[Wc Solutions]

this is going to send my business under.

we were sub contracted by a cleaning company to clean a furniture store.

they didnt pay the last 4 weekly invoice - so i chased it up and was told they are in administration.

so i was told directly from the furniture store that this 4 weekly invoice would have to be chased up by me directly with the cleaning company as they had already paid the cleaning company - i totally understand that.

was then told by the furniture store to carry on for now and they will pay the 4 weekly invoice until they had sorted something out - fine i thought...

so the next 4 weekly invoice is now due on friday - was told by the furniture store to make sure i post it to them so its in on monday - which i did. then i get a call today - sorry we cant pay this invoice as we have a legal problem with the cleaning over the contract ....

i dont know what to do!! i cant afford any legal fees and im well over my head with this

[Pristine Clean]

Sorry. Well I I don't understand why you worked for the furniture store after losing the contract with the cleaning company.

Did you have a contract drawn up with the furniture store for the weeks you worked for them? If not nothing you can do there.

Rule 1. Always have a contract in writing - Gentlemen's agreement does not go that far these days especially when dealing in the commercial sector.

As I said to you in a previous post about this same subject - You will need to grin and bear it and push on.

Now 4 weeks work. Will that really send you business over? How many hours? How many staff on the contract? Lets look at this logically.

Obviously I don't know the details of the contract.  So I will assume here that the cleaning was not more than 5 hours a day, everyday.

On a basic assumption of the size of most furniture stores I would assume at most you would be looking at tops is around £2500 - £7000 for  total of 8 weeks. Thats all the cleaning and bins and wash room services  etc

Now all you have to do is pay your staff there wages which should not amount to the above figure.

So get your invoices into the administrators for the 4 weeks you are actually owed. - Have you received any correspondence from the administrators yet? - Probably too soon. 

Then take the arranged 4 weeks invoice up with the furniture store. You can go to small claims court. There's a small cost.

Now I know I am being blunt. - The invoice that the administrators have you might as well just crack on as you will only receive at most several pence in the pound. All other debt will be paid before yours. Which basically leaves nothing.

Now you said yourself you cannot afford legal costs so not much we can do then.

[Denise l]

Theres 2 things here. One, who is in administration? Is it the cleaning company? If it is and they are in administration you need to lodge your financial interest with the administrator. If it is the furniture company and are being run by the administators whilst they try to sell the business, then they wanted it kept clean for future buyers. Therefore you bill the administrators in charge. Do you have any evidence of who gave the instruction? Email, text?Verbal? Go back to the furniture company and get the number of the administrators and ring them. Dont do any more cleaning unless they instruct you and you have it in writing. You will then get paid. Best of Luck sincerely.

[Robert Parry]

Ouch!

First things first, are you sure that the original cleaning has actally gone bust?

How have you been informed of this fact?

Regarding the furniture store, did you recieve a PO number or other written order for the continuation of the cleaning?

Is the so called legal problem with your firm, or the previous company, and what is exactly the nature of this problem if its with yourselves?

Regards,

Rob

[pristineclean]

Untangle this.

The work which you were doing as a sub contractor is, I'm sorry to say, probably something that you're not going to get back any money for.

Continuing to clean the furniture store under separate instruction from an authorised person, or someone who you could reasonably assume to be an authorised person, is different and my thinking is that there is a miscommunication between the management of the store you're cleaning and the accounts payable section of the company as a whole which will be rectified once you've spoken to the person who instructed your company to continue providing a service.

There aren't enough facts here to give a full opinion but be assured that, while it's good to have a written contract, its absence will not prevent you from making a claim. If it's for under £5000.00 it'll cost you about £65.00 all told and you can even do it online - but it would be better for all if you can resolve it amicably with the store concerned.

[cml]

I will try not to repeat some good advice already given above. 

I am somewhat surprised that you continued to do a further 4 weeks work based on your original positing and the advice given at that time. 

It is not clear why they do not want to pay your invoice based on the 'cleaning over the contract' which does not make sense.  You may want to explore this a bit further to obtain absolute clarity as to why they cannot pay you.  Its not clear whether this is about quality of work, agreed works or contract terms with the previous company now gone into liquidation.  The vague agreement to 'clean until they sorted something out' is too ambiguous and gives no indication as to what needed to be sorted.  In agreement with the previous post there is not enough facts to give an opinion here. 

You may take some comfort in knowing that if the person authorising you to continue works is an employee of the furniture company and by their instructions you continued working to your detriment; this conferred a benefit to the furniture company.  Then arguably payment is still due based on the representative been an agent of the furniture company.  Therefore the furniture company will be liable for their employees act negligent or otherwise.  A contract can still be formed even if it is VERBAL!!!!  The terms of which is the tricky part.  Therefore you must be clear in defining what terms or words were expressed to you and by whom.

As for the main contractor, for whom you sub contract for, here there is no surprise as you expected them to go into liquidation in January.  What actions if any did you follow up with or take here?

[Office Cleaning Company]

Agree with the above, difficult to untangle exactly what is going on, but if you do have some sort of case against the company still trading and you've exhausted all other routes, you could try, as mentioned above, the small claims which is relatively cheap. A word of warning though, even if you win there is no guarantee that you will get your money back, but it sounds like it's worth a go in your situation if feasible.