It was an emergency on Saturday. It is not an emergency now.

The landlord is the classic. Wanted it done same day, wanted it done properly, and now the invoice sits behind a letting agent who says they are waiting on the owner. Then there is the boiler that was quoted at four grand, half paid up front and the balance now three months overdue, where the customer is not avoiding you so much as hoping you forget.

That changes the position more than most trades realise. A private individual is a consumer, and none of the commercial machinery applies to them.

• No statutory interest. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act does not reach a homeowner, so there is nothing to add to the bill.
• The Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims applies before anybody goes to court, and it has real timescales and real consequences for ignoring it.
• A limited company landlord is a business, and everything commercial is back on the table. Same debt, different rules, entirely because of who signed.
• Letting agents are usually agents, not the debtor. Chasing the wrong party is how a solvable debt becomes a dead one.

We are not solicitors and this is not legal advice. Hound is credit control: we chase, we add the statutory interest and compensation the law already gives you, and we assemble the evidence. Anything that needs a letter before action, a claim or an adjudication goes to a regulated firm, on your instruction, and only after you approve it.

Statutory interest runs at 11.75% a year on a commercial debt, plus fixed compensation per invoice, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. On that invoice it is £201.34 on top, and it is yours, not ours. Most trades never claim a penny of it, because claiming it means writing the letter that says so and then meaning it.

Work out what you are owed →

We check who actually owes it before anything goes out, because a landlord operating through a limited company and a landlord operating personally are two different debts. Consumers get every message approved by you first, a maximum of one contact a week, and any reply at all stops the sequence until a person has read it.

See the whole ladder, day three to the county court →

Nothing is charged unless we get it back. If we have recovered nothing by day 60 we cancel it ourselves and you are charged nothing at all.

Start a rescue

The letting agent says they are waiting on the landlord

Then work out who your contract is actually with, because that decides who you can chase. An agent usually contracts as agent for a disclosed principal, which makes the landlord the debtor and the agent a messenger. Chasing the wrong party is how a solvable debt runs out of time. Ask, in writing, who the contracting party is and get the answer before escalating.

Is a landlord a business or a consumer?

It depends on how they hold the property, and it changes everything. A limited company landlord is a business, so statutory interest and compensation apply. An individual letting out a property may still be acting in the course of a business, but that is fact-specific and not a call worth guessing on a large debt. Companies House will tell you which one you are dealing with in about a minute.

They paid half up front for a boiler and the balance is months late

The deposit does not weaken the rest of the debt, though it often makes people feel it has. If the customer is a business the balance carries statutory interest like any other invoice. If they are a consumer it does not, and the answer is a clear dated demand followed by the Pre-Action Protocol. Either way the part-payment is evidence the contract existed and was accepted, which is useful.

It was an emergency callout with nothing in writing

A verbal contract is still a contract, but you will be proving its terms rather than pointing at them. Your evidence is the call log, the timestamps, the parts, the photographs and anything they sent afterwards acknowledging the work. Send a written summary of what was agreed as soon as you can, even weeks later: an unchallenged account of the terms is worth having.

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your debt. The money side is the same for every trade: the interest rate, the fixed compensation, and what to do when they will not pay.