Pursuing unpaid payments through the Small Claims Court

[editor]

All payments were from his compay, but all contact was either via his personal email address or the website;'s email (i.e. at no point have I ever emailed his company direct).
I'm going to go through the early emails just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure there's no mention at all of the company employing me.

 

[free spirit]

All payments were from his compay, but all contact was either via his personal email address or the website;'s email (i.e. at no point have I ever emailed his company direct).
I'm going to go through the early emails just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure there's no mention at all of the company employing me.

again, IANAL, but I'd think he'd be able to make a reasonable case for saying that you must have known the contract was with a limited company if the companies full name with xxx LTD appeared on your bank statement, and/or if the companies details appear on the website anywhere, being as you presumably knew that the articles were to appear on the website.

If there's no mention of the companies limited status on the website, bank account or anywhere else that you might reasonably have expected to see them, then you'd probably be ok to go after him personally. I'd take screenshots of his webpages etc though now in case he get's some advice and adds the companies details to the site in the meantime.

Essentially to go after him personally you'd need to be able to convince a magistrate that he'd either through incompetence or deliberately hidden his limited status from you, and that it was entirely reasonable for you to have presumed that you were dealing with an unlimited sole trader / privately owned company. Technically failing to comply fully with the legal requirements under companies law to give your registered company details on all financially related correspondence would probably cover you, but it could seem like semantics to a magistrate if he could show that these details were clearly found on the website you were writing for, and you'd been accepting payment from a limited company bank account for a period of time.

 

[cesare]

Don't lose track of the date of that Order (as opposed to the date of receiving it). Your claim will be struck out if you don't comply in time.

 

[editor]

I've just checked my records and every invoice I ever sent was addressed to him and the website, and NEVER the limited company, so that surely makes the case stronger for sending it to him and not his company, yes?

 

[rubbershoes]

Yes

As there was no written contract the question is who you believed the contract was with. Although you may not have considered that question at the time (no need to- shouldn't be a problem), the invoices being to him are strong evidence that it is him personally that owes the money.

But don't worry too much at this stage whether it is him or the company. The court just wants to know who the claim is against. Tell the court you're suing him personally. If he chooses to dispute this and say the claim should be directed against the company, you can join them as a second defendant. But you'll only need to do that if he raises the argument.

 

[editor]

Thanks for the feedback.

I get the impression that he thinks he can just write off the entire debt as its all down to his company, and he has no sense of moral duty to pack me back. At one point he suggested I should be grateful because he was paying me out of his own pocket.

That'll be because it's your own business, fucktard.

 

[Quartz]

Just so I'm sure I've got things correct: you invoiced him personally, right? And you were paid by his company, right? He and his company are supposed to be two separate legal and financial entities. Dare I suggest that HMRC might be very interested? I'm sure he'd just love to have HMRC closely examine his finances. Perhaps you might just mention that to him?

 

[not-bono-ever]

on this topic...I was ripped off for some cahs for faked art - private seller etc - hes admitted this in court & is awaiting sentence, though will be out soon,a s hes been on remand for a while - would it be any use serving him with a claim or am i stuffed ?