trying to recover wages

[roxy3677]

please can anyone advise? my partner who is a self employed tradesman was recently approached by a builder to do some work for him. The builder told him he would pay as soon as work completed. We invoiced the builder 3 weeks ago and when my partner contacts the builder he makes excuses for not paying...eg I'm waiting for the customer to pay or well I have to wait at least 7 weeks sometimes for people to pay me etc. The customer of the builder who my partner did the work for are very satisfied with my partners work and they said the builder is a total nightmare and is always lying about when things are going to be done etc. Legally where do we stand is there a legal time limit when you invoice someone to expect to receive payment and if they refuse to pay can we take them to court? It really annoys me as the work was carried out to a good standard and we rely on the money to pay our bills and they should never have asked my partner to carry out the work if they were not willing to pay.

[chazza]

You could take them to the small claims court - or at least threaten them with it

[thugulike]

I would expect to have to wait around 8 weeks to be paid. This is not unusual. Is your partner newly self-employed?

[roxy3677]

no he's been self employed for 6 yrs but never had problems with people paying, although this was a bigger job than he usually does and had to get a few other people to help so has paid out their wages too. Don't mind the waiting if know evenutally will get money but it's just they keep fobbing him off.

[roxy3677]

thanks for your advice just read on website that you can take to court if no payment from 30 days from invoice date.