Debt recovery costs

Thanks for this information.

It is still worth noting that the judge could still remit the interest in part or in whole. Depending on the conduct of the parties.

A question remains here - the act talks about interest, it does not mention the compensation element. The judge can remit the interest in whole or part, but does he have the authority to remit the statue amount of compensation as set out ?

The act sets out the compensation charge for late payment, therefore, the judge may not be able to reduce this, and this will be a larger sum than the interest.

Any more cases out there ???

Earlier this year I charged an ex client charges on every late paid invoice. The Plc had 7 subsidiaries, and each had one or two contracts. We charged PER INVOICE and not per contract. Fortunatly the client had amended our original terms on interest and 14 day payment specifically calling for the contract to be administered in accordance with Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act. The contract called for stage equal stage payments over a period of time. Due to signatories not being in the office, cheque runs etc. they often paid outside the 30 day term.
We recovered
1) Interest on the late paid invoices
2) Charges (£40, £70, £100 per invoice)
3) Interest on the charges applied from 30 days after the date the original invoice was due.

The later element was based on the fact that the Charge is a Statutory Charge and thus falls due on the date the debt is late AND NOT the date of request. The clients in house legal department had spent a year haggling over a couple of hours of time charges but didn't dispute any of the above.

In a seperate case I won in the Small Claims court and obtained an Enforcement for charges and interest on the same grounds, unfortunatly the client simply filed for Winding up so we ended up with nothing.

I have two actions currently being submitted, both cover the above. I'll let you know the final results once they are determined.

Thanks for the post.

Again people, keep posting your court results and experiences. It is easy to issue a demand for late payment, but getting paid this demand is another story.

The more court cases we hear, the more certain we can become in being sure of our ability to collect.

1. The first case - can we presume the customer just paid the claim, with out any disputes, as they knew they where well over any credit terms and had no case whatsoever to defend ?

2. The second case - did your client defend the small claims action, or was the case won on default because they didnt turn up at court?

Not sure if I agree on the interest running 30days after payment is due. If applied would that not mean that if a customer had 30days credit, then interest would not start until 60days ?

I believe that interest starts runs on the day after that payment is due.

Hi, Only just noted the headline title for this site
"Pay on Time. The Complete Guide to the
Late Payment of Commercial Debts (interest) Act 1998"

Surely this title is somewhat misleading as the key enactment which creates the entitlement to Compensation is contained in the 2002 Regulations.

Regarding moderators responses what experience / expertise do the moderators have in resolving issues relating to the Late Payment Legislation.

Finally having browsed the Prompt Payment Code site it seems as with Pay on Time both sites are lacking in any form of bite "Name & Shame" poor payers ... but then again poor payers to sign up to these type of sites.

Sorry if I have gone off message.

Edward

The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002 amended the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 by inserting new sections in to the Act.

The ability to charge Compensation Entitlement, therefore, is now within the amended Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

You can view the original version of the Act here , and the amended version here .

The truth is no-one really knows too much about settling late payment demands.

There appears to be only 2 high court cases in regards to late payments. Defra v Ruttle and their appeal on the same case.

Hence the importance of hearing from people who have actual experience of the courts on our late payments demands.

I do agree, that there should be more action by the moderators on this site in regard to promoting this legalisation in a positive manner.

This legalisation if implemented could change how we do business in the UK. Maybe !

PLEASE KEEP POSTING ABOUT YOUR ACTUAL COURT EXPERIENCE'S. PLEASE, AS THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW HOW EFFECTIVE WE CAN BE WITH OUR DEMANDS .