Miami, Florida, USA skyline panorama.
Miami Collection Attorneys are in business because people don’t always pay their bills on time. As a business owner, you have the right to seek payment for services rendered from your customers and clients. When you own a business in which service is provided and billed rather than paid for upfront, you run into the problem of customers not paying their bills. In many instances, the customer made a mistake and is happy to issue payment when it’s due. In other instances, however, a customer has no intention of making payment for services rendered. This leaves you, as a business owner, in a precarious situation. You want to keep your customers and provide a service they enjoy or appreciate, but you don’t want to forgo payment when you have a business to run and expenses to pay.
When a customer repeatedly refuses to pay a bill, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. You might not be comfortable seeking payment repeatedly, and your efforts might not work for you to justify the time spent. When this occurs, it’s time to contact a Miami collection attorney to walk you through the process of collecting the debts owed to you and your business. You’ll know it’s time to hire a collection attorney when you go through the following situation.
Nonpayment of A Bill
When a customer doesn’t pay a bill you mailed, there’s not a reason to panic right away. Consider the following:
- The bill was lost in the mail and never received
- The customer is traveling and hasn’t received the bill yet
- The bill was misplaced
- The customer has an issue or question and is waiting for you to contact them
There are times when these things can actually happen. Everyone checks the mail, throws it on their accounting desk or counter, and puts payables into a rotation based on the amount and due date. Before you contact a Miami collections attorney, you’ll want to send a second bill to the customer.
This bill should include a notice that it is the second notice. This often reminds customers they forgot to pay the bill the first time. Most customers will be embarrassed and will apologize while making payment. Others won’t make their payment.
The Next Step
When you’ve sent a second notice for payment and received no response, it’s time to issue a final notice. Make it clear this is the third time you’ve attempted to collect the debt and make some phone calls. A third letter in the mail detailing payment must be made by a specific date before you begin the collection process will encourage some customers to pay their bill right away. In addition, make calls to the customer every other day or so until they answer or pay their bill. If they avoid you and still don’t pay, it’s time to call the attorney you want to work with.
It’s not costly to hire Miami collection attorneys, but business owners in Miami simply charge the customer who refuses to pay the fees for hiring the attorney. It’s their own fault you’ve had to take this situation this far, and they should be responsible for the fees. The attorney you hire will likely send out an official letter to the customer. In many cases, all it takes is correspondence from an attorney requesting payment by a specific date to encourage customers to pay up. They don’t want to become embroiled in a legal battle, and it scares them into making this payment to your business.
If your attorney’s letters go unanswered during this timeframe, you might proceed with legal action. This is not something all business owners want to deal with because it’s expensive and time-consuming. If the debt isn’t a large one, many companies write it off and even report it to the credit bureaus to cause damage to the customer’s business credit score if possible.
Otherwise, you’ll find it’s a good idea to either let go of a small bill or continue with legal action if the customer owes you a substantial amount of money. If you win the case, and you will, your customer will either have to pay you on a monthly payment arrangement, pay in full, or a bank account garnishment will be placed on their business checking account so you are guaranteed payment as the legal post-judgment remedies begin.
It’s not a pleasant process, but so many people who own a business find working with an attorney to be helpful and easy. Your business depends on the payment of your clients, which is how you work. Don’t be afraid to call an attorney for help with a customer who refuses to pay a bill they owe to your company. It’s well within your right to seek payment on a timely basis.
