Customer dies before work is completed or invoice paid

[cornish_crofter]

Has this ever happened to any of you or someone you know?

If so, what were the circumstances?

A couple from me.

A few years ago a relative of mine passed away. A handyman had done some work but not yet raised an invoice. He listed the work he had done for the executor, and the executor checked the work, was happy with it and arranged payment via his own funds, then claimed the same from the estate.

More recently, a friend of mine asked a builder working on the house next door to do a bit of external decorating whilst he was up ontop of the roof doing the work for the next door neighbour.

Unfortunately my friend passed away. The builder had only spent a few hours doing the decorating so out of respect for them he decided not to ask the berieved for the money.

 

[bigandy]

nothing in my camp sorry

 

[White Room]

Never happened to me, Think you have answered it for me anyway:santa_cheesy:

 

[medlar]

nothing like that has ever happened to me CC


Jimmy

 

[CJ]

Did a bathroom for a guy I used to work with. Lived on his own.

He was happy with it and asked me to tile his en-suite at a later date.

6 Months went by and then he phoned me and the job was booked in.........but as I was busy at that time, he had a 2 month wait.

The week before I was due, I picked up some bits for it (Chrome trim, and ordered some funny colour of silicon)

Then another guy (that knew him) told me he had commited suicide.

:dizzy2: Managed to squeeze another job in mind :smash:

 

[cornish_crofter]

Did you take a deposit from him and if so what did you do about it?

What would anyone else do in this situation?

Return deposit after all costs had been deducted?

Recently I had to organise scaffold for a job. I took a deposit and agreed with the customer that in the event of the job not going ahead for any reason I would refund the deposit minus costs that I had incurred. The scaffold and the materials were to come out of the deposit.

My main concern is that he expecting to be booked into hospital for an operation, and whilst it was a routine op, I felt that such events aren't without their risks, and didn't want to be £600 down in the event of his passing. I didn't mention this concern to him.

All went well btw

I may have been able to move the materials on, but the scaffold cost would have been unrecoverable by any other means.

In any such event I would have first made contact with the executors, expressed my condolances and asked them whether they would like me to continue the work, or return the deposit minus costs. This work would have needed doing in any case.

 

[doug boardley]

If I'd just started I'd ask the next of kin/executor, if they wanted me to continue and to whom I should make out my bill.If the answer was "no" I'd probably not send an invoice for labour, but would expect payment for materials if I couldn't use them on my next job

 

[tfs]

this happend to my boss a few months back.

We had renovated and druaphtproofed sash and case windows and striped and repaired about12 timber doors and after we completed the job the client was in a serious accident and as a result died.

We had onloy heard this from another contractor on the job so my employer allowed a little time to pass and sent an email to the client with an invoice attached and was then informed by the clients wife who asked that they arrange a meeting at the property and bring an itemised bill. she was happy to pay the ballance after viewing all works.

Sad and unlikely situation to be in but it does happen.

 

[cornish_crofter]

If I hadn't spent much time on it, I too would be looking just to recoup from them what I couldn't recoup in other ways.

A few hours labour wouldn't be an issue but it would get difficult if I had invested several weeks.

For example, if one customer passed on when I was 3/4 of the way through a job with a labour content of £3k, that is a lot of money to give up.

When my mother died there were some bills that needed paying, grocery account, milkman etc. They passed on their condolances but they had still provided a service to her before hand and were owed money.

It was only right that they were paid.

On the other hand she had lent someone a small sum of money to tide them over till they could get to a cash machine, they forwarded the money to our solicitor without delay.

 

[cornish_crofter]

this happend to my boss a few months back.

We had renovated and druaphtproofed sash and case windows and striped and repaired about12 timber doors and after we completed the job the client was in a serious accident and as a result died.

We had onloy heard this from another contractor on the job so my employer allowed a little time to pass and sent an email to the client with an invoice attached and was then informed by the clients wife who asked that they arrange a meeting at the property and bring an itemised bill. she was happy to pay the ballance after viewing all works.

Sad and unlikely situation to be in but it does happen.

The way these things are dealt with are often remembered. As someone who has lost a close relative suddenly I am probably in a better position to assess the way to go.

What worked with me is people who were owed money forwarding invoices to me sometimes with a note attached expressing their sympathy. I was relitively well organised and asked people to remind me if they still remained unpaid after a set time, in case they slipped through the net. I didn't want people to feel awquard about asking for what is theres.

It took a few weeks to get probate, during this time we couldn't get access to her funds to pay a lot of the bills. The oil supplier got a bit impatient sending final demands etc, so I phoned up the depot manager and asserted that these were extraordinary circumstances for us and he would have to wait until the money is available through probate before they got paid.

It does focus the mind on cashflow. How do you cope if your clients funds get wound up as a result of this happening and your cashflow gets hit for a month or two whilst waiting for probate, then waiting for a berieved/overworked executor to get to your invoice?

 

[LM Ceramics]

never happened to me neither if it was a small amount that was owed labour only i probably wouldnt collect it just out of respect probably