Conditions of settlement of invoice

If you did not (or forgot to) give your customer your standard terms and conditions before you delivered their order to them, and there’s a problem, you may be able to put some conditions of settlement on the back of your invoices.

Incorporate

It will generally be too late to incorporate written terms and conditions by sending them out to the customer after the contract for goods or services has been made. However, if you do business with someone on a regular basis, there may be a course of dealing as a result of which your settlement terms may be incorporated into the contract.

Damages and interest?

It is advisable to limit damages and interest to the amount of your insurance cover (or ten per cent of the amount of your invoice if you don’t have any insurance). Why? Because if the figure were any lower it may be set aside by the court on the basis that it is unreasonable. And the judge may increase the amount accordingly (and make an order for costs against you). However, this is only a rule of thumb.

Your court or mine?

Under the Civil Procedure Rules, if a defence is filed, then the action will automatically be transferred to the defendant’s nearest court unless the defendant is a limited company when the case will be heard in the claimant’s local court.

“See overleaf”

If you put your invoice conditions on the back of your invoice, make sure suitable explanatory words appear on the front, otherwise the customer may claim they did not notice them and that they were not put on notice.