Late-paying clients: your UK options

A late invoice is one of the more stressful parts of freelancing, particularly early on when the money matters and you don't yet know how firm you're allowed to be. The reassuring news is that you have a clear series of options, each one a step firmer than the last, and you rarely need to climb more than a rung or two. Most late payment isn't bad faith at all — it's a busy client and an invoice that's slipped down the pile.

This guide walks up that ladder, from a friendly nudge to, in the last resort, a court claim. You'll almost never reach the top, but knowing the whole thing is there tends to make the early steps more confident — and more effective.

A quick note first: TrustSolo isn't a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. It's a plain-English guide to the options open to you. For a large or complicated debt, it's worth taking proper advice.

Start with a calm, factual reminder

The first step is also the one that works most of the time: a short, polite, factual reminder. Something like "Just a note that invoice INV-014 was due on 17 July — I've attached it again for convenience. Could you let me know when I can expect payment?" No accusation, no frustration, just a clear prompt.

Keep the tone matter-of-fact rather than apologetic. You're not asking a favour; you're following up on money you've earned for work you've delivered. A good number of late invoices are settled within a day of a reminder like this, because they genuinely had been forgotten. If nothing happens, a second reminder a week later — a touch firmer, referencing the first — is a reasonable next move.

Point to your statutory rights

If reminders aren't landing and your client is a business, the law gives you real leverage, and simply mentioning it often prompts payment. Under the UK's late-payment rules you have a statutory right to charge interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate on the overdue amount, plus a fixed sum towards your debt-recovery costs:

• £40 for a debt under £1,000
• £70 for a debt of £1,000 up to £9,999.99
• £100 for a debt of £10,000 or more

You can work out the interest and recovery fee owed on your invoice in a few seconds, rather than doing the sums by hand.

And where no payment date was agreed, a business payment counts as late 30 days after the client received the invoice or you delivered the work. You don't have to charge the interest — but letting a client know, politely, that the invoice is now accruing statutory interest has a way of moving it up their list.

One distinction to keep in mind: these particular statutory rights apply to business clients. If you've invoiced a private individual, they don't apply in the same way — but the later steps below (a formal demand, and if necessary a court claim) are still open to you.

If your client is a private individual

The statutory route isn't your only option here, though it's the one people know about. With a consumer client, any interest you charge has to come from your contract, because there's no statutory right doing the work for you. So it's worth agreeing a rate in writing before you start, rather than discovering after an invoice goes late that you never gave yourself anything to point at.

The constraint is fairness. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, an unfair term "is not binding on the consumer" — a term is unfair if, "contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations … to the detriment of the consumer". And the Act's list of terms that may be regarded as unfair includes one aimed squarely at this: a term "requiring a consumer who fails to fulfil his obligations under the contract to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation".

That list is a warning flag rather than a ban — such a term may be found unfair, not automatically is. But the practical reading is straightforward: a modest rate you'd be comfortable explaining is far more likely to hold than a punitive one, and an interest term that gets struck out leaves you with nothing at all. The commercial 8%-plus-base figure is a poor model to copy here, because it was set for business debts, not consumer ones.

This is one of the reasons a written agreement earns its keep with private clients. TrustSolo's contracts set a deliberately modest consumer rate by default — you can adjust it, within a cap — so the term exists before you need it. Nothing here is legal advice, and for a significant sum a solicitor's view is worth having.

Send a formal "letter before action"

If the friendly route is exhausted, the next step before any court involvement is a letter before action — sometimes called a letter before claim. It's a clear, formal written notice that says: here is what you owe, here is the deadline to pay it (commonly 14 days), and if it isn't paid by then, you'll begin a court claim to recover it.

This matters for two reasons. It's often the moment a reluctant payer finally settles, because it signals you're serious and organised. And it's the step the courts expect you to have taken — you're expected to try to resolve the debt before asking a court to step in. Keep it factual and unemotional; attach the invoice and any earlier reminders. It's a demand, not a quarrel.

Make a court claim — the last resort

If a letter before action still brings nothing, you can make a court claim for the money. For the modest sums most freelance invoices involve, this is done online, and it's more approachable than it sounds — it's the process most people mean by the "small claims court".

There's a court fee to start a claim, which scales with the amount you're claiming. In England and Wales the fees are:

| Amount claimed | Court fee | |----------------|-----------| | Up to £300 | £35 | | £300.01 to £500 | £50 | | £500.01 to £1,000 | £70 | | £1,000.01 to £1,500 | £80 | | £1,500.01 to £3,000 | £115 | | £3,000.01 to £5,000 | £205 | | £5,000.01 to £10,000 | £455 |

You can add the statutory interest to the amount you claim, and if you win you can normally ask for the court fee back too. Before it gets that far, the court may suggest mediation, which can be quicker and cheaper than a hearing and settles many disputes without one.

A jurisdiction note: the fees and online service above are for England and Wales. Scotland has its own equivalent (the "simple procedure") and Northern Ireland its own small-claims process — the principle is the same, the mechanics differ, so start from the right one for where you're based.

The best option is not to need any of this

Every rung above is a fallback. The real win is making late payment unlikely in the first place, and a few habits do most of the work: agree clear payment terms before you start, put a concrete due date on every invoice, send it promptly, and consider a deposit or first payment up front with new or larger clients. Our guide to how to invoice as a freelancer covers this groundwork in full.

This is where TrustSolo quietly helps: it puts a due date on every invoice, attaches a payment link so paying is a couple of clicks, and can send the polite reminders for you when something slips past its date — heading off most late payment long before any of the later steps come into play.

You'll spend far more of your time preventing late payment than chasing it — and that's exactly where the effort pays off. When you'd like the invoicing, due dates and reminders handled for you, you can start free — no card required.