Customer disputes

A customer who stops paying rarely says so outright. First comes a complaint about the last delivery, then a request for a credit note, then silence. Meanwhile the invoices age, the customer quietly orders elsewhere, and the evidence that the work was done as agreed sits scattered across inboxes and delivery notes. The longer a business waits, the weaker its position becomes and the harder the money is to collect.

Once negotiation has run its course, a dispute with a customer becomes a question of procedure as much as of who is right: which court, which route, what proof, and what can actually be recovered at the end. It turns on:

• the rules on protesting an invoice, and on what a customer’s silence after receiving one proves;
• the rules on late-payment interest and the recovery costs you may charge a customer who pays late;
• the rules on summary proceedings and fast-track orders for debts the customer does not seriously contest;
• the rules on set-off, withheld payments and a customer’s claim that the goods or the work were defective;
• the rules on retention of title and on reclaiming delivered goods that were never paid for;
• the rules on evidence — order confirmations, delivery notes, emails — and on who must prove what;
• the rules on which court hears the case, and whether a forum or arbitration clause binds the customer;
• the rules on attaching a debtor’s assets, before judgment and after it, including assets held abroad.

Our lawyers can support you with this.