Hey everyone,

At the start of last year (January and February) my wife and I took our kids in for two different photo shoots at the same place.

It was one of those groupon deals where you pay £30 or so and you get a free print,

but you have the option afterwards to either walk away with your one free print or buy some more of the photos.

Both of these times we set up a payment plan for these two different sets of photos and signed a piece of paper to say we agree to pay that amount. The total amount was £310.

We had a really rough year last year, my wife is severely disabled and I'm her carer, and my mum also passed away from cancer in October. I completely forgot about these photos and the payment plan.

I had a letter at the end of January this year (which seems to be dated 19.01.16) that says a "recovery cost" of £100 has been added to the balance, and £24.80 of interest.

The letter also states that he has tried numerous times to contact me by phone and has sent out several invoices, none of these I received. The letter states that if he doesn't receive the full payment in 7 days he would take court action.

I emailed the photographer enquired about the added charges,

he said right off the bat that he would waive those if I made a payment.

I made a payment of £30 and said that £30 per month was all I could afford, we both agreed on that payment plan.

I also asked him to send me copies of the letters I signed when we came to the agreement.

He emailed me these recently and it says nothing about added charges and interest being added, nor does it say anything about a date that the balance had to be paid by.

I asked him again what it was exactly that he did that cost him £100 pursuing the debt and he gave no specific details.

He has now become very annoyed and has said that "if I still want the photos" I would need to pay in full because he's no longer willing to accept a payment plan.

I'm quite confused, I was under the impression from his letter that i am legally obliged to pay him that money for the photos (which I dont have in my possession), if that's the case then how can there be any "if you still want them"?

Is he able to charge interest and just think of a number to add on top of the money I owe?

I know it may look a tad silly because he said he would waive the added £100, which seems a bit strange if he had actually spent that amount chasing me up.

But I just can't help the feeling that he just stuck it on the letter as a threat to make me get in touch. Despite what the letter said I had no contact from him at all for the whole year beforehand.

Any advice you can give would be great.

I have the letters and signed documents if it helps

Many thanks,

Rich

It would be helpful if you could post on the agreement in PDF format. Redact the identifiers.

The charges are unenforceable and probably the interest is as well.

Thanks for the reply, I hope i've done the PDF right.

invoices.pdf

Firstly, if this is your real signature then you have left your name on the attachments. I am suppressing them just in case. Please will you redact them properly and post them again. Are they on grey paper?

The agreements you have posted are very sparse and there is no mention of any payment plan et cetera.

On the basis of what you have posted there, it seems to me that you have a duty to pay the money – but the photographer will have a duty to give you the photographs. There is no basis here for levying any charges or applying any interest although if you don't pay and he decides to sue you then he could ask the court to add 8% interest on the judgement sum.

In view of the fact that there is a dispute between you, I would be wary about just giving him the money and hoping he will send you the photos. He might be angry enough not to send them. You certainly have to pay the money and let's face it, the guy has done a job of work for you and it is reasonable that he expects to be paid. It seems to me that the best thing to do is to go around there with the agreement price and hand it over in exchange for the photos. Inform him in advance that you're coming make an appointment or schedule a time at which you will turn up. If I you I would take a recorder – even a mobile phone and have it in my pocket recording the entire conversation.

When you say the agreement price do you mean the full sum that is owed?

I'll get back on the laptop and reupload the files, my mistake.

The agreement of £30 per month was agreed last month after I received his letter.

I have every intention of paying him the money I signed for to agree to pay,

my question to him is where he got £100 in costs from.

Should he keep the photos until I pay the full amount?

attachments sorted and reapproved.

dx

need to see all the other letters please.

dx

just to nail him down

he's up the creek without a paddle

they are simply signed invoices nothing more

no ref to any signed contract

no ref to any T&C's you have to abide by.

pers i'd cut all comms and totally ignore him.

if you were to be nice, then offer to pay his reasonable time for the 2 sessions

but i'd pers forget him totally .

its a shame he didn't offer proper paperwork

its a shame you had personal issues

but theres nothing sign there that binds either of you to do anything further.

dx

I'm very sorry that I have to disagree with DX. A written agreement is only necessary for the sale of property or shares – that's about it.

On your own account here you've entered into a binding contract with a photographer who apparently has done his job. On your own account, you haven't actually carried out your side of the bargain – because of your difficulties. He's being silly by adding ridiculous charges but is doing this to put pressure on you to pay.

I don't know whether he is serious enough to bring a County Court action against you but if he did, he would win plus the costs of the action plus interest.

I think you have put him in a difficult position now because although you want the photographs, he is wary of you and he won't feel comfortable about letting you have the photographs upfront. You are probably wary of him now and so you will be worried about paying him without having the photographs. I'm sorry if you think that this is harsh but it seems to me that this is a situation caused by you.

I think you need to try and talk to the guy to get some kind of resolution and trust established. One way forward might be to let him have a series of post dated cheques but then the photographer might not understand that suing on a post dated cheque is very straightforward and that you would have no defence against it.

Another way forward might be for him to agree to let you have a set of the photographs but overprinted with some large wording which essentially defaces them. They might also be relatively small size, the deal being that once the money was fully paid, that the final photographs would be released.

Another solution could be to let you have the photographs on a USB key but protected by a password which he would reveal to you once they were paid for.

Whatever you agreed, I think it would have to be in writing and if you did choose a solution such as a USB key, I would recommend that you provided the photographer with a post dated cheque or some other form of redeemable deposit in the event that the payments were made.

It's all about trying to re-establish a situation where there is a margin of trust and confidence between you so that you can get your pictures and he can get his money for the work he has done.