Reasonable Time

We have a customer who owes three outstanding invoices, 2 dated December 2012 & one dated 25/03/2013. Our payment terms are 30 days. We have chased for payment of all 3 invoices stating our intention to claim late payment fees & costs. The customer has responded stating that he has "reasonable time" to evaluate & review the invoices & until that time expires we are unable to claim late payment fees & costs. Is there such a thing as reasonable time as stated by our customer & if so, what is that time period?

Pardon? Reasonable time to "evaluate" an invoice?

Nope, that is a new one on us and we thought we had every excuse for late or non-payment at least once over the years!

Providing you didn't accept any purchase terms from your customer agreeing to this and as long as your payment terms were agreed in advance (say by the client accepting your T&Cs) then your terms take precedence and you can start charging interest from day 31.

If no payment terms were explicitly agreed in advance the law states they revert to the default of 30 days (or 60 in some industries, Eg Construction).

This client sounds like they are just trying to fob you off frankly!

Actually, elsewhere on this site it states that "Purchasers should raise any genuine complaints or disputes as soon as they arise, and at the very latest upon receipt of an invoice."

Is there a legal provision somewhere that backs up this statement? I know it used to be in the Business Link guidance but that's now sadly disappeared so I can't check what it was referring to.