Letter of Claim

To start the Protocol running you need to send a Letter of Claim to the other side. It must contain the following information:

1. Your name (or that of your business) and address;
2. The full name and address of the party you are claiming money from, whether a business or individual;
3. A summary of the claim that you are bringing;
4. Details of what you are claiming for; and
5. When you wish to have a response by - this is usually 14 days to acknowledge receipt and 28 days for a substantive response.

You are normally allowed to charge interest on late payments.  Where your customer is a business then, unless your contract provides other adequate remedies, you are entitled to charge interest and claim compensation in accordance with the Late payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.  Our guide on this issue can be accessed by clicking here.

Once you have sent the initial letter of claim to the other side it is important that you wait for the requisite period before going to court. Should you receive a response then you need to consider how to deal with this and should go to our Acknowledgment/Response section for further guidance on this.

Click here to go to the next step in the guide.