any leagal eagels out there?

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maggiehorse

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hi all
i,ve been asked a question by a friend and i,m stumped so i thought you lot may be able to help
my friend has two horses on full livery which she sees sporadically , she has had them there for 3 years . she is invoiced 4 weekly and here comes the problem , thier accounting has been very irratic , sometimes bills have been sent for 3 weeks or six weeks or one week making it rather difficult to keep up with , her life is very busy and distracting , ( shes a rather famous recording artist ) and she admits to just paying every bill sent and not checking dates and whether the cheques have even been cashed through her account
she has recieved a letter from the company stating that she is £6000 in arrears dating back from 2009 , these arrears have been accumulated because the accountant they used at the time was negligent (thier words) and didnt send out a number of invoices , also one cheque she sent wasnt cashed at all
so they have billed her for the outstanding amount including a new contract stating that they will from now on charge her a £15 administration(monthly) fee for the *privilage * of paying by invoice
she emailed them refusing to sign new contract as she has always payed by return of post and they have mailed back basically telling her that it is her fault she is in arrears because she couldnt be bothered to check she was being invoiced and should have checked and ionformed them she was in arrears!
so , the leagal question is........should she tell them to go jump as some of the bills date back 3 years , or should she pay up and check her records more carefully in future?
 
Before she does that..

She needs to formally request a proper statement from them, showing what has been paid and what is outstanding. Then she can go and check back with her bank.

Then personally, if someone took that attitude with me, I would sort it and then go and find another livery yard.
 
I'm not a legal bod but I don't think the fact that it dates back 3 years (on its own) would count for much (as an accountant). There may be other factors in there that mean she isn't liable to pay though but I don't know enough to advise from that point of view.

Sensible advice from Digger66 re: checking bank statements although this may be time consuming as she'd need to go back through cheque stubs to find cheque numbers to see if they appear on the statements.
 
shes already determined that the money is indeed owed , it took her ages to sort through thier muddle of invoices , now she has recievied a mail stating that they are going to charge her 4% interest per month on the outstanding amount , shes pretty ruddy cross as she always pays by return and never interferes with how her horses are kept , in fact she is quite satisfied with the care they recieve
 
maggiehorse said:
shes already determined that the money is indeed owed , it took her ages to sort through thier muddle of invoices , now she has recievied a mail stating that they are going to charge her 4% interest per month on the outstanding amount , shes pretty ruddy cross as she always pays by return and never interferes with how her horses are kept , in fact she is quite satisfied with the care they recieve
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In which case - if the money is indeed owed and the lack of payment is due to mutually chaotic records, she should pick up the phone and try and sort this amimcably if she is happy with the care for her horses.

1 - sort out a payment plan for the money owed

2 - offer to pay by standing order in the future so that the standard monthly bill goes in automatically and extras are invoiced and paid by cheque/bank transfer.

3 - get a grip on her finances!
 
Depending on her contract and because so much time has elapsed, and if she has paid all the bills when they arrived I'd be tempted to ask a solicitor to write a letter and make an offer of paying less than the full amount. Unless she has avoided paying at any time they also have a responsibility to treat their customers fairly and not wait until a huge amount is due.

A phone call to trading standards might be useful for her.
 
the standing order idea for future payments is a good idea , i,ll suggest it to her , she has decided to send them a cheque for the outstanding amount of £6000 , but not the extra £960 they are demanding in interest
 
It is a bloomin cheek to ask for interest when they havent been doing their job of invoicing promptly and in a coherent fashion. But 3 years, yes she would have to pay for sure. I wonder if the threat of interest is more a tactic to get the monies paid or an arrangement made, a call to action.

If in her shoes, and she has the cash, I would get it paid now and then walk. Or if not, I would offer what she can afford per month in a formal offer, specifying she believes no interest is payable since the amounts owed have only just been notified.

If they took her to court they would take a very dim view on the interest aspect in the circumstances, since they have to behave reasonably, this isnt a debt which was known and acknowledged to be outstanding which she refused to pay.

And she did right not to sign the new agreement, contract terms have to be reasonable to be enforceable - and it doesnt sound reasonable to charge for basic itemisation in an invoice, only if they were asked to do lots of extra unusual admin work which wouldnt be normal in a livery

I too would offer to set up a standing order for the agreed livery charge in advance each month, any extras being specified in an invoice at the end of each month and payable within however many days by whatever method agreed.
 
maggiehorse said:
the standing order idea for future payments is a good idea , i,ll suggest it to her , she has decided to send them a cheque for the outstanding amount of £6000 , but not the extra £960 they are demanding in interest
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I think she is being very reasonable to them and they are very unlikely to get anywhere pursuing the interest (see post above).
 
just been on the phone to her , shes in macadonia wherever that is lol , the latest email threatens court action if she doesnt pay the amount in full including interest , bless they have no idea who they are dealing with and what a loss they will be taking if she decides to remove her horses , methinks she isnt going to take this lying down!
 
If the contract states that she pays on being invoiced, then as she has only just been invoiced for the 6k she will not have incurred any interest on it as it was only just invoiced.

If it was her responsibility to pay the correct amount each month regardless of invoicing AND interest is mentioned in the contract, then the interest is probably owed.

If the contract is (as is pretty likely) silent on both the issue of interest and on whether she will be invoiced prior to payment they are still going to have a pretty hard time claiming interest given that they did not take any reasonable steps to chase her for the money until just now.
 
What a mess. sounds like the yard is in financial trouble to me. I think your friend should pay what she owes asap and then move her horses elsewhere and in future pay the livery yard she is on by direct debit only and keep the bank statements. in fact this is a wake up call for her to get her finances in order generally.
 
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