Freelancers, when clients dodge paying

Associate
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Hey all

I do a bit of web development freelance occasionally, and am having issues with a client who is clearly dodging me and wont pay up.

He is actually a mate of a mate, and the budget of the project was probably half what I would have charged (he claimed he had issues with his previous developer, and hence the budget was already set), but as my mate knows him I took it on anyways. I have informed my mate about the situation, and when he tries to call him he cant get through either.

The guy in question is a designer, doing work for one of his clients, work which is now finished and had been for a number of months. The site is complete and being used for its intended purpose.

I have sent him invoices in the post, and over email, yet on the rare occasion I do get through to him (usually by 141'ing my number) he claims he had not received them.

Now I have a 7 week old son, and pretty desperately need the money, so wondered how I should approach this.

I still have access to the FTP and database, so could take it down, but as I said its ultimately for one of his clients so if they have paid him, I am only going to anger them and he probably wont care.

Also I have taken into account they could have the hosts restore from backups whatever I take down, so because of this I have created a back door so if I do get locked out and my site login removed, I can still get access. This I only added when it first dawned on me that getting paid for going to be a mission, and I will happily remove this when this has all been resolved. Obviously I only want to do this as a last resort but I think I am getting to that point.

Anyone offer any suggestions as am getting really fed up of this now and as I say need the money pretty urgently!
 
Associate
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Is going round his house an option? is the work you have done legally still owned by you until it's been paid for? Did he sign a contract, if so whats the wording in that about non-payment etc?
 
Associate
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Are you saying this is a site he is responsible for and he got you to do some of the work, or all of it? I think you need to be very careful about taking anything down as there could be legal implications for you.

I think you need to keep this on the level as if you go to court you don't want anything dodgy you have done being brought up. Send him a letter, recorded delivery, giving him a time limit to pay (7 or 14 days) otherwise you'll take legal action. How much is it? Can it be done through small claims?
 
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Associate
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Nah he lives in dorset, me in bedfordshire so popping round isnt really an option.

As it was mate of a mate work I didnt really see the need to use a contract, big mistake now in hindsight!

Its his client, he designed the front end, and I developed all the code and back end CMS. Obviously its my intellectual property which I can prove.

He paid me £350 after a certain amount of work was completed, and theres still £550 outstanding. If I threaten with legal action, but have no contract is this likely to be an empty threat? Never used small claims court before so not sure how that works.
 
Soldato
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Nah he lives in dorset, me in bedfordshire so popping round isnt really an option.

As it was mate of a mate work I didnt really see the need to use a contract, big mistake now in hindsight!

Its his client, he designed the front end, and I developed all the code and back end CMS. Obviously its my intellectual property which I can prove.

He paid me £350 after a certain amount of work was completed, and theres still £550 outstanding. If I threaten with legal action, but have no contract is this likely to be an empty threat? Never used small claims court before so not sure how that works.

Not an empty threat at all, I've been in the same position before doing freelance work with non-paying customers, small claims proceedings has always got me my money irrespective of whether there's a contract.
 
Associate
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If I threaten with legal action, but have no contract is this likely to be an empty threat? Never used small claims court before so not sure how that works.

Not sure about that. It would certainly be easier to deal with if you had a contract, but if you can prove you did the work and had agreed a price (e-mails?) then I thik you'd have a case. Might be better moving/posting a thread in the HTML/Programming section for help.
 
Soldato
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Just send an invoice recorded delivery. Then ring after it is flagged as being signed for, then he has no way to get out of it innocently, if he still doesn't pay then just threaten to take down the site.
 
Associate
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I still have access to the FTP and database, so could take it down, but as I said its ultimately for one of his clients so if they have paid him, I am only going to anger them and he probably wont care.

That would put you in more trouble then him not having payed you. Send him an email/letter saying you will be going to his client that you havent being payed, mabe his reputation with them will make him more eger to pay you.
 
Soldato
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He paid me £350 after a certain amount of work was completed, and theres still £550 outstanding. If I threaten with legal action, but have no contract is this likely to be an empty threat? Never used small claims court before so not sure how that works.
You certainly do have a contract with him - just not the type with multiple clauses contained within a single document. Anything by him agreeing to have the work done can form a contract. In any case it's not an issue of proving that there was intent to create legal relations or to even have the work commissioned because he's clearly accepted the work and accepted that there was at least partially a payment obligation. Send an invoice recorded delivery marked as full and final requesting payment within 20 days. If this is not replied to send out a further letter stating your intent to bring legal action if you don't hear back within 14 days. On the 14th day, file a small claims action - which you can do online. When you win he'll be ordered (in most cases) to pay costs.
 
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wow some great advice here, thanks dudes :)

Think a combination of the above should be enough to get things rolling. I have a few emails, and long logs of MSN convo's that would back up my claim. Also the client who the work is for have also contacted me asking for tech support so they know I did the majority of the work.

Will get on it over the weekend and let you all know how it turned out.

What is a reasonable amount of interest?
 
Soldato
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dont forget to add interest to your claim.
Be careful with this. You are not allowed to add anything that is deemed to be punitive. If you choose to add interest you will want to add it in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 . Your safest bet in regards to such is to say that interest runs 30 days after your initial invoice - in this regards it does not matter that he claims not to receive it as long as it was validly served (i.e. you actually did post it). Interest should run at 8% above base rate (based on base rate on the day before the interest would start to run) plus an extra £40 as the debt is less than £1000.
 
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That would put you in more trouble then him not having payed you. Send him an email/letter saying you will be going to his client that you havent being payed, mabe his reputation with them will make him more eger to pay you.

That depends - you may be able to argue that you are exercising a lien against him by withholding work until he pays up.
 
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As the end user/client has contacted you directly for support i suggest you politely refuse because you have not been paid, they will apply pressure on the other chap who owes you money, and you get more work once its sorted.
 
Associate
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Still being dodged by this guy, getting very fed up of it all. I have sent invoices recorded and have proof of delivery now.

That depends - you may be able to argue that you are exercising a lien against him by withholding work until he pays up.

Is this def the case as I would rather do this than have to go through the small claims court, as thats just more time and effort wasted in getting together correspondence and proof against him.
 
Man of Honour
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I am constantly owed money by my clients. Regardless of contract if a client can't pay or doesn't want to pay you may face long waits. I find it best to talk to them about it, ask the reasons, make them take your calls. Send reminders but try to keep as open a discourse as possible.

It is the most irritating aspect of my business (consulting).

Exhaust the phone / face to face conversation approach before any other tactics.
 
Soldato
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Mort said:
Is this def the case as I would rather do this than have to go through the small claims court, as thats just more time and effort wasted in getting together correspondence and proof against him.
Whilst you still have the FTP details it is unlikely you still have authority to use them (i.e. they were meant to be yours only for the purpose of uploading the website and for no other purpose). As such, using those details at all could actually be deemed an offence.

To put it in the real world to make it clearer imagine you were given the code to an office block to deliver some furniture. You wouldn't dream of using the code to re-enter and remove the furniture if there was non-payment.
 
Associate
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Exhaust the phone / face to face conversation approach before any other tactics.

He is about a 4 hour drive away, and wont take my calls :(

Whilst you still have the FTP details it is unlikely you still have authority to use them (i.e. they were meant to be yours only for the purpose of uploading the website and for no other purpose). As such, using those details at all could actually be deemed an offence.

Trying to confirm if the company has actually paid him or not, as if not surely without payment, they dont actually own the site anyways.

Surely as the code is my intellectual property it is my right to remove it based on lack of payment?
 
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