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mark lee

Member
Messages
192
Location
Wiltshire
How do I stand

Don't have any non payers apart from this one woman

I do a clean then get paid thu bank transfer but sometimes some of them forget I'll go back 6 weeks later to do another clean and they pay me both cleans not a problem,

I do max of two cleans no money I'll suspend cleaning until they make payment,

But have this one woman thinks it's ok not to pay always an excuse I've stopped cleaning but want my money,

Wondered if it's ok to put a letter in her door saying if no payment I'll sell your debt to a debt collection agency

Wonder if that's legal?

Give her a kick up the ass[emoji23]

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Put a note through and say you have also added a £10 admin fee

Totally legal and make her pay

Tell her she has 5 days to pay or it will be passed on to your debt collection agency which will then incur additional fees from them

 
Put a note through and say you have also added a £10 admin fee

Totally legal and make her pay

Tell her she has 5 days to pay or it will be passed on to your debt collection agency which will then incur additional fees from them




Sounds good to me, I have a few that are a beginning to be a real pain. Is this 100% legal?

 
Is it worth getting an ulcer about? You might even find they have declared themselves bankrupt and just milking you for what they can get knowing you will never get the money owed.

If yes then you could suggest that you will be pursuing their failure to pay their window cleaning bill through the small claims court.

So this will add £25.00 to their outstanding bill and then you can claim for admin fees to process your claim.

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

A fellow windie did this with a chancer on principle. His girl friend settled the outstanding account just before the case was due to come in court. But it still cost the windie half a day of not working.

 
First letter must say: Pay £xx due within 7 days. 

If not paid within 7 days it will be filed with the SCC and additional costs of £25 filing fee plus £40 administration fees will be added. 

This is perfectly legal. 

 
This is all well and good, and I don't know about England but up here they can claim hardship and on that grounds alone a case can be thrown out and also we are further out of pocket.

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I'm going to be following up on one Christmas that I'm going to take to court for £12 lol

He never answered text for 2 months so I sent a letter before action

I then got a torrent of abuse from him on FB about sending him a letter.

So I filed a claim online, the deadline passed last week and I've not received payment. Now I'm £37 out of pocket... 

I have all the proof of the debt so need to find out what the next step is. 

I hope he gets a CCJ against him.

 
Customers like that rarely change Ime afrade , get rid of would be my approach after getting paid and explaining why I won’t be returning 

 
It’s not worth the time going back file a case in court or move on.
Iv heard some funny stories from other tradesmen though. A roofer told me, after not being paid he went back and simply left 3x3’ hole roof-ceiling directly above customers bed.


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Only had to sent three letters out.  Used greens formula of £40 administration charge forgot to add the court cost. Didn't need it though, threatening to increase bill and stating you will take it to court has worked for me. Honestly think they believe as it's usually such a small amount we will just walk away.  Not me I will get paid what's owed.           Another reason I always visit to quote. If I get a bad feel from customer state of house them ect says a lot. I just give a realy high price an state payment in advance for first clean. I get a OK we got another bloke coming to price so will ring you.

 
Next time her / his windows are due go and clean them But put fairy liquid on your squeege and rub it on to her windows and leave to dry, every window gets a big fresh squirt of fairy liquid on the squeege. 

, once you’ve done put another bill through the door cleaned today call later 

 
Only had to sent three letters out.  Used greens formula of £40 administration charge forgot to add the court cost. Didn't need it though, threatening to increase bill and stating you will take it to court has worked for me. Honestly think they believe as it's usually such a small amount we will just walk away.  Not me I will get paid what's owed.           Another reason I always visit to quote. If I get a bad feel from customer state of house them ect says a lot. I just give a realy high price an state payment in advance for first clean. I get a OK we got another bloke coming to price so will ring you.




You can't add a £40 admin fee.

You can't put yourself in a better position than you would have been in and you are not allowed to charge a penalty.

You can't increase there bill either, that's a penalty.

Only time you can add fees and interest is if you have s written signed contract with t&C's . And even then you can't put anything you like in it.

You can add standard interest if it's a commercial but residential you can only recover the amount owed.

You might get away with it if it doesn't go to court but sat there in front of s judge it won't happen.

 
You can't add a £40 admin fee.

You can't put yourself in a better position than you would have been in and you are not allowed to charge a penalty.

You can't increase there bill either, that's a penalty.

Only time you can add fees and interest is if you have s written signed contract with t&C's . And even then you can't put anything you like in it.

You can add standard interest if it's a commercial but residential you can only recover the amount owed.

You might get away with it if it doesn't go to court but sat there in front of s judge it won't happen.
Surely though when they are talking about administration fee that involves your unpaid time off delivering the letter and so many times calling back for payments from them?

 
Surely though when they are talking about administration fee that involves your unpaid time off delivering the letter and so many times calling back for payments from them?


Nope because how do you put a price on your time?

The obvious answer is oh I make £30 profit an hour cleaning windows so I'll charge them accordingly.

It won't fly as sending letters is not cleaning windows and can you prove that chasing them for payment had cut into your time cleaning windows and put you out of pocket?

You can only claim your actual costs, you can't be in a better position that you would have been before the debt.

Think about it, if the debt is £10 and you charge an hour's collecting at £30 you have made a £30 profit. Yes it's cost you time but you have still made a £30 profit.

If however you have to take a day off for court you might have a good case to be reimbursed for your travel expenses and any work you were unable to complete because of attending court, as that's not putting you in a better position, it's being reimbursed.

In the same way I would have thought you could claim the cost of a stamp and envelope for any correspondence that is a legal requirement i.e letter before action but not for day fuel costs in trying to collect as although it's a cost it's not cost that needed to be made in order to recover the debt.

I have done plenty of reading and research on the subject online and that's the best info I have 

But don't take my word for it anymore than anyone elses seek legal advice of you are unsure.

 
You can and I have Adam. 

You cant just tack it on straight away.  

'You owed me £8 now it's £48.'

If not settled within 7 days a £40 charge will be added to cover costs.  

In front of a judge it will fly fine.  cost of recorded delivery. time to file on line. time off to go to the court if needed etc.  

I have adeed it every time and got it. 

 
It’s not worth the time going back file a case in court or move on.
Iv heard some funny stories from other tradesmen though. A roofer told me, after not being paid he went back and simply left 3x3’ hole roof-ceiling directly above customers bed.


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This made me laugh!!

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End of the day make sure you have terms and conditions in place by them accepting your services they are  leagally bound to them verbally.

ive sent the CCJ out many of time s for small fees and won every time 

I love black listing people  I can lose the money I dont care it can be claimed back as a loss anyway.

if u can’t be arsed with all this just go wipe dog **** on her windows

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I weeded out all my bad payers or problem customers 18 months ago, I now only take on new customers that sign up to GoCardless.  That now covers 1/3 of my monthly income, and the other 2/3's are made up from BACS and the odd cash on the day payer.  I give my customers 5 days to pay if they are manual payers, and if payment hasn't been received at this point I'll send a reminder text. 5 more days and they get a letter through the door offering alternative payment methods and 7 days to bring their account up to date.  Only once at this point have I not been paid by someone, to which they were told GC or cancellation.  They didn't even bother calling me so they got dumped.

Legally you can charge an administration charge to recover the money (I don't though) and you have small claims court if you wish to go down that route.  A verbal contract is as good as a written one for this - you pass on the charge to the customer too (£25 if the money owed is less than £500).

My suggestion though is to just walk away.  It's probably less than £30 and for the time,  effort and stress it isn't worth it.  Leave her to be someone else problem.  Though many will disagree with me I could replace a bad payer and have been paid by a new customer with GC quicker than I can chasing the bad debt.

 
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