About the Author: Kris Broda

Krzysztof Broda
As the co-founder of brodmin, Kris has more than 10 years’ experience in Trust, Fiduciary and Corporate services industry. He worked at UBS as Senior Compliance Associate and shortly moved to assist HSBC with a new project as KYC Analyst. Follow him on @realbrodmin and LinkedIn

8 Comments

  1. Avatar of Alan
    Alan 01/01/2021 at 16:48

    The question is: should a business charge late fees for invoices when their client can become a regular one? What I mean to say is, would charging them late fees somewhat ruin our relationship? I have had a client that I wanted to charge late fees but didn’t because he mentioned he wanted to work more with my business. I trusted him and he didn’t come back. Now, I can’t know for sure which clients may or may not come back but what would be a good rule for this kind of thing?

    • Krzysztof Broda
      Kris Broda 01/01/2021 at 18:46

      Hi Alan, sorry to hear about your experience.

      I guess each client relationship is different, and you are right, charging late fees will sour or could end your relationship with that client. You’ll be the best person to make that call.

      The one thing that you can do is, report those clients that have not paid you on time on our directory. You can report them anonymously if you are worried about affecting your relationship with that client.

      • Avatar of Alan
        Alan 17/01/2021 at 11:39

        Thanks for the reply, Kris. Yeah, I guess it’s something I have to decide on and take it one client at a time. Sometimes reporting them anonymously may be warranted or if they seem like they don’t care, I may report them with full details.

  2. Avatar of Matilda
    Matilda 20/01/2021 at 10:53

    You gave the example of a private business including a 90-day late payment fee in a contract with a sole trader. This is what happened to me. I’m on day 94 now and my client has not yet paid. I’m not looking forward to going to court but we’ll see. What are my options?

  3. Avatar of Jordan
    Jordan 22/01/2021 at 22:05

    Some months back, I started including late payment information on all my invoices. I’ve had 2 clients complain a bit about these changes but they have eventually accepted them. Since then I only had one serious problem from a client that just didn’t want to pay so I had to have a lawyer call him and explain what could happen. The next day he paid in full.

  4. Avatar of Jim C
    Jim C 18/08/2021 at 18:52

    I bought an item via an online Auction on Sunday 21st, and the contract says to pay within 7 business days. I paid on Tuesday 30th. The company then charged me for late payment fee’s at 5% plus VAT, as stated in their contract, which came to £244.45 plus 20% VAT. Is this legal? If I take it to a Simple Procedures Court in Scotland is it likely to succeed?

    • Avatar of Thomas Minarik
      Thomas Minarik 18/08/2021 at 19:24

      Hi Jim,

      To be honest I am not familiar with auction T&Cs. It is legal for a business to charge late payment fees.

      If a company has clear payment terms and states that you must pay within a certain time (in your case, 7 business days) – and if you have agreed to the companies Terms & Conditions – then they can charge you late fees (up to 8%).

      Auction houses always have strict payment terms, so I doubt you could make a claim.

      But I am not a lawyer so could not say for sure.

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to receive the latest updates

Protect your business, stay informed with our growing and supportive community.

We hate spam, and we respect your privacy