Quote Originally Posted by blue matt View Post
right, here goes my issue

I have been cleaning windows for a management company for a few years, they pay me what i want but take ages to pay, 30 days from when they receive the invoice till they look at it, then another 30 days after that till payment, i accept this, its not great, but hey ho

anyways, they asked me to clean some flats in Oxford, its a good 90 mins drive away, so i said it was too far to clean these 3 windows ( i used google street view to look at the job ), they insisted, they know i will do them when i say i will etc etc, so the 3 windows started of at 3-4 hours travel time and £30 in fuel, so i gave them my daily rate and added a little on, just to put them of, i did not hear anything about it for a while, then a contract arrived for the job

I invoice them every other clean ( so every 6 months ), which in hindsight is foolish, i will change that to every time now



so i have cleaned them in July and Oct, i sent the invoice when i got back from Holidays in Nov with a stack of other invoices for other jobs i do for them, they were all paid at the start of Jan, all except this one, So I e.mailed to ask why, they replied to me yesterday ( after I had cleaned the site again for the Jan clean )

It turns out the management company had lost the site last summer, so I have cleaned them 3 times in total after they had lost the site

Now personally i feel the old management company should pay

BUT

the payments always came out of the " residents board account " so the old management company have said i will just need to invoice the new company and they will pay as the payment will come from that account

who legally will need to pay me ? ? ? if its the old lot, i will have to tread carefully as i wouldnt want to drop the property agent in it, as it is only £ 750 and the work i do for them per year means i wouldnt want to upset them and lost all the other work
If things don't work out and you decide you want to go to Small Claims Court, I suggest you call in at the Personal Support Unit at the Courts in Havelock St, just inside the door on the right, through security. You can call and make an appointment or just turn up. They are volunteers who assist people who are going to represent themselves in court. It's a charity, a free service, but they aren't lawyers and won't give legal advice. They will help you find your way through the system, and fill in the forms, which can be difficult. I used to work there. The court system is brutal so the PSU tries to make it more humane. The forms are not free unless you qualify for legal aid, and the fees can mount up, so you should consider whether it's worth it. If you lose you may have to pay the other party's costs. Always better to settle out of court if possible.