I'm sorry to hear this Gary, its always a nightmare getting money from the majority of main contractors, but the last 18 months seem to have got worse. I have consolidated who we work with now, and thrown the late payers or in some cases non payers out the window. Look at the end of the day, its a massive lie when they tell you they haven't been paid, they are or should be all on staged payments. That should be no reason at all for delaying the payments to sub-contractors, they employ surveyors to get their bill in every month or draw down from the clients account their staged payment.
The stakes are so high on these big contracts that sometimes I feel like I am sitting on a bomb, I have to be a nasty piece of work, because I am not running a charity. I really do not give a s**t about any ones excuse why they cant pay, my lads need paying, I need paying the suppliers need paying. If they cant deal with that, then go and mug someone else of. They will always try and delay the payments on the sub contractors who are the nicest people, so the lesson here is this. Dont be nice, they are not your 'mate' if you have to sit in their accounts office all day, then do it. If you have to go round their house, and sit outside in the car, blocking their drive do it. It comes down to this, you either feed your family or not. Yes I know I sound brutal, but why should they sit at home ordering a takeaway on a Friday night and you cant even pay the wages?
Pick your contracts wisely, if you get a bad feeling, then walk away, as I am doing tomorrow morning on one contract. I don't trust the smarmy piece of crap I met a few weeks ago, and life is to short to have MUG tattooed on your forehead.
Now back to my knitting!!! thats if I can find the needles that I embedded in a project managers chest earlier!! Im nice really...honest!
Lynn
