Bye bye Benchmark

Yeah I was working for vange at the time they went under! Come in the cabin one day after work and got told that's it! Just cuz they were not paid on time.
 
It's always cash flow that kills big business. That and the fact they will spend £20 to save £1.
 
Gunslinger Its Cash Flow (Or The Lack Of It) That Will Kill Any Business, You Dont Get Paid You Cant Pay Your Bills And So The Cycle Continues.
 
All it takes is for a builder to go down the pan owing you 2 months worth of invoices ,
sometimes you just cant recover from it .
 
I have one on the go at the moment, sometimes I even get fed up hearing myself say, fook off pal, if you want more work doing pay your fooking bill. I want to go out and do everything but it just ain't worth it.
 
i was only saying to someone the other day it iks getting a lot hard to get the money in at the minute, even the good customers are hanging on long with the payments, got a fair bit out standing at the minute, and half of them should of payed before christmas.
 
See, that would drive me mad, if i had my own Firm.
Id be like: "pay or die!!", lol.
 
Unfortunately it just doesn't work like that Jason, sometimes you have to go out even although you don't want to and sometimes you just have to keep men and material in the yard, dig your heels in and tell them to fook off, it's a judgement call you have to make all the time.
 
Is anyone using the 'payment scheme' rules in the 'Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act' (2011) to legally recover whats owed (with 8%+ interest added)?
 
Tried it a couple of times, toothless. A company in Hamilton though, now that's a different story.
 
I have always been able to make it work in the past. A few years back a large builder tried to screw us for £138K of extras, used the act combined with our legal team - all outstanding debt paid in 21 days. It will work if you run the paperwork right. (Legal costs came to £12k total)
 
Therein lies the problem, you need a legal team to make it stick, we have me. I prefer paying a set rate for the heavies, works for me.
 
binthere said:
i have always been able to make it work in the past. A few years back a large builder tried to screw us for £138k of extras, used the act combined with our legal team - all outstanding debt paid in 21 days. It will work if you run the paperwork right. (legal costs came to £12k total)
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can you not factor in the legal cost or not? Only 1k down by time you add 8% so not to bad eh
 
You can marra, you can even spend a small fortune going to court and winning, unfortunately if they won't pay their bill what chance have you got at legal costs? We won a court case at Christmas, I knew when I started it getting cash out of it was next to impossible but I did it anyway on a point of principle, but when principles cost you cash you tend to become very pragmatic about the whole process.

If other's do it very different and successfully, good on em, but when you are as small as we are you are dealing with others who have legal teams and little old me jumping up and down is not going to work.
 
This contract later finalised at over £1m. Frankly, if I had dropped £35k in the final agreement (knowing the costing on the additions) I would still have been content - £12K was a result for us at the time.
 
I am working at levels well below that Binthere, I couldn't afford to take a hit like that but it's all relative though. If it works for you, well done, as you know it's getting tougher to bring it in. Unfortunately, we have to take a bit more proactive stance nowadays which means keeping a much closer eye on our income and withdrawing labour at the first sign of trouble. I would far rather take the boy's golfing and not get paid for it as rip the spine out them and not get paid for it.
 
Totally agree with you and have had to grasp the nettle sometimes and accept a compromise. Its the nature of our trade, but some of our peers give in too easily making it harder for the rest of us.
 
Is that why when they meet me they reckon it's like talking to a brick wall? My idea of compromise is, I did the job now pay me the cash. I had a manager ask me why I just didn't go to their head office and negotiate a payment, I told him he didn't have to come to my office to negotiate the works, all he did was lift the phone and the job was done, now give me the same respect.
 
I like your style Alistair. It always comes down the the cold reality of after having done a good job for them they have to claw back a portion to justify their existance. I started surveying in the 1970's, all valuations were paid in full and on time. By the end of the 1980's this had changed to fighting for every last penny. It seems sub-contracting is now at an all time low, But have you noticed people like Barrats and Taylor Wimpey recently anouncing high profits, in these austair times where is it coming from?
 
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