120 days after the work was carried out! If all my customers did that I would have over £60,000 permanently tied up in delayed payments, and that could cause a healthy company, with no other debt, to go bust. Try telling the VAT man or HMRC that you have several customers that have delayed payments, and that you cannot meet the VAT or PAYE or NI payment dates. On second thoughts don’t bother, because sympathy is not their strong suit.
So, what do you do? Send a seven day letter, giving them umpteen more days free credit and, if that doesn’t work, take action in the small claims or county court, both of which take some days to serve the documents and allow a further eighteen days for the client to pay before entering a judgement. Now, that ought to be the end of the matter, and the money ought to be paid, but it is up to the claimant to enforce the judgement. So, there is further expense and delay while the bailiffs do their stuff. At anytime in this process a cheque for the claimed amount can be paid into the court and the whole system is abandoned. Do you then claim again to get your court and bailiff costs
back? Of course you don’t, you just bank the cheque and thank God that the defaulter has not gone bust. The longest I have ever
been kept waiting for substantial sums of money is eighteen months. Nothing wrong with the job, just a very rich man who seems to have got rich by refusing to pay his bills. The most annoying time was when a landscaper client brazenly told me that he had decided to spend his money on a flash Mercedes, that he had funded by simply delaying all payments to any of his sub-contractors or suppliers for a full sixty days. He made the decision because he was fed up with waiting for well over £250,000 he was owed by his customers. Is it me, or does debt
recovery actually need some of the parliamentary time and activity that has been devoted to all the other legislation? There has been a lot of hot air talked about debt amelioration, particularly for mortgage defaulters, but no
consideration seems to be given to the other side of the coin, the people and businesses who have supplied hard cash, goods and services for which they quite rightly ask for payment.
progress their careers. He was always willing to help members of the public with any problems and enquires. Arthur was a key player in
the Taf management team of the Parks section, which has been successful obtaining its Green Flag accreditation for four years, a Green Dragon
Environmental Award and a Merit from Wales in Bloom. It has been said that
Arthur was the “Father Figure of the Parks Section”. We wish him well in his
retirement. 15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138