What do you put in place for non payers

[skatingsparks]

Hi all.
Usually not a problem but for the third time in 25 years I have a non paying customer. We are electrical contractors who did work for a shop fitting company who after 6 years of providing (honestly) fantastic service to them had a change of owner who is now not paying.

It seems there is nothing, unless you have a lawyer as a friend or a bottomless budget, that you can do. Success rate is debt collectors seems very low. Yest, they will send a letter for a fee but if it escalates beyond that you going to need your lawyer friend or bottomless budget.

It's not a huge amount but it's an amount large enough to cripple the business for quite a while.

What do you guys and girls suggest I put in place to prevent this?

I have T&C's on my my quotes but apparently these mean nothing.

We take deposits and as we are electrical we don't issue Coc's (certificates of compliance) until full and final payment. But there's so many dodgey "electricians" out there that you can just buy one for a couple of hundred bucks and the industry we are in is regulated in such a pathetic way it's no wonder we have all these power cuts.

What do you do with non payers and what do you put in place to prevent non payers.

I have checked with all concerned there is no problem with the work or the materials.

I have also sent a full breakdown of all invoices, receipts and any credit notes for the past 3 years (balances perfectly).

Are these "legal wise" type companies worth having? I'm guessing you don't get much service for R100 - R200 a month.

Advise please

[ians]

Drag the job out long enough to make sure you get at least 80 % payment ... if they done come to the party ... there are ways to make the site very difficult and expensive to recover ... like cutting the wires at the boxes ... dont pull the wires out just pull them up slightly and cut ... that way the wire goes back into the box on both sides ... making it difficult to pull out ... you dont need a big bolt cutter ... just a side cutter ... be nice dont be aggressive and smile ... nobody will even know what you are doing ... then they have take you to court

[tec0]

In all honesty i just demand a deposit lately. Normally the deposit will cover total cost but not the hours work. That way i can recover. If they don't want to pay a deposit my door works just fine.