Withholding payment
Discussion
As a company, what rights do you have to withhold payment of an invoice where you consider the supplier has failed in their duties?
We hired a planning consultant to get a planning application through for us but he has royally f
ked it up. He ignored council warnings that there was insufficient evidence (which is critical because further evidence does exist and could have been used), did not pass this information on to us until too late. He did not prepare drawings to substantiate the application even though he said he would in writing. He rarely responded to direct communications in which we asked questions and lied about the frequency of his communications with the council.
The council have refused the application on precisely the same grounds as they previously refused the application and despite his assurances that the application would fly through we are no further forward than we were a year ago.
I realise councils can be pretty hard on these things but there is clear evidence that this man's actions have not been professional or helpful in the slightest in getting a revised application through.
Can we withhold payment? Should we set out our reasons to him for not paying without legal advice or should be just go straight for legal advice?
Many thanks...
We hired a planning consultant to get a planning application through for us but he has royally f
ked it up. He ignored council warnings that there was insufficient evidence (which is critical because further evidence does exist and could have been used), did not pass this information on to us until too late. He did not prepare drawings to substantiate the application even though he said he would in writing. He rarely responded to direct communications in which we asked questions and lied about the frequency of his communications with the council.The council have refused the application on precisely the same grounds as they previously refused the application and despite his assurances that the application would fly through we are no further forward than we were a year ago.
I realise councils can be pretty hard on these things but there is clear evidence that this man's actions have not been professional or helpful in the slightest in getting a revised application through.
Can we withhold payment? Should we set out our reasons to him for not paying without legal advice or should be just go straight for legal advice?
Many thanks...
Olf said:
Can we withhold payment? Should we set out our reasons to him for not paying without legal advice
Many thanks...
Yes - if your unhappy pay him what you feel you should and put the ball in his court. he can either accept it or take you to court and do all the running. if his planning ap is anything as good as his court docs then you are laughing.Many thanks...
Is he a member of any societys, etc.. I would approach them about his work and that he's in danger of mis-representing them and ruining their reputation and what they stand for..
We'd never indicate to a client that the planning would "sail through" - Planning is going through some
turbulent times at the moment.
Whereabouts in Berkshire are you? We're in South Bucks, just outside of High Wycombe.
We'd never indicate to a client that the planning would "sail through" - Planning is going through some
turbulent times at the moment.
Whereabouts in Berkshire are you? We're in South Bucks, just outside of High Wycombe.
Thanks chaps. Everything is as I have said. So we'll follow the advice above - thanks.
As for his professional capability, I will present the facts in a letter to his company together with the 'appropriate' payment. There are many fraught issues surrounding this and we really don't have the appetite at the moment to get into further action of any kind. We've learnt our lesson and are using a major and trusted name now.
Thanks for the offers of help though.
As for his professional capability, I will present the facts in a letter to his company together with the 'appropriate' payment. There are many fraught issues surrounding this and we really don't have the appetite at the moment to get into further action of any kind. We've learnt our lesson and are using a major and trusted name now.
Thanks for the offers of help though.
You may or may not be aware that I am a commercial debt collector. I can tell you now if the service was as bad as you say (and I have no reason to doubt it)they won't have a cat in hells chance of enforcing this. Dont pay them anything, and they should count themselves lucky if you don't sue the st out of them.
t out of them.
jamesuk28 said:
I can tell you now if the service was as bad as you say (and I have no reason to doubt it)they won't have a cat in hells chance of enforcing this.
In my experience that rather depends upon the contract, I'm afraid. In the same way that ISO9001 allows you to churn out st so long as you do it in a "quality manner" (consistently and well-documented), if the contract provides for the consultant to perform certain actions and he/she has performed them then the contract is king.You're welcome to post up an anonymised copy of the contract if you'd like some comments.
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