Letter before Action - Business to Business

[Jojo71]

Hi, we are a small Ltd company and we have an outstanding invoice from another Ltd company. The invoice is a final payment from an accepted quote, there has been no complaint about the work and the last correspondence from the company said they would get the invoice processed. Since that communication the business has not responded to emails, phone calls or text messages from ourselves. I have been looking at sending a Letter before Action but all information I have managed to find appears to be business to individual and it doesn't apply to business to business debts. It is not clear what you should do what you should do with business to business debts, could anyone please advise or point me in the right direction.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

[R0b]

Hi,

There are several different protocols depending on the type of claim you are seeking to bring. Where there is no specific protocol for your claim, you have to use the catch all protocols which is Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct Protocols. The link to these protocols under the Civil Procedure Rules which govern all legal proceedings can be found here.

The contents you need to include in your letter before action are very similar to the contents that may be required under the Protocols for Debt Claims which is used for B2C debt disputes.

Anyway, I've uploaded a template letter to get you started. You do not need to go to the 'nth' degree setting out your claim in the letter so you should be concise but give enough information for the debtor to understand the claim against them. Feel free to post up a draft version (personal information redacted) if you would like any feedback.

[atticus]

Is the debtor company still trading? Have you checked its status on Companies House web site?

All too often inability to pay is the reason for non payment.

[Jojo71]

Hi,

There are several different protocols depending on the type of claim you are seeking to bring. Where there is no specific protocol for your claim, you have to use the catch all protocols which is Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct Protocols. The link to these protocols under the Civil Procedure Rules which govern all legal proceedings can be found here.

The contents you need to include in your letter before action are very similar to the contents that may be required under the Protocols for Debt Claims which is used for B2C debt disputes.

Anyway, I've uploaded a template letter to get you started. You do not need to go to the 'nth' degree setting out your claim in the letter so you should be concise but give enough information for the debtor to understand the claim against them. Feel free to post up a draft version (personal information redacted) if you would like any feedback.

I'd entered the template wormhole whilst searching for information and ended up knots, thanks for untangling much appreciated.

[Jojo71]

Is the debtor company still trading? Have you checked its status on Companies House web site?

All too often inability to pay is the reason for non payment.

I have checked Companies House and all appears clear, saying that they posted last years accounts at the end of Feb and their outstanding debts had increased by £200k. There are no charges listed against the company but the director has several other businesses in the same area of business, 2 are active, 1 is dormant and one was struck off.

They have been late before and communicated that they had a cash flow issue but gave us a date it would be paid by and paid. This time they said they'd get the invoice processed, didn't and are avoiding all communication. It's so frustrating.