Unpaid Invoice - Help With Letter

[joko]

Hi Can anyone give me some good wording and phrases that I can include in correspondence to someone who had not paid me for work I did 6 months ago.

I dont want to get too heavy or nasty - he has tried to be nice and explained that it is the fault of others that have not given him the money he was relying on to fund the project, and he has constantly asked us to hang on a bit longer - but that date gets longer and longer... i agreed to wait 3 months - and that is stated in the contract, but its now 7 months, and hes still saying he has no money... he keeps apologising and saying he doesnt blame us wanting to sue but fact is he has nothing to give us, so it would be a waste of time.

i do 'sort of' believe him, that the issues are real - bit i think it is his own arrogance and idiocy that has caused this, going ahead with the project before they had properly agreed to it. he also seems to say slightly different things to different people ... so its hard to know whats true and what just fobbing off.
problem is he is waiting on payment from a massive massive multinational company - so i cant undertsand why they would be being so lax etc with this - especially if they had previously agreed to pay, as he claims - this money is small fry to them really. (i know he is genuinely dealing with them)

i just want some information and good phrases etc to make sure he knows I intend to launch legal proceedings if he doesnt pay soon...i want it to look like i am reiterating what my solicitor has said to me.

also can I add late fees to the amount? if so at what rate?
I wont do that, but i want him to think i could if i wanted too.

I do intend to see a solicitor soon if hes doesnt pay, but for the moment I just want to make him think i am further along with it, and hopefully worry him into paying up.

Thanks

[society]

Waiting 3 months for a salary is very long waiting time.
Furthermore 7 months? hmmmm!

Hope everything turns out to your advantage, and you get paid sooner than later.

[bednobs]

what you need is a "letter before action"
http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/payment_letter_before_action.aspx

[Stargazer]

I think you can say to him that you are in much the same position as being in need of your money in order to pay your own debts. You can see a solicitor for haklf and hour free of charge I believe. Also the small claims court deals with smaller amounts. It may be true that he is genuinely stuck for monwey, but he could make a gesture of say £10 a week to show goodwill.

[bednobs]

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/letter-before-small-claims-court-claim/
this one is better
re late fees - are they built into the contract?

[bookbinder]

Dear Sir, [contract details here] I write in connection with work that was carried out, under contract, by us at your request. In spite of repeated requests for payment, we still have not received any kind of settement of this contract. Your failure to pay the agreed amount is placing us under some financial presssure, and we find that we must insist that you settle this account in full before [date here: suggest 1 month from now]. If the account is not paid at or before this date, we shall be compelled to seek legal advice. Yours faithfully,

[joko]

thanks all. i will check those links
he owes me £7000, so I think hed agree to the £10 a week thing just to get me off his back! lol

[Smowball]

joko, thats a lot of money!

[albaqwerty]

you are owed £7000, not at £10 a week to repay thank you.
Suggest £200 a calendar month to them/him

[SlackAlice]

£200 pcm is not enough either. I'd suggest £1000 pcm and my letter would suggest legal action after 21 days.
I get the impression he's taking you for a ride. You need to convince him your not his personal loan manager.

[joko]

i know, its ridiculous, its not just me either - the whole crew have not been paid - some have had a bit of pay here and there, but most in the same situation.

there is nothing in the contract about late fees

[tonywiltshire]

A legal contract probably exists between you and your customer for this to be the case there would have to have been an offer (quotation) Acceptance (Order placed) Consideration (price set in the quotation) Intention to create legal relations (this is a commercial sale and legally binding) and capacity (Competence to enter into a legally binding contract). If you agreed terms that your customer would not have to pay you for 3 months and it is now 7 months your customer is probably in breach of contract. The difficulty you have is a common one you wish to be paid but you also wish to maintain relations with your customer and possible future orders, I suggest you write a pleasant letter pointing out they are now probably in breach of contract and you will have no option but to commence legal action if payment if not received within X days. You should ask yourself if you wish to trade with people who do not pay; this is a question only you can answer.
You will probably find the Late Payment of Commercial Debt Regulations 2002 of interest; you should be able to make a fixed charge plus 8% over base rate.

[Smowball]

joko, I really think you've been more than patient with him. He needs to be given a time limit and a stern letter. if you have no plans on dealing with him again then make it as stern as you like.

[boxtops]

That's a huge amount - I thought you were talking about a small job. Really you shouldn't have left it as long as this, I'd have written after 3 months. Whether or not he's had his income doesn't concern you, he's contracted to pay you. I must admit that if it was me, I'd see a solicitor - you need to start getting firm with him and putting deadlines in, otherwise it goes to court to recover your money. I don't think you can put in late fees if it wasn't specified in your original T&Cs when you invoiced him.

[joko]

thanks everyone

I have been emailing him with demands for months, making threats etc - in fact i sent the first stern letter during the actual shoot - because i hadnt been paid and was losing trust ... he changed the contracts mid way through the shoot when he realised he didnt have the cash to pay us ... we saw the big execs etc on set and so we accepted his story that it was just a delay.
initially the contract just said, basically, when they pay us we will will pay you ... which i thought was a bit vague and open - almost sayng that if they dont pay us, you get nothing, so i insisted it was changed to 90 days.

but he keeps saying the same thing - the company has no money and no future income so although he understands if i sue him, it will be no quicker getting it than if we just wait for him to sort it all out

he has said he could just go into administration and let us all just make claims, but that he doesnt want to do that, that hes determined to get our money for us.
sadly i think this has happened because hes quite simply an incompetent idiot who has no idea how to run a company and just jumped in above his level really
its a film company and i worked on a film with them - i dont want to get nasty with him because although i will never work with him again unless he pays me upfront, i just dont want him 'talking' about me ... as people do in this industry.

he has said again today pretty much as above, hes sorry but he has nothing to give us and he has to wait until they pay up ... he thinking of suing the big company for breaking their contract but itd be a big thing and would take ages.
he said others on the crew have already started legal proceedings - he says he totally understands why, but just that he simply has nothing to give them when they win....

we did all wonder if he was sitting on the pot of money hoping we'd all give up eventually (£1m) but i think if hed had money hed have spent a bit more on the film, even if not us.

he said about the late fees that he has no problem with that, and once he gets the cash he will happily pay them - he knows we deserve them.

[society]

How is he surviving? Where is he getting money to pay his bills, afford his lifestyle? Ignore his excuses / reasons and continue to pursue him for what is rightly yours. Don't give up.

[Iluvspikey]

Dear Sir, Re: Unpaid bill for work done on the blah-blah such and such a date
I have given you extra time with which you were to sort out payment for the above work done. I undertand you have been having difficulties with firms yourself, however, more than enough time has now passed and as the end of the tax year is coming up my auditor advised me to seek payment from you within the next two weeks. If payment for the work isn't paid in full by ________date, then I have no option as advised by my solicitor to persue the outstanding debt ( through the court) or (By legal means). Yours etc



I hope this helps

[factor-fiction]

The first Related Question below shows this sort of thing has happened before and suggests that something needs to be put in place for the future- maybe some form of staged payments or up-front deposit

[tonywiltshire]

Joko, this question seems very similar to that which you posted on the 11-02-2009. Perhaps the answers you received in 2009, did not assist you?

[ojread2]

Even going down the MCOL route won;t get you your money, but, you can, after getting a judgement start the ball rolling for bailiffs etc

I wouldn't let someone who owes me £7k any more leniency
Send them a letter before action and then follow it through. There'd be no 21/28 days from me either, it would be max of 14

Small claims is £5k but as you aren't going to get any of it I'd go for that myself

[joko]

cheers all.
tony, i'd forgotten about that post actually, but they paid me after i wrote a stern letter to a different dept ... in fact she was shocked i hadnt been paid and paid up within a few days... teh girl that had caused the trouble had left by then i think, that was the BBC though, this is an independant.

i have looked at the letters on that site - bity wary of giving them my bank details etc for £1 ... always cautious of unknown sites especially ones that offer something that sounds too good to be true - though i suppose it is automated and costs them very little to manage - i have asked if they can accept paypal but no reponse.

has anyone ever used that company? are they legit?


oj, what is MCOL? Maybe some mention of bailiffs might scare him - a number of others have already started proceedings but as he says, when they win, they still wont get the cash because there is none.
i dont know what he lives on actually - i guess hes keeping the finance separate - annoyingly i hear he is on another film as we speak - dont know the details of that though ... but i suppose its been separately funded by other cash - bloody annoying though.

if i start proceedings all that will happen is i will win and he will be ordered to pay me ... so he will pay me a few quid a week or something stupid for 10 years probably - so id be more or less as i am now...

i just dont know how much longer to wait... he may well just get the cash at some point - hes apparently expecting £120k soon... a tax rebate or something, but the big co owe him around 800k and i think if they give that to him he will certainly pay us... hed be a fool not to.
i do know that sometimes film finance goes wrong there can be delays but ive never had it this bad.

i guess i will send the letter giving him a set time, even to pay half now half in a few months perhaps? and see what happens.

also if he doesnt pay his name and film career will be ruined - there are sites and forums etc that people in this industry talk and once his name is on them - which it would certainly be, his name will be mud and he will struggle to make another film again... i would personally see to it that i told as many as i can, and myself and others would watch him closely and try to scupper any future work.