I found this and thought it sounded good...

https://www.rocketlawyer.co.uk/asset...ore-action.png

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

One of our clients owes us a little over £1,000 for work carried out in July and August. He paid for May and June (all be they 4 weeks late each time). We have texts and emails where he keeps saying he will pay for July and August and lots of lame reasons why he hasn't yet. Then out of the blue he sent us an email saying he revokes his request for us to build his website and is now refusing to pay.
Well the work had been carried out already so we want our money.

I need to know the best way to approach this as he is refusing to pay.

Do what I do - remove the admin facilities and close his site! We build loads of sites and only had one person refuse to pay, so we just closed his brand new site and sold it to someone else

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

ooh one more thing.. can I email the LBA to him along with the outstanding invoice or should it be sent signed for?

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Everyone on this forum is ACE!!

Is this letter ok? I found this and thought it sounded good...

https://www.rocketlawyer.co.uk/asset...ore-action.png

You really want to risk taking a claim for £500 - why? Write it off and close his site - we really don't like seeing anyone send claims, it goes against everything we stand for - there is ALWAYS another way to resolve things without using and abusing the courts.

You need to weigh up your odds, if you're a small / family IT firm then are you sure a contract was signed? Was the contract lawful to begin? Hence I don't do any of that - I take it on verbal authority and retain all admin passwords and access until the verbal invoice is paid. If it isn't forthcoming then I close the site.

Last thing I would ever do, or suggest you do, would be issue a claim - absolutely bonkers considering the small amount of money involved.

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

It's a LOT of money for us, but you're right, I doubt he will pay anyway, he hasn't paid the rent on his shop for months either.. I'll write it off.. His site has been closed for weeks with a suspended due to non payment holder up.

[PlanB]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

Closing down someone's website could be counterproductive if the site generates the customer's income.

If they can't pay not won't pay, putting them out of business will not get the OP her money even if it gives some momentary satisfaction.

A LBA to prompt serious discussion over recovering a £1,000 debt is not necessarily bonkers especially as a grand may be a lot of money to the OP who is in debt and has children to feed. Hopefully it will result in payment if only by agreed instalments without the need to go to court.

Plan B x

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

oh gawd, now I'm confused... lol

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Suspending websites is the norm in this industry though.... He pays for a service, dont pay, no service... same as any other really.

[PlanB]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

It's a LOT of money for us, but you're right, I doubt he will pay anyway, he hasn't paid the rent on his shop for months either.. I'll write it off.. His site has been closed for weeks with a suspended due to non payment holder up.

Our posts crossed. A thousand pounds is a lot of money to me too.

I was explaining your options not goading you into taking court action.

You've no need to write it off, but you may need to wait a long time for it if his business is doing badly. I assume the debt won't become SB for six years so you've plenty of time to decide your next move


Plan B x

[patchouli]

Re: Statutory demand, DCA or LBA?

I did some digging about..... The man is a crook, he's wanted in another country for fraud and going through court in this country for stealing £400k from a pensioner... ffs how did we get hooked up with him! The things you find on google!!
He wont pay, I need to convince hubby to forget about him.