I'm an accountant and a client won't pay my fees. Can I hold their records?
The short answer
Rarely. A company must keep adequate accounting records1, open to inspection by its officers at all times3, and every officer in default commits an offence2 if it fails, so holding them back cuts across a duty that is theirs. At most you can keep work you finished, such as the accounts, until its fee is paid. Rely on that only where your engagement letter says so: without a term, the hold rests on a narrow lien from case law that no official page sets out.
England and Wales only. WolfX is software, not a law firm.
What you can add
A £1,800 fee, 63 days late
Say your practice invoiced a company £1,800 on 30 June 2026 for its accounts for the year to 31 March 2026 and its Corporation Tax return. It was due on 14 July 2026. On 15 September 2026 it is still unpaid: 63 days late. It went late in the second half of 2026, so the rate is 11.75%9.
Then it grows by £0.58 a day until they pay. Meanwhile the client's accounts are due at Companies House5 on 31 December 2026 and their Corporation Tax return5 on 31 March 2027, whether or not you hold the papers.
The road ahead
Five steps. One court fee, if it comes to that.
Step 1: Sort what you hold into three piles
Pile one is the client's: receipts, bank statements, invoices, contracts, and the books and registers the company must keep4. Hand it back or copy it on request, fee paid or not.
Pile two is your work: finished accounts, computations and working papers. Pile three is personal data about individuals, such as the client's payroll records. Treat it like pile one: the people named in it are not part of your fee dispute.
Step 2: Read your engagement letter and your body's rules
A lien is a right to keep something until a debt is paid. For accountants the courts have treated it as narrow and tied to the work done on the papers. It comes from case law, not an Act, and no official page sets it out. Before you rely on it without a clause, ask a solicitor who handles commercial disputes.
Anything wider must be in your engagement letter. Read it, then your professional body's rules on handing over records. Member or not, HMRC's standard for agents12 expects you to make the relevant documents available to a former client's new adviser entitled to see them, unless there is a legal reason not to.
Step 4: Pause new work and change your terms
Start nothing new until this fee is paid; stopping work covers how. For the next client, take fees in advance or in stages, and write any hold you want into the engagement letter before the work starts.
How far a hold on work you made can go is in holding back files and who owns the work until it is paid.
Step 5: Still unpaid? Send a letter before action
If the pay-by date passes, send a letter before action: a company usually gets 14 days to reply, a sole trader client 30 days under the debt protocol11.
Then start a money claim for the fee, interest and fixed sum. Neither step depends on holding anything back.
A letter you can copy
Letter asking for an unpaid fee and releasing their records
Send it once the due date has passed and a friendly reminder hasn't worked.
Tap a highlighted gap to see what goes in it.
Send it by email so it is dated, and keep a copy with the invoice. If your engagement letter has no term letting you keep finished work until you are paid, delete that paragraph and release the work too. If your engagement letter sets its own interest rate, use that rate and name the engagement letter in place of the Act.
When not to bother
When it isn't worth it
- The fee is small and the client is otherwise sound. Release the papers, send the letter and claim the fee; a hold would cost you more goodwill than it recovers.
- The argument is about the quality of your work. Settle that first, because a disputed fee makes the interest and the claim harder; ask for the undisputed part meanwhile.
- The client is in liquidation or administration. The law makes a lien on the company's books10 unenforceable against the person running it, so a hold goes nowhere; send your fee in as a claim through them.
- You or the client are in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The company records law is UK-wide, but the claim route differs; these steps are for England and Wales.
- Your own body's rules forbid the hold. Then the question is settled; use the letter and the claim instead.
The Wolf's note
The papers are not the lever here. The client's filing dates keep running while you hold them, and a client facing a penalty has a reason to contest your fee. Release what is theirs, ask for the sum in writing, and let the next move be theirs.
Mr. Wolf · the AI inside WolfX
What comes next
Your next move
Can I hold back files, or switch off a website, until I'm paid?
You can usually hold back files you have not delivered.
7 min read · Letter included
Put it in writing
What is a letter before action, and how do I write one?
A formal last letter before a court claim, and you can write it yourself.
7 min read · Letter included
What you can add
How do I work out late payment interest to the day?
Multiply the invoice by the yearly rate, divide by 365, then multiply by the days late.
6 min read · Letter included
Don't want to do this yourself?
The Wolf does every step for you. He works out the sums, writes the letters and keeps track of every date. Nothing goes without your yes.