Who owns the design, photos or code until the client pays?
The short answer
You do. If you made it as a freelancer or a studio, you are its first owner5, and a client who commissions it does not become the owner1 unless you agree it in writing. A transfer is not effective unless it is in writing and signed7, so paying alone does not move it: until then the client holds a licence to use the work, and with nothing written a court may find one. Put the licence in your quote, tied to payment, before the work is used.
England and Wales only. WolfX is software, not a law firm.
What you can add
A £3,600 website, live and unpaid
Say you built a website for another business and invoiced £3,600, due on 14 August 2026. The site went live on 1 September. On 30 September the invoice is still unpaid: 47 days late. It went late on 15 August 2026, so the rate is the one fixed for 1 July to 31 December 2026: 11.75% a year.
Then it grows by £1.16 a day until they pay. The sum is owed whatever the quote said about the licence. What a payment-first licence adds is a reason for them to pay before they use the work.
The road ahead
Four steps. All free.
Step 1: Check who made it and what was signed
A freelancer is the first owner5 of what they make, and a studio owns what its employees make. Work a freelancer made for your studio usually stays theirs unless they signed it over. The line is employee or not, not who paid. Then read your terms: an assignment is not effective unless it is signed7.
Code is a literary work3. Photographs and graphic work are artistic works4.
Step 2: Know what the client may do with it
With nothing written, a court may find an implied licence1 to use the work for the purpose it was made for. So a client with a live site or a printed brochure can usually carry on using it. That is a licence, not ownership, and a licence can be limited in time or any other way2.
Use beyond what the licence covers infringes copyright6, and the owner can ask for damages and an injunction8. Do not call it infringement while their use is covered.
Step 3: Ask for the money, in writing
A licence term does not cancel the debt: interest and the fixed sum are claimed as usual. For an invoice that went late in the second half of 2026, interest is 8% over the base rate11: 3.75%12 on 30 June, so 11.75% a year.
Email the letter below. If it stays unpaid, the next move is a letter before action. Holding back files or switching off a site is a separate question.
Step 4: Put the licence in your next quote
Pick one line and put it in the quote before the work is used. To keep the copyright: “Once the work is paid for in full, you may use it for the purpose stated in this quote.” To hand it over: “Once the work is paid for in full, I will sign the copyright over to you.”
If they need to use it before they pay, add: “Until then you may use the work for the purpose stated in this quote, but that permission ends if payment is more than 14 days late.” List the stock images, fonts, code libraries and any freelancer's work you do not own, because you cannot hand those over.
A term sent after delivery does not usually reach back. See whether your terms apply when the client did not sign them.
A letter you can copy
Email asking for payment on work they are using
Send it when the work is in use, the invoice is past its due date and a friendly reminder has not 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 and your quote. No licence term in your quote? Replace the licence line with: “From now on my quotes will say that the licence starts when the invoice is paid in full.” Do not tell them they are infringing.
When not to bother
When it isn't worth it
- Your terms already pass the copyright, or the client signed an assignment. Then it may be theirs, because a signed assignment7 passes it. Check your paper, then chase the debt.
- The work is live and the invoice is small. Chase the debt, not the copyright. Claims up to £10,000 can use the IP court's small claims route9, but legal costs are not normally recoverable.
- The client is a consumer, not a business. Consumer law is different, and this page does not cover it.
- You are in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The courts and debt routes differ. This page covers England and Wales.
The Wolf's note
You own the work. The client holds a permission to use it, and permission is the part you can tie to payment. Do that in the next quote; for this job, the invoice is the lever.
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
No written contract: can I still get paid?
Yes. A verbal agreement is a contract.
6 min read · Letter included
So it doesn't happen again
Should I ask for a deposit or payment upfront, and how do I ask?
Yes, when a job costs you money before the client pays, or the client is new.
7 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.