Supplier Terms

Hi - I wish to use "The late payment of commercial debts regulations 2013". I have a customer who I invoice for commissions on products I sell on thier behalf. They send me an invoice when I have a sale which we have agreed I will settle within 7 days. I then raise an invoice for our commission and our terms are payment within 7 days. However they never pay within 7 days and claim that they have never agreed to pay in 7 days. Historically they have paid within 30 days - they say "Our invoices to you are under a separate agreement and are agreed by you to be paid within the terms (7 days) which have remained unchanged since we began trading . There is no reciprocal or equivalent arrangement implied or agreed. Under the old agreement payment terms to you were 10 working days, when that ended, and since October 2013, we have been paying on 30 days. These are the only terms that we will accept."

They are not paying within 30 days, can I use the legislation to charge interest and Compensation for recovery for any of our invoices that are not paid within 30 days? In March this year I infomrmed them that I would be usimng the Late Payment leislation for any late payments. Thanks Roy Ferris.

Hi Roy.

I tend to agree with them that there may be two contracts. On the assumption that there isn't anything in writing then the default would be 30 days terms. If they have paid you consistantly on this basis and you have accepted payment then a court is likely to consider that the agreed (implied) terms are in fact 30 days. You appear to accept this in your question.

But you then highlight that they still are not complying with the 30 day terms, and I would thus agree with you that late payment penalties and interest would apply on each and every occasion that a payment is made late.