Late payment by an Accountant

abacuspcservices posted the following message, however the record got corrupted because there was a post with the same title so I have had to delete it and re-post it.

I have a long standing customer, who I think is a self employed accountant. He has been a customer of mine for about 7 years.He has been a good payer in the past. About 6 weeks ago I completed a job for him and sent him the invoice. About 3 weeks after, He called me to say that he had only just got the invoice and asked if it would be ok if he paid half that week and the remainder the following week. Two weeks passed and nothing had been paid, so I contacted him and he told me he was having problems with his clients paying him, but he would pay as soon as he could. I'm still waiting. My query is, that I have business clients and domestic clients, for which I have different hourly rates. I have always charged him as a domestic customer, as it is his house that I go to (he works from home). In hindsight, I know that I have done wrong here and I think that he probably knows that. In reality, the fact that he is using the excuse of his customers not paying is admitting to the fact that he is a business. My query therefore is, could I use the legislation. I have the terms as standard on my invoices (30 day payment terms), but know that I can't use them for domestic clients. It's a grey area for me.

Hi,

The hourly rate you charge, whether domestic or business are not an issue. However I would look at your invoice. Looking at how you have billed him, does the invoice look like a invoice to an individual or is it a bill to a business.

Also just because he has a business running from his home, it doesn't mean that you have supplied his business. It would depend on the nature of his work. If you were doing work related to his business then you could treat him as a business client, but if you have done personal work then you should treat him as a consumer.

If it was a supply to his business, then you could apply late payment compensation and interest.