It is imperative from day one that you clearly define to your customer the terms & conditions that you operate under, it is just as important to get your customer to sign and agree to be bound by your terms & conditions, confirming that the signatory is authorised to do so.
To carry out any search on a new customer now or later who is an individual /sole proprietor/ partnership/partners/ directors/previous directorships you need the data subject (the customers) permission, therefore you need a total data protection waiver that allows you to search now or later.
clause should stipulate you will from time to time carry out searches on both Companies and Individuals for the purposes of defining allowable credit limits and fraud prevention. That you will share information with credit reference agency’s for this purpose and in the event of non payment that information may also be shared for the purpose of tracing a debtor and for the purpose of collecting unpaid sums.
Most debt recovery scenarios are now resolved prior to court action, therefore you need a clause in your T & C’s to allow you to indemnify your company against all costs incurred in recovering outstanding sums. You also need to stipulate that defaulting on one invoice causes all outstanding invoices to become due and payable. These terms once agreed should be added to any 7 day legal warning letter that is issued, making your legal letter much more powerful. Then if the capital sum is paid but the costs are not you have the right to pursue.
The easiest way to get your customer to agree to your terms & conditions is to incorporate them within an account application form. All new customers should be sent an account application form, apart from getting your customer to agree to your terms and conditions this should also identify the legal entity or individuals that your are actually dealing with.
If you require further information re an account application form or a standard set of terms & conditions please contact 020 8665 6666 or email [email protected]
