Really annoying. If you’d screwed up in even the smallest way, you can be sure Missus Woman in Malahide with her SUV or whatever it was would be after you in the small claims court. I don’t think you can take that route as a business, however.
Initial instinct would be to take a baseball bat to her car, but that’s just me.
I think a polite letter, with an invoice, reminding the offenders of their obligation to pay would be a start. I’d follow that within 14 days with another copy, dropped in the door. Followed by a full day of phoning them on speed dial and leaving messages. Then, in the absence of any response, I’d send another stinker of a letter in a very polite, but well-drafted form, that made it clear your next step would be legal action.
If that doesn’t work, then we all look forward to seeing their names and a picture of their houses (and lovely gardens) on your blog.

Weed, lots of weed, the very worst kind.

Do as they have done to you

A very timely post.

Been doing freelance work for 12 years myself and have only had this come up as an issue on a handful of occasions so far thankfully, but I know how frustrating it can be. You have done your work and now find that you have to do more gratis just to get what you have earned. So here is my 2 cent.

In all cases where I haven’t been paid promptly, the individuals I have dealt with seem to have developed a convenient little moral blind spot which enables them to perform amazing feats of moral agility to lay the responsibility for the non-payment at everyone else’s door but their own despite the fact that they themselves commissioned the work. So from the start I think its vital to firmly attach responsibility where it belongs on both sides.

Before you do a tap on any project, sit down with the client and draw up a specification that describes the tasks that have to be undertaken by you to get the job done to the client’s satisfaction (and indeed their responsibilities and tasks) in writing and both sign off on it (don’t forget to cost in the time for preparing this document into your quote). The document would also cover costs and payment terms. Once you have this document signed off, everyone knows where they stand and if problems arise down the line you have something concrete to refer back to and I find that the process of hammering it out also weeds out clients who aren’t very serious about getting a job done properly early on.

In relation to the payment terms, specifically deal with the late payment issue. Define the period after billing when the payment will be considered late, interest charges that will apply and stating that you will pursue for unpaid fees. In the first notice of late payment you can offer the facility of renegotiating the payment schedule if the think the client is in a valid hole but I honestly think these cases are rare if they have planned properly in the first place and why should you be left carrying the can if they haven’t.

If even armed with all this information, a client still wriggles, small claims court is definitely an option for smaller amounts, last time I looked it was €9 to instigate proceedings – a lot cheaper than getting a solicitor to draw up a letter.

I was interested to read you have given up on some payments in the past. I have never done that. When I do the work, I get paid, one way or another. If I don’t value my own work enough to pursue clients with a moral bypass, who will?

On the naming and shaming thing, my own take is that its akin to you personally taking them by the scruff of the neck and dragging them through the mud – it may feel very satisfying at the time but inevitably you will find that you get splashed too in the process.

There are some contrasting comments above about using the Small Claims Court. To clarify: the SCC is available to consumers, mostly seeking redress for poor or no service or goods, to a maximum of €2,000. It’s a great system for consumers and claims can be lodged online at a small cost, with no necessity for solicitors to be involved.

However, the SCC is not available to businesses seeking to sue customers in any way and debt collection is specifically excluded. I wrote about this recently (http://bit.ly/XIL8m) noting that Fine Gael have proposed extending the SCC to allow for small debt collection by businesses to a maximum of €3,000. The government have indicated they might accept this proposal but I’m not aware of any moves since, so it remains a proposal at this stage.

If a small business has many small debts it is worth seeing a solicitor – it may be possible to agree a discounted fee, for example, for sending letters before action. A cost/benefit analysis can then be carried out by the business for each debtor if the solicitor’s letter does not elicit a response or payment.

Legal eagles are a complete waste of time I find. These are for big companies or for very large amounts. Experienced non-payers are well aware that a small company has no cash flow to chase them. The law fully protects them. If you are a painter and finished painting, you cannot take the paint away afterwards and neither can you deface it as you can be caught for vandalism. The law somehow thinks you can put your kids feeding on hold indefinately while they deliberate at your expense.

I think this is THE worst country in Europe for chasing debts. The laws are medieval in this regard and it suits the local elite here very well.

Hone your judgement and learn from your mistakes. Just do business with hard working, unpretentious people.

In relation to Philip’s comments, which have some validity, lawyers don’t make the law and it’s up to the Government to change the legal/business environment.

For example, if you would like the Small Claims Court procedure to be available to business creditors you could make representations to your local TDs to see that Leo Varadkar’s proposal is adopted.

PS. There are arguments against Deputy Varadkar’s proposal, though I won’t get into them at this point!