[Pristine Clean]

Hi All,

In all my years as trading, as a sole trader and as a limited company I have never lost a cleaning contract until now.

I wont mention the company that has cancelled as I dont like doing that.

We had this contract only for a short while, Now we go by a task list, and not by an hourly rate. All task were completed satisfactory. Apart from 3 items on the last visit when we recieved cancelation.

Also we recieved no other communication to say they were unhappy with any of the work before.

Apparently the drainer was not clean enough. That what they said!

Now on many occasion we could not clean the desks due to mountains of paper work, engineers drawing, books etc incuding window sills covered with paper work.. And I mean stacks of paper work.


We have asked them on numerous occasions to clear their desks so we can clean. But nothing ever happened.

Now they have signed a contract, we need 30 days notice of cancilation. The problem I am facing is I dont think I will be able to get them to pay for the 30 days as they no longer want us on site. With immediate effect.

Plus they are behind on the payments any way.

Its not a great deal of money and probably not worth the hassle in the long run.   

This is where I see if a signed contractual agreement is worth anything. I have a original copy.

Any ideas please.

regards

Dave

[Pristine Clean]

No not alot at all.

Cost is around £120 per month very small contract.

they are about 2- months behind and I have sent them an invoice for 30 day notice. that 4 visits in total 1 visit per week.

I am considering leaving it and moving on... I have on the same day won 2 other contracts so not actually an issue and I would rather concentrate on the contracts I have.

Dave

[Timmy Boy]

Dave
Walk away now, like Clinton says this company could be floundering but the bosses don't want to admit it. I had a company kick us out for no reason, within a month they had gone. Say to the custy that you will not insist on their contractual obligation as long as they write you a cheque for whats owing today.
Regards
Tim

[Pristine Clean]

thats a good idea Tim.

I will do that.

Thanks


Dave

[cml]

If they have to give you 30 days notice of cancellation then why are you terminated with immediate effect.  I guess it all depends on your contract terms.... 
If you have not already done so you may want to build in a clause giving you an opportunity to make good any unsatisfactory work before termination.

You are running a business; therefore no matter how small the transaction is  firms need to understand that they cannot just dispense with cleaning companies at a drop of a hat.  These actions seem harsh but as I said it depends on the actual terms agreed.  If you suspect they are in financial difficulties then its best to try and recover whats owed and move on but if you suspect you have been shoved over for another firm or possibly cheaper rates then persue what is owed especially if you were contracted for a fixed duration.  Afterall you've earnt it or have to pay staff for their labour.   The choice is yours!!!

You have indicated that you are moving on and that is a choice you've made but walking away sometimes is not always the answer.  But if you have carefully considered the pros and cons then maybe you're right. 

[BDCS]

1 why walk away if your owed money ?
2 Ask what sort of bull poo is it to terminate over a dirty drainer ? There must be other issues
3 It amazes me that members on here pity members that loose contracts to firms that snide contracts by under pricing, using immigrants or even immigrant firms and then in other posts are seen to openly encourage them ?
 No don't walk - get in their face and get the money or get a ccj

[Colin Stokes]

Surely more to the point is how much time you will spend chasing this and is it cost effective to do so - I would agree that its sometimes best to walk away (as long as its with your money owed to date and maybe you can withold the keys to the premises to speed that up).

Other companies under cutting (whether they use workers from UK or not has nothing to do with it as long as minimum wage/H&S etc is adhered to)  Does sound like the company may be struggling and looking to save money though.

[garyj]

As a point of principle the money should be chased whether it is £10 or £10,000, I would act professional and give them the keys back and not resort to blackmail.

Very often with foreign companies they do not pay the legal wage, the workers are brought over here and housed and end up working for very little. There was a Polish guy who used to come on here who was charging his customers £6.50 an hour and staffing with Polish, this was in London, so dread to think what the staff were getting paid.

Go around and see them and find out the truth.

[Colin Stokes]

Ridiculous to chase £10 if it takes 5 hours and you consider your time to be worth more than £2 per hour. 

Principle is one thing, less cash in your account another.

I am more than aware of companies utilising foreign workers in order to cut costs especially in London (thats where we are based) but everyone knows who they are and if clients want to work for them with the possible legal ramifications then I dont mind them and just concentrate on adding value and doing an excellent job at all our sites.

Find it a little strange that the knee jerk rection of "immigrants" comes up when the source of the post didnt even mention competition (legal or not)

[BDCS]

Ok then - clean the drainers properly and you won't loose contracts

[garyj]

Notice you have not commented on your statement about withholding keys until payment, I would be concerned with the legal ramifications of that.

I think we all know this contract was not lost because of a dirty drainer. They might be in financial trouble or the dirty drainer was the final straw and an excuse to get rid of them.

Does it really take you 5 hours to chase a debt, traffic is either worse in London than I imagined or you type very slowly. A phone call and letter would take me less than 5 minutes.

[Colin Stokes]

To be honest your snide comments dont really help anyone - if the phone call and letter dont work then you need to follow up and can end up with CC paperwork.  The 5 hours was a just an example - I charge a min of £22.50 per hour so (specifically) would just make a commercial decision on time v o/s monies.  That was the point I was making but I think you knew that anyway.

Re the keys I think its perfectly reasonable to return them once the contract is fulfilled and to me that means job done and payment received,

[garyj]

Lighten up, the advice on here is not Gospel, half of it is plain wrong the other half should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Admit the snide comment did not help, but your £2.00 an hour statement wasn't exactly useful.

Still think you are wrong with the keys though, I would always return the keys when asked even if owed a lot of money, I would argue that by doing everything by the book would strengthen the case if it ever came to court, also if anything should happen to the company while you are holding the keys you would become suspect number one.

There is a reason the contract was lost, that could also be the reason for non-payment. There should be a procedure in place and there is a contract signed.

The contract is gone, if it is believed that a good job has been done then payment is due, so go and see them, if they get huffy then bring the contract into play and charge another month. If you have nothing else to do it could be fun!!

[BDCS]

I agree with gary, I'd go round with the ugly bunch if I honestly thought that they owed me but only as a last resort, also a small claims would also cause them grief. Snide comments and sarcasm does amuse

[julie ellis]

Yeah but what if he was bigger an harder than you or your ugly bunch  LOL

[garyj]

I would take my nan along, that would scare the hell out of them.

[BDCS]

Never had a non payer yet - only one that run away

[BDCS]

I never thought to threaten any non payer with a real gobbie bird - I'd save that for last resort

[julie ellis]

ha ha your all man ? arent you ?

[garyj]

Would you want to mess with me if I turned up in your reception with someone who has been dead for 15 years?