A customer hasn’t paid for work you’ve done

You finished the job and sent the invoice, and nothing has come back. This is where you stand: when it counts as late, what you can add to it, what the law does not allow, and what the formal routes are.

Written for UK sole traders and tradespeople. Last updated 7 September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

When it counts as late

If you agreed payment terms, the invoice is late the day after those terms run out. If you never agreed anything, GOV.UK is explicit: payment is late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice, or after you finished the work, whichever is later.

What you can add to it, and the catch

If your customer is another business, late payment legislation lets you add statutory interest plus a fixed sum towards recovery costs:

Current rates and the detail are on GOV.UK. Whether to add it is your decision.

What the law does not allow

Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 makes it an offence, when trying to get a debt paid, to:

• ×make demands whose frequency, manner or accompanying threats are calculated to cause alarm, distress or humiliation;
• ×falsely say that criminal proceedings can follow if it is not paid;
• ×falsely claim to be acting in some official capacity;
• ×send anything made to look like an official document when it is not.

It applies to a business chasing its own invoice, not only to third parties. Separately, naming a customer publicly over an unpaid bill carries a defamation risk.

The formal routes

Beyond reminders, two exist. A letter before action sets out the debt and a deadline, and is expected before a claim is issued. A money claim through the county court follows; the small claims track covers debts up to £10,000 in England and Wales, carries a court fee, takes months, and a judgment still has to be enforced if it is ignored. Both cost time and money. If you go that way, take advice first.

If they say the work was not right

That is a different situation with different rules, and you get the chance to put it right before they can reduce what they pay. Read the guide to disputed work.

The record

If it ever reaches a letter before action or a claim, the evidence is a dated record of what was sent and when. It cannot be reconstructed afterwards.