I think you will find this topic will find a higher importance as some businesses struggle to pay their bills but the reality is some businesses are just bad payers and have actually established a strategic plan to reduce the potential financial liability through this approach.
Here are my thoughts/insights: . Unless they have signed a purchase agreement or some kind of contract that specifically outlines your terms and conditions and their acceptance of those terms you are stuffed to try and enforce them even if the client has read them and knows the detail but haven't signed anything. . First sign of risky client is one that wants everything done on a gentlemen's agreement and avoids signing anything, if you have no contract then you far less comeback. . The tribunal is a toothless old dog that relies on the integrity of those it passes judgement on for any compliance. Debt collection under the court process is a long and painful process with absolutely no guaranty you will see a single red cent after forking out your money for the different hearings etc. Frankly the businesses that plans not to pay knows that process well and how to avoid its rulings. . Debt collection agencies seem to be a good option because they know all the ins and outs but again they won't enforce something you don't have legal grounds for. . Copyright law can be helpful as a threat when a client 'posses' material that you retain copyright ownership on until they have paid but again the issue is enforcement and identifying what is 'material' that they are breaching copyright on by possessing. Even if you get enforcement may not improve your chances of getting payment. . I agree with the smaller regular invoices but unless you have a 7 day turnaround or pay on delivery you could end up completing the work before they default on the first invoice. . I would recommend trying to find out how other companies find them to deal with, get some references from them, do some back ground checking to ensure that you aren't stepping into a problem that many others have stepped into before you. Typically if they are bad payers they will be known for it! . I haven't heard of this being done but another option for bigger jobs could be to have the payment transferred to a third party in trust so that it is confirmed that the money will be there when payment is required be that a lump sum or progress payments subject to the client releasing it. Just a few more points to add to the mix. Andrew McMurtrie, BICT (dist) McMurtrie Group Limited -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Sent: Sunday, 1 March 2009 2:21 p.m. To: [email protected] Subject: [phpug] Re: [OT] Clients that don't pay > When I send out my final notices in the past I've included a snippet > of my terms that allows me to disable their website until they pay > without nageting their payment - my terms of business also make all > work my property until paid for in full, so there could be > justification for contacting the current web host if it's not you or > you don't have access to demand they take down pages that are your > property rather than beating up their google rating which could have I am NOT a lawyer, though I would imagine that the area of law you want to fimilarise yourself with is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liens I am aware that in the case of a mechanic, they have a lien on the serviced vehicle UNTIL it leaves their premises, after which they can't then go and place a lien on it, even if the customer defaults. This is why few mechanics accept cheques. It would appear to me that what you are talking about has a similar characteristic and the area of law you would seek a remedy under is those dealing with non payment, once you have handed over the website. As such no 3rd party ISP will remove it (unless they have another substantial reason) without a court order. Michael speaking for myself --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
