Any recourse for non-payment?

Pkiernan

Hello all,

do we as assessors have any recourse when payment for services is not received?

I went ahead and published a cert back in June, and have yet to receive payment - usual story - check got lost etc.

Since the Cert has been published, I am not sure what recourse if any I have. We should be allowed to invalidate our Certs if we do not get paid.

This is the first time I have been stiffed in this way - I know that I should not have published the Cert until payment was received, but sometimes homeowners will look at you funny if you insist on pre-payment.

Thanks.

professore

Welcome to the real world of business.

BERmad

Did the client sign a contract before any work was done?

sydthebeat

professore wrote: »

Welcome to the real world of business.

+1

this is how some clients behave in the real world....

take it as a lesson learnt, develop a payment policy and stick religiously too it... dont waver for anyone.

Personally I insist on payment on site after survey, if this inst possible the client knows that the office work will not be done until payment is received.

SilverBER

I agree. Its a pain in the a**e and always has been. The clients know that you are hardly likely to issue proceedings against them for a few hundred quid let alone get a solicitors letter sent to them. I only had one instance of this since I started doing the BERs so I sent him an email and told him I would be cancelling the cert if he didnt pay up. I dont know if the cert can be cancelled or not, knowing SEI it probably cant, but the client probably wont know this either. Either way, it worked for me and now I insist on payment before I publish the cert.
Clients dont really care if they have a signed contract or not. They are either the type who pays for work or who doesn't pay. Any recourse you can use that doesnt cost money in order to get paid is fair game in my book once it doesnt involve guns, knives or violence.
A handy tip for anyone doing block BERs. Insist on 50% upfront. A friend of mine was shafted on 120 apartments by a developer and is currently pursueing a legal process to recover the cost.
I think that SEI should step in here and give us a facility for cancelling a BER anyway but that would mean them actually getting off the fence.

legs_akimbo

Do not ever wait for payment from a solicitor it takes an age, three times I have been left waiting three months by solicitors, the last time I got so peed off I phoned them the umteenth time after the usual cheque in the post crap and said if I do not receive payment by close of business on monday I will access my sei account and invalidate the BER, inform the new house owner of my actions and when the solicitor needs to get a new BER it will be on record as a BER has already been processed for this dwelling, the new assessor will phone the original assesor to see why it is revoked and find it wasnt paid for after 12 weeks and will not process the new BER....Bull***t I know but I got a cheque the next day.

muffler

legs_akimbo wrote: »

Do not ever wait for payment from a solicitor

That would make for an interesting thread on its own

Bhoypaul

Get the payment before you release the certificate.
If you are put under pressure that its holding up the contract even better. tell them you can meet them for an exchange of certifiate and payment.

<SNIP>