what to do about any developers who dont pay up

[Unitof1]

I added it up the other day and over the years I am about ten grand down(on price). For the first few hundred pounds I thought it not worth the hassle, then that I did not want to be seen using the treat of enforcement. The truth is that if they don't pay I don't put in a report and shove the archive in the bin. The curators have never done a thing about it although I have never pressed them. I did have the other day a client who had not paid return who paid up and I doubled my price and they so far have paid. Maybe my policy is working. Any thoughts.

[BAJR]

Small claims court up here... OR a good contract BEFore starting work. planning can't enforce you getting paid... and usually they don't pay after the report goes in and is approved.

[Unitof1]

have you taken a case to the small claims court?

[P Prentice]

dont give them a planning report until they pay up unit

[Dinosaur]

Ay, the report's (usually) the only thing they care about, don't hand it over till the account's settled - and keep all the correspondence

[Antipesto]

no report = no planning condition ticked off surely? Thats a pretty nasty problem if they then cant sell whatever they are building since any half-competent solicitor ought to pick up an outstanding condition as a potential liability for a prospective new owner.

[Unitof1]

I know of plenty of properties that have been sold on with any sign of a report.

[RedEarth]

As pretty much everyone has said - don't hand over the report (it might not stop them selling the property/completing the development but it will make them think twice)

Also: - terms and conditions - how many archaeologists use these? Threaten interest for late payments, 3% a month or similar is reasonable, although I did deal with a non-archaeological contractor who charged something like 7% per week!

Rather than small claims court, which is expensive and time consuming, get your solicitors to write a letter threatening further action - very low cost and very effective. You do have solicitor's don't you?

I can't believe you have allowed £10,000 to slip through your fingers Unit. I thought you were a hardened capitalist. How are you going to pay for that pension?

[ecmgardner]

Rather than small claims court, which is expensive and time consuming, get your solicitors to write a letter threatening further action - very low cost and very effective. You do have solicitor's don't you?

?

I have used the small claims court on a couple of occasions (neither time was to do with my archaeology work) and both times it was neither time consuming or expensive as it's designed to negate the need for paying a solicitor. You can file your claims online and the fee is both nominal and can be added to the costs for the defendant. I won my case both times, the first time I had to attend the court and the second time they settled before going to court. It's much more effective when a notice of intended court proceedings falls on the mat. Cheaper than a solicitors letter and more effective. When you win the court also has powers to do helpful things like freeze all their assets until they pay (if necessary).

Unless stated on your invoices you can only add statutory interest, but you are entitled to also raise penalty invoices too. You would need to check but I believe you can still chase unpaid invoices and issue penalties backdated for 6 years.

This is a great resource of information:
http://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legi...alculators

[Unitof1]

I don't hand over the reports redearth. Most of my incidents have been of watching brief type which never escalated into any other type of intervention and two small "excavations" within watching briefs and one building recording which grow out of a watching brief of a lifting of a cobble floor (that one was a messy two grand with lots of site visits and the owner got cancer there was a hurricane and the post medieval timber frame thingy fell down).

I would say half of them have never been sold on and the other half have involved people going bust, divorces, neighbours falling out and two have died and I don't feel like its a reason of doing archaeology to make these people pay with threatening legal action.

I also have a grey area where developers did material starts, I have charged for the day but not final report and I have not heard anything since.

anyway the "don't hand over the report" (which I don't) approach has a problem with me in that what I want is that the curators pay me for my report, actually I think that they should pay for all the reports. Its their standards, for their HER formed out of their interpretation of town and countries planning. I don't mind charging the developers of my time on site but to my mind its the "establishment" that wants the "report". So yes I want to get paid and I want the curators to pay for the report. if they want to pass the charge onto the developer then that's their problem and maybe they should do it through the planning application fees.