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How do I go about charging late fees to a customer who has not paid? What is the legal limit I can charge?
Anonymous2 views1 answers
I have a couple of customers (individual consumers, not businesses) that have delinquent balances.
If a contract/agreement was not signed at the time of purchase, is it legal for us to charge a late fee for unpaid balances? Can I notify the customers of our intention to charge late fees now that the balances are already overdue?
This has been very frustrating and costly to my business, just wondering how/if we can recoup our losses.
Thanks
If the contract does not specify late fees, interest rate for balance owed, etc, there is no right to charge any of these fees. At least this is the way in where I practice. You need to sue them. Once you obtain a judgment against them, you can then get an interest on the judgment. My state, 12% is a norm. But, since you did not have an attorney’s fee provision in the contract, you have to pay for your attorney’s fee out of our pocket, I think. So, the moral of story is to get the contract signed (with all of the provisions above, and more!) before you do business with others.
