Contract query Terms seem to disallow for cost of debt recovery for unpaid invoice

[MCN]

Good morning I've attached my Terms as a former client refuses to pay his invoice. Because the invoice remained unpaid, I terminated any further services to that client. Are the Terms still active because of the unpaid invoice?

Clauses 1.8 and 1.9 are relevant but there may be other clauses also relevant. This is a business-to-business (B2B) debt for a retrofitting project. She has already sent a "Letter Before Action," providing the debtor until July 13th to pay the outstanding balance.Can I recover additional costs or adjust fee structures based on clauses within her existing contract, specifically regarding price reviews and contract breaches.

A debt recovery agency has outlined the costs Mary would incur to use their services. These include an upfront administrative fee of £80.00 plus VAT, as well as commission fees deducted from recovered payments (which the agency calculated at £284.25 for a debt amount of £1,395). This amounts to more than 25% of the debt.

Can I recover this as part of the unpaid amount owning. The Terms state: 1.9.1 'It is necessary to review the price every 3 months to account for higher rates of costs than those calculated at the time the contract was signed' are there are options available to me for the recovery of costs?

1) he has broken the contract by not paying and therefore legislation and your procedures override the Terms.

Or

2) this part of the contract remains in force though I cancelled the rest of contract and therefore I can now review costs recovery because it's more than 3 months ago and time for a review? Am not registered for VAT so can that review include VAT being repayable as part of the cost?

Many thanks for advice, I've never found myself in this situation before!

[atticus]

No attachment.

While much of your post is unclear, am I right in thinking that you have engaged a debt collector to recover payment from your former client, variously referred to as "she", "Mary" and "he"?

When it comes to terms of business, you will need to show that these were agreed and form part of the contract between your business and your client if you are to be able to rely on them. If they do apply, then they continue to apply notwithstanding non-payment.