AnswersWhen a client won't pay
My client has gone quiet. How do I get an answer?
The short answer
Ask someone else. Ring the main number and ask for accounts payable, email a second name, then post a letter to the registered office, which the law counts as delivering it to the company2. That address, the officers and any insolvency entries are all on the free Companies House register1, so a company can leave your emails unanswered but cannot hide where it is registered.
England and Wales only. WolfX is software, not a law firm.
What you can add
A £2,640 invoice, 21 days late
Say you cleaned an office for another business in August and invoiced £2,640, due on Thursday 17 September 2026. You asked for a date on day 7 and sent the firm email with the sum on day 14, as in chasing an overdue invoice politely. Your contact has answered neither. On Thursday 8 October the invoice is 21 days late. Interest runs at 11.75% a year on an invoice that goes late between 1 July and 31 December 2026: 8% over the base rate11 as it stood on 30 June, which was 3.75%12.
Then it grows by £0.85 a day, answered or not. Post the letter on Friday 9 October with a reply-by date of Friday 16 October. Day 30 falls on a Saturday, so if nothing comes back the letter before action goes on Monday 19 October, and its 14 days run to 2 November.
The road ahead
Five steps. Free, except for a few stamps.
Step 1: Ring the main number and ask for accounts payable
Skip your contact. The person who ordered the work may not be the one who pays6, so ask for accounts payable and say: "It's about invoice 2231 for £2,640.00. What date will it be paid?" If they have no record of it, send it again that day.
Write down the date, who you spoke to and what they said, and put the date of your next step in your calendar. If they give you a date, email it back to them to confirm.
Step 2: Email a second name with one question
Pick someone else: the buyer on the purchase order, or a director named on the officers list1. Send the letter below with the invoice attached, and copy your usual contact. If you have no email for them, step 4 covers it.
Silence is not a dispute. They have not said the invoice is wrong, and it may be sitting in someone's tray, so ask for a date and do not say they are ignoring you.
Step 3: Look the company up on the free register
Companies House1 shows a company's registered office, officers and filings for free. Check the status, whether accounts are overdue and any insolvency entry, then search the name in The Gazette's insolvency notices4.
Sign in, choose "Follow this company" and Companies House emails you as soon as it accepts a new filing1. A clean page does not prove they can pay. A red flag sends you to the insolvency check.
Step 4: Post the letter to the registered office
Copy the address from the register on the day you post. The law counts a document left at, or posted to, a company's registered office as delivered to it2. The section sets no time, but a posted letter counts as delivered when it would arrive in the ordinary course of post5, unless proved otherwise.
Posting a copy to a director is a choice, not a rule. A document can be served on a current director at the address shown beside their name3, whatever the letter is about. If that address is the registered office, skip it. Email a copy to your usual contact and the second name, and keep a dated copy and a note of where each one went.
Step 5: Date passed with no reply? Send a letter before action
A letter before action is the last letter before a court claim. It is the day-30 step in chasing an overdue invoice politely. Already past day 30? Send it the day your reply-by date passes, by post to the registered office and by email. The log you kept gives it the dates and names.
A company usually gets 14 days to reply7, and a reply is meant to say whether the claim is accepted and, if not, why.
A letter you can copy
One question to a second contact or the registered office
Email it to a second name, then post the same text to the registered office, and to a director if you choose. Use one reply-by date in every copy.
Tap a highlighted gap to see what goes in it.
Put the company's registered name and address above "Dear" on the posted copies, and copy the address from the register on the day you post. Keep a dated copy of each letter, and a note of when and where it went.
When not to bother
When it isn't worth it
- The register shows a liquidator, administrator or dissolved company. Wrong tool: see liquidation or dissolved.
- They have answered, even with an excuse. That is no longer silence. Put the date they gave in your calendar, or if they say the invoice is wrong, read what a dispute changes.
- They are a sole trader or a consumer. No registered office: use the address on your order. Before a claim, a sole trader gets 30 days to reply8. Consumer law is different, and these pages do not cover it.
- You have sent one email, or only a few days have passed. That is not silence yet. Send the plain reminder in chasing an overdue invoice politely first, and come back here when it goes unanswered.
- They are in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The letter before action and the court route here are for England and Wales; the other two nations have their own.
The Wolf's note
A client who has not answered has not disputed anything, so keep the question small: one date, no adjectives. Ask in three places and read the register once. What comes back, or does not, is worth more than another email to the same inbox.
Mr. Wolf · the AI inside WolfX
What comes next
Your next move
My client hasn't paid my invoice. What do I do first?
Check the invoice, then ask once, in writing, for a date.
6 min read · Letter included
Put it in writing
Where do I send a formal letter to a limited company, and how do I prove it arrived?
Send it to the company's registered office by post that records a signature, and email it too.
5 min read · Letter included
If they go under
The company says it's closing down. What should I do right now?
Today. If a client says it is closing down or going out of business, check Companies House and the Gazette for which kind, then write with the sum worked out.
8 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.