Money

Customer Won't Pay? What a UK Tradesman Can and Can't Legally Do

BuilderBuddy · 9 August 2026 · 10 min read

The job's finished. It's signed off, the customer said they were delighted, and the invoice went out three weeks ago. Now the texts have stopped, the calls go to voicemail, and you're four grand down on a job you've already paid the merchant for.

Every tradesman gets one eventually. What matters is what you do next, because the difference between getting paid and writing it off usually comes down to knowing which steps actually carry legal weight, and which ones just feel good.

Here's the honest version for UK tradespeople: what you can do, what you absolutely cannot do, and the order to do it in.

First, Check You're Actually Owed It

Before anything else, be clear on what you agreed. If you sent a written quote and the customer accepted it, in writing, by text, or simply by letting you crack on, you have a binding contract at that price. That's your strongest position and everything below gets easier.

If there was no fixed price, you're not sunk. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that where no price was agreed, the customer must pay a reasonable price. You'd need to show what reasonable looks like: your day rate, material receipts, hours on site, comparable jobs. It's winnable, just harder, and it's the argument you never want to be having.

Also be straight with yourself about whether this is non-payment or a dispute. If they're withholding because of a genuine snag, that's a different problem with a different fix, and a court will expect you to have offered to put it right first. A customer is entitled to a repair or a price reduction if the work wasn't done with reasonable care and skill. Fix the snag, then chase the money.

What You Can't Do: Rip the Work Back Out

This is the one every tradesman asks, usually at about week four. They haven't paid for the bathroom, so can you go and take it back out?

No. Going onto someone's property to remove work or materials without their agreement is what the law calls self-help repossession, and it will land you in far more trouble than the debt is worth. You're looking at trespass at best, and criminal damage or even burglary at worst. It also destroys your case: a judge who hears you took the law into your own hands will not be sympathetic about the four grand.

People often ask about a retention of title clause, the "materials remain our property until paid for" line. In a business-to-business contract, a well-drafted one can help. Against a domestic customer it's much weaker, and even where it exists it does not give you a right to force entry. Once materials are fixed into the building, they generally become part of the property anyway.

Two other things to avoid: don't withhold certificates or documents the customer is legally entitled to as leverage, and don't post about them on Facebook. Naming and shaming feels deserved and is a quick route to a defamation claim that costs you more than the invoice.

Can You Charge Interest? The Bit Most Guides Get Wrong

You'll read everywhere that you can slap statutory interest of 8% above base on a late invoice, plus a fixed compensation fee. With the Bank of England base rate at 3.75%, that's 11.75%, and it sounds like a useful stick.

The catch: that comes from the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and it only applies when both sides are acting in the course of a business. If you fitted a kitchen for a homeowner, that's a consumer contract and the Act does not apply. Threatening a consumer with statutory interest they don't owe undermines you the moment they take advice.

So what can you do with a domestic customer? Charge interest only if your own terms said you would, before they accepted the job. A clear line on the quote such as "interest will be charged at 4% per year above the Bank of England base rate on sums unpaid after 14 days" is enforceable, provided the rate is fair rather than a penalty. If your paperwork never mentioned interest, you can't invent it after the fact.

The Chase, in the Right Order

Most unpaid invoices are recovered in the first two steps. Work through them properly and keep a written record of every one, because that record becomes your evidence later.

1. 1
   The polite nudge, in writingA short email or message: the invoice number, the amount, the date it was due, and how to pay. No emotion. Plenty of non-payment is genuine disorganisation, and a friendly reminder with the payment details right there clears a surprising number of them.
2. 2
   A phone call, followed up in writingRing them, find out whether it's a cash-flow problem, a snag, or avoidance, and offer a payment plan if it's the first. Then send an email summarising exactly what was agreed on the call. The written follow-up is the important half.
3. 3
   A formal overdue noticeA firmer letter stating the debt, the days overdue, any contractual interest your terms allow, and a clear deadline. Say plainly that if it isn't settled you'll begin the pre-action process. Send it by email and by post.
4. 4
   The letter before actionThe formal step that puts a court claim on the table. Details below, and this is the one you must get right.
5. 5
   Claim onlineIssue the claim. By the time you get here, most people who were always going to pay have already paid.

The Letter Before Action: Give Them 30 Days, Not 14

A letter before action, formally a letter of claim, is your written warning that you intend to start court proceedings. In England and Wales it's governed by the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, and the protocol applies whenever a business is chasing an individual or a sole trader, which covers almost every domestic job you'll ever do.

Most trade advice online tells you to give 14 days. Under the protocol you must give the debtor 30 days to respond, and your letter has to come with three Ministry of Justice documents: an information sheet, a reply form, and a financial statement form. Skip those and a judge can penalise you on costs or stay the claim while you do it properly, even if you were always going to win on the facts.

Your letter of claim should set out:

The basics. Who you are, what the debt is for, the invoice number and date, and the exact amount outstanding.

How the debt arose. A short description of the agreement, when it was made, whether it was written or verbal, and what was agreed.

Interest and charges. Any interest or charges you're claiming, and the contractual basis for them.

How to pay, and how to respond. Payment details, an offer to discuss instalments, and a clear statement that they have 30 days from the date of the letter before you issue proceedings.

If they reply asking for documents or saying they're getting debt advice, you have to give them reasonable time before issuing. Annoying, but it also strengthens you: a customer who ignores a properly served letter of claim looks very poor in front of a judge.

Small Claims: What It Actually Costs and How Long You Have

The small claims track is designed for exactly this. It's paperwork-heavy rather than lawyer-heavy, you don't need a solicitor, and you can start it online.

England and Wales: claims up to £10,000 go on the small claims track, issued through the online money claim service. Court fees are on a sliding scale, roughly £35 on small sums up to a few hundred pounds on the larger ones, and you can add the fee to your claim so the customer pays it if you win.

Scotland: the equivalent is simple procedure in the sheriff court, for claims up to £5,000, with fees from about £23.

Northern Ireland: the small claims limit is £5,000.

There's also a clock running. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you have six years from the date the debt fell due to bring a claim. In Scotland it's five years, and once that passes the debt is extinguished entirely, not merely unenforceable. Long enough not to panic, short enough not to leave an invoice drifting for years.

What wins a small claim is boring: the accepted quote, the scope of works, any signed variations, delivery notes and receipts, photographs before and after, a completion sign-off or a message where the customer said they were happy, the invoice, and the full trail of chasers. Tradespeople rarely lose these on the law. They lose them on having nothing in writing.

How to Stop It Happening Again

Nearly every serious non-payment traces back to something missing at the quoting stage. Tidy that up and this becomes rare.

1. 1
   Get the acceptance in writingA quote with a written "yes" against it, even just a text saying go ahead, is a contract. A verbal agreement on a doorstep is a memory contest.
2. 2
   Take a deposit, and stage the paymentsDeposit up front for materials, staged payments on longer jobs, balance on completion. If a payment stops, you stop, and your exposure is capped at one stage instead of the whole job.
3. 3
   Write the scope and the exclusions downPrecise scope kills the "that was supposed to be included" defence. Exclusions kill it twice. Vagueness in a quote is what a non-payer builds their argument from.
4. 4
   Put your payment terms on every quoteDays to pay, the interest rate for late payment, and who covers recovery costs. It costs nothing on the day you send it and it's the only thing that gives you a right to interest from a homeowner.
5. 5
   Get a sign-off at handoverA photo, a short message, anything where the customer confirms the work is complete and they're happy. It closes off the "I withheld payment because of the quality" route before it opens.

The Bottom Line

You can chase hard, charge contractual interest if your terms allowed for it, send a proper letter of claim with 30 days and the MoJ forms, and take them to small claims for up to £10,000 without a solicitor. You cannot rip the work out, invent statutory interest on a domestic job, or shame them online.

And the real lesson is one step earlier. The tradesman who almost never gets stung isn't the one who's best at chasing. He's the one whose quote was clear, accepted in writing, staged for payment and specific about the terms, so there was never much of an argument to have.