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Q: I’m self-employed and have recently worked for a company that gave me use of its van. While unattended it was scratched and now the company is holding back payment of an invoice so that it can charge me for the repair. Can they do this?

Feb 26 2009

Answered by: Ashley de Safrin Ask a question

The first thing I would suggest would be to get legal advice. That being said, if you have proper terms and conditions (T&Cs) for trading and the other company have received these from you then it is unlikely that they are entitled to do this.

However, if you have agreed to work for them either without T&Cs or just on a verbal basis, they now have the upper hand. In reality, the legal costs of recovering the money owed to you may well outweigh what you will get.

I would suggest that you offer to get the scratch repaired and then get a solicitor to draw up T&Cs.

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