Unpaid Wages

[Racy Tracy]

Hello, I'm asking for advice regarding unpaid wages for my husband.

My husband used to work for a friend of his, who had his own business. This business was working in Dentistry Construction. My husband worked away all week for 3 yrs, the work was based on London. Although he was on a good wage there were quite a few times when his boss/friend couldn't pay him because of customers not paying him on time (this is what he told my husband anyway). There were times when my husband would have to go a full month with no pay, and then when his boss was in a position to pay him, he couldn't always pay what he was owed. My husband would constantly keep asking "when am I going to get paid" and all he would be told was "hopefully very soon Im waiting for a cheque coming in, so as soon as I get that il be able to pay you", but then of course that cheque would never come and my husband would not get paid.

Anyway my husband now longer works for this person, and hasn't done for quite some time. The thing is what I want to know, is there any chance of my husband getting back his owed wages. I have worked out how much he is owed, and its over £7,000!!, I know its a lot isn't it. He has approached his old boss and shown him the amount that he is owed in unpaid wages, and how i've worked it out and he hasn't denied it. According to my husband it isn't worth pursuing because his old boss is being chased by the tax man, and he will get any money first. Also my husband cant afford to take him to court to get his wages, and if he could he's been told that he may only get £5 per week, or something like that.

If this is the case then I feel it is very unfair, because of my husbands old boss we nearly lost our house because we couldn't pay our mortgage, we had to get rid of our car because we couldn't afford to pay for that either AND my husband had to sell his motorbike, just so we could have money in the bank to live off.

Please could someone advise me what the best course of action would be. I don't think its right that his boss should just get away with this.

Also just to add when my husband was working for this person, he was classed as Self Employed Sub Contractor

[CleverClogs]

Re: Unpaid Wages

Is the business a limited company or a sole trader?

[davec1960]

Re: Unpaid Wages

Was he really self employed or really an employee?
Did your husband issue invoices and who were they made out to?
Who paid the income tax, your husband or the business he worked for?

If he invoiced then it should be relatively easy to prepare a paper trail showing how much is unpaid.

A debt can be chased for up to six years and the amount is within the limit to use MCOL which is low cost and doesn't require solicitors. However if he is owed money from a business and that business has no money or assets then the chance of actually receiving any money if very low.
The taxman is no longer a preferential creditor so doesn't get his money first.