[Steve Weatherley]

Has anyone used any - can you recommend a good one?

I am owed £150 by a local letting agency and have waited nearly 5 months. I know I can claim through county court but just wondering if a debt recovery agency would be quicker and easier?

[benny d]

I can send my mum round with her curlers in and rolling pin in hand.
They will soon comply, trust me.

BTW it will cost £150-00 

[Kinver_Clean]

Write a letter saying you want payment by a date.
Say that if you do not get the money then you will take legal advice and this cost will be added to the amount owing.
Also that interest will be added to the amount at a rate 6% over bank rate from that date. Give them 7 or 10 days.
Get a local solicitor to write a letter. It should not cost more than a tenner.

There is another cheap way but that is for amounts over £750

[Steve Chapman]

Do the money claim online thing, think its about £25
Has worked every time for me .

Steve

[Steve Weatherley]

Thanks for your responses. Having just done a bit of digging online I have come up with something interesting......

The Late Payments of Commercial Debts Act 1998 states that in these circumstances I am entitled to claim £40 compensation on top of the invoiced amount. I have written a letter to them asking for payment within 10 days of the full amount plus the compensation aswell.

It pains me to do this because I have done about 12 jobs in the past for them and they have always paid up on time but this time I have invoiced twice and called them twice to no avail. I will no doubt cease my relationship with them in future!

[Carpet Dawg]

Have they given a reason why there is a problem with payment? Where the other jobs paid on time?

Go in and have a chat with them before doing anything hasty. Would be a pitty to burn bridges when things can be worked out.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

i just send the hubby round he always get the cash , last time we got a free p.c. screen as well 

[Steve Weatherley]

They are blaming it on the landlord being a late payer. The landlord didnt instruct me to do the job so I dont care if I p*ss them off. Just want my money and move on. When I get messed around like this I lose confidence in the company anyway

[Paul Simpson]

Had a letting agency keep me waiting roughly the same amount of time last year. Rung several times and was strung along, after approx 4 months I started ringing nearly every 2-3 days, soon pi**ed them off enough to pay. Didn't get much more work from them but don't want the hassle that went with it.

[Hilton]

Don't flaff about with all that nonsense, just contact,

Thomas Higgins & Co , just google it.....

pass it out over to them and move on..

[james roffey]

Surprised that you have not gone back to them and speak face to face first to at least get an explanation, thats what i have done in the past and it does sometimes work, if not then write but dont say, as has been suggested that you will "take legal advice" it sound weak and feeble and you dont know what you are doing.
This is a small amount and some debt recovery agent wont touch anything under £500

[Neil Williams]

Same as Steve Chapman.
I ask politely, I write politely, then I ask with conviction, then I write with Court action impending unless payment received with 10 days.
Only a few have pushed me to the on line court action but that hasn't failed yet once that gets delivered and we're talking as low as £60 on one of them.

[Hilton]

This is a small amount and some debt recovery agent wont touch anything under £500

Simply not true, dont know where you got that from,

http://www.thomashiggins.com/pages/costs_and_fees.aspx

Cost £2 + VAT to get a letter before action sent and thats normally all you have to do to get paid.

All the do this, then that, then get a solicitor   drives me mad ,  costs your time and money and is not necessary, instruct and move on.

[wynne jones]

Go in on a Saturday morning when it's busy and say in a loud voice you want your money as you are worried they are going under.

[Kinver_Clean]

I did the same thing in a mobile phone shop.

Waited till the shop was full and then threw the phone in a metal waste bin. The chap behind the counter rang a number and said they had a customer with a severe lack of product confidence- got a new phone straight away.

[Len Gribble]

Never had to result to extreme measures, perhaps my names proceeds me Lenny the lion, have had a few late payments (phone call you can’t do that he owns the company and I give S H IT)

[AJB]

Try the polite route first, i have a fantastic
relationship with one of my local letting agents.
i do all their cleaning, no quibble on price, always paid
within the 30 days, they occasionally deliver keys so
i don't need to fetch them. They also pass tenants
and landlords on to me that prefer to arrange things
themselves, and
6 or 7 seven years ago they late paid on an invoice.
The wife rang and politly asked if there was a problem
paying, shortly after the cheque arrived. since then they
have been a joy to work with.
Just remember due to the economy all sorts of businesses
are suffering, try to give them the benefit of the doubt,

although i think it has slid for a bit too long now.

[Hilton]

5 months he's Waited ferk the polite route,

Who needs customers like this..

[james roffey]

This is a small amount and some debt recovery agent wont touch anything under £500

Simply not true, dont know where you got that from,

http://www.thomashiggins.com/pages/costs_and_fees.aspx

Cost £2 + VAT to get a letter before action sent and thats normally all you have to do to get paid.

All the do this, then that, then get a solicitor   drives me mad ,  costs your time and money and is not necessary, instruct and move on.


I worked for a debt recovery agent for twenty plus years, our minimum amount we recovered was £500, i said "some" so how is it "simply not true 

[Paul Clapham]

You should always get a written order for the job from the agency stating the address the cleaning is to take place , the work involved  , the cost , and the date of payment, and the CC should get a "delivery note" signed to say the work has been completed to the standard required.

 Once you do that they do not have a leg to stand on, and any claims court would expect paper work to back up your claim of non / late payment  and proof that you have in fact completed a job for them.