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Customer owes me money, what now?


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Hi I have a Ltd company and manufacture goods myself.

I have a customer who owes me around £8500.

Most of the money owed I supplied them when the person was a sole trader trading as XXXXXXX.

Around June this year they registered as LTD and told me when they collected an order late June I think.

 

I have asked for interim payments to get the debt down from just under £10,000 which they did and got it down to around £7000 but I allowed them a few smaller orders to help them out on the understanding that they carried on paying. They haven't really.....and I have nudged them for some more money and it looks like they can't pay anything for at least 2 or 3 months. Then it will be can we have some more stock and we can pay you or if not we will have to get stock elsewhere and use any money we have to buy stock from elsewhere to keep going.

 

Now is the person still liable for the goods they had off me before they went LTD or does it all transfer to the LTD company now.

I am thinking of asking for a personal guarantee or walking possesion on goods etc.

 

I don't want to do this but I have been in this position before when someone gave me post dated cheques and fobbed me off a couple of months while he registered a new company and liquidated the company that owed me money.

 

Any suggestions?

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Don't worry. Becoming a limited liability company does not erase or assimilate any liabilities they incurred as a sole trader.

 

I think that the best thing you could do would be to sue the person and get the judgement. You can then go ahead and enforce the judgement immediately or if you want to give them a chance, then you can make a proper secured arrangement for staged payments to you.

 

One thing to warn you though is that if they have now created a limited liability company then the assets of that company may be out of reach of your action against them as an individual or sole trader.

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Also, if you are tempted to take post dated cheques in future – or give any kind of credit at all, you ought to make sure that you at least take personal guarantees – and secured on property if at all possible

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Thanks BF, I was thinking of asking the person to sign a personal guarantee, if they won't then its a good indication they are in trouble.

On my invoices it states the goods remain my property until paid for in full, does this help?

I could hint that I will start the winding up process, that may show them I am serious or bankrupt the person who was a sole trader.

 

One thing I have done is any payments paid after the T/A - LTD split I have allocated to the invoices raised for the T/A, should I re-allocate these payments to any invoices raised when they went LTD?

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Yes if you have reserved title to the goods until they are fully paid then your customers failure to pay and continued detention of the goods would entitle you to sue in tort for conversion.

 

However, it still means that you have to begin the action and it also assumes that he is still in possession of the goods. Did he buy these goods by way of stock to resell? Or are these goods part of the equipment or the fabric of his business which remains there?

 

I think the payments made by the limited liability company have to be applied to goods which are purchased by the limited liability company. I don't think that you are entitled to do otherwise.

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T/A

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What are the T&Cs of Business re sales ...30 days ?

 

 

Andy

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I use Quickbooks for invoicing, and the invoice is sent by email and there is a link to view the invoice. The wording below is in the email, not on the actual invoice, but this is sent with the invoice, is that ok?

 

All goods remain the property of XXXXXX until they are paid for in full.

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Andy - It states on all the invoices "Terms = Due on receipt"

 

Originally it was agreed verbally that they could have a bit longer to pay, about 30 days to help them out as they had just started the business.

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How long as this £8500 accrued over ? ..keep a sharp eye on the LTD purchases and a tight control on your credit control.

 

I personally wouldn't sell anything further to the LTD CO on credit until this debt has been resolved.

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So worth 1k a month to you...I think a cleverly drafted LBA is required outlining the options open to you and them to get this debt settled/reduced and explaining that no further trading until it is clear.

 

You must utilise Pre Action Protocol first before litigating

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The customer still has some items in stock, but advertised through their LTD company. Can I ask them to return my goods? or go and fetch them?

 

Noooooo !!!!

 

No templates as such ZENTRIX...simply adapt any good credit control document.......surely you already use something similar ?

 

Examples of LBA,s are freely available on the internet..simply adapt to suit your threats...

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If the customer was a sole trader at the time when they purchased the goods,if they own any personal items like cars and a house, you can go through the courts and after those to be sold to get your money. That may motivate them to pay you as quickly as possible?

Not sure, but as the goods did not belong to the customer until they were paid for surely they would have needed permission to transfer them to the LTD company?

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Post your draft here and we will give it the once over.

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...Perhaps a bit too friendly ?.....Lets see what response you get

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Now the person is liable for the debt and if the goods taken were on the same terms he is still liable despite now having a limited company unless you specifically agreed that the co is now the debtor. The choice isnt his.

As for telling yourself he will take his business elsewhere then the bailiffs acting on your behalf will seize the rivals goods to halp pay you. I would consider speaking to your competitors in the business to lrt them know that you are having problems with this customer.

be nice to your family and pets dont have to be "nice" to a non paying customer I can get you hundreds of them without notice. What you want is ones who pay up.

My brother gave up his business because too many of his customers were going bust etc and as the only UK importer of his product he had to swallow the costs or lose that right.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I sent an email asking if I would be getting any payments, they replied saying it depends on if they sell anything up to Xmas.

 

I replied to them, included in the email below sent 27th November

 

"There comes a point where I have to put you on stop and we have just reached it, I didn't want it to come to this but I can't see any other way around it. I cannot supply you any more until the debt is cleared.

I need you to come up with a proposed payment plan that you can stick to otherwise I will have to start looking at recovering the amount owed.

 

Sorry XXXXXX, I have supported you as long as I can but the amount you now owe me is having an effect on my business and I cannot let it go on any longer."

 

I have asked in emails again and got can I have a few more days, after 4 days I asked again and got "working on it" This is over a period of 2 weeks

 

That's it now they have had a chance to sort things out, I need to send a LBA, can I send it by email or do I need to send it by recorded delivery or does the email I sent count?

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No.... you must send a LBA ..recorded/signed for and create a papertrail.

We could do with some help from you.

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