Dealing With Non-Paying Customers

You stand back and admire your craftsmanship and attention to detail. The rebuild/repair/race preparation etc you have just finished is finally ready to be presented to your customer along with your bill. You have worked hard to get the project finished and you know that he will appreciate all your effort.

You promptly send your bill to the customer. No payment arrives so you send out reminders about the unpaid bill. Still no payment is made and you now need to decide what to do.

If you still have the car/engine/parts etc in your custody while your invoice is outstanding then you have the right to claim a lien – this means that you can continue to hold on to it until your invoice is settled. Often the customer will be keener on recovering his car or engine from you than he will be to argue over your costs and so by this means you would hope to extract payment.