Unpaid Bill

B

bluebell

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A friend of mine is a plumber, he finished a particular job 12 months agoa but has yet to recieve payment for it. He has sent numerous invoices to this person but they have not replied. The last letter he sent threatened legal proceedings if payment wasn't recieved. What are his options is regard to getting his money?
 
Follow up on his threat of legal proceedings if he reckons the cost will be justified by the potential rewards?
 
He can charge interest at the ECB rate on the outstanding amount. There was a thread on this a year or so ago in askaboutbusiness. Put a note to this effect on all invoices in future.

Get a solicitor to send a letter saying he'll take legal action. (solicitor may charge either a flat amount for this or charge a percentage of the money recovered - the latter I think is scandelous, but there you are.)
 
In addition to small claims court/legal advice yourfriend could employ a debt collector.............
 
Small Claims Court only deals with consumer to business claims and not this sort of thing (business or service provider attempting to collect for work done).
 
"...........the latter I think is scandelous, but there you are."

It might seem this way, but it isn't really; The fact is that debt collection is a high-volume low-margin business for those solicitors that do it. Banks and other clients with literally hundreds of debt collection cases are quite happy to pay a percentage of the recovery in debt collection cases because they recognise that this is what it takes to make it a viable business for the solicitor. It means that the good cases (where you actually get in the money quickly) subsidise the bad (where you chase for years, which is regrettably common), but that overall there is a viable business in the debt collection work.

Your friend might agree a two-tier approach with his solicitor: a flat fee for sending warning letters, and a percentage once it goes the route of full legal proceedings.

His solicitor might not want to offend by turning away the work: he should be firm with the solicitor and tell him\her not to take on the work if the firm do not habitually do debt collection work. I know I have in the past taken on debt collection work as a favour to a client, but the reality is that I served both myself and the client poorly by doing so.
 
hi MOB, thanks for that explanation. I was miffed after having told the solicitor that all I wanted was warning letters sent out - various people, small amounts - and that I was not going to take legal action under any circumstances, he wanted to charge me a percentage! Would have been the most expensive letters ever. In the end I sent out letters threatening legal action in the strongest possible terms myself and left it at that. Got a small amount in.
 
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