To recover an unpaid business invoice in England and Wales, first confirm exactly who owes you, then chase in writing and finish with a clear final demand that adds the interest and compensation the law allows. If that fails, you can issue a claim in the County Court, online or on paper, and ask the court to enforce the judgment if the debtor still does not pay. You normally have six years to start that claim.
Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK have their own rules, so this guide covers England and Wales only.
1. Who exactly owes you the money?
Start with the paperwork: the quote or order, your contract or terms of business, the invoice, and anything showing the work was done or the goods delivered. If the bill is disputed later, these are what you rely on.
Then check who the debtor actually is. If your customer is a limited company or a limited liability partnership, search for it on the Companies House register. Note the exact registered name, the company number and the registered office address, and look at whether the company is still active. A trading name is not always the name of the company that owes you, and a claim against the wrong name, or a dissolved company, wastes time and money.
A sole trader is not on the register. The debt is owed by the individual personally, which changes the letter you send before going to court.
2. How should you chase it before going to court?
Many late invoices are paid after a reminder. Send one when the payment date passes, then phone, and note each call.
If you did not agree a payment date, the government's guidance on late commercial payments says the payment is late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice or, if later, after you deliver the goods or provide the service. An agreed payment date between businesses should usually fall within 60 days.
If reminders do not work, send a final demand in writing. It should set out:
- the amount owed, with invoice numbers and dates;
- any interest and compensation you are adding;
- a clear date by which payment must be made;
- what you will do if it is not.
Keep it factual. A dated, specific demand is good evidence that the debtor had a fair chance to pay.
3. Can you add interest and compensation?
Usually, yes. If your contract does not set its own interest rate, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 lets one business charge another statutory interest on a late payment, at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, as the government's page on charging interest explains. You can also add a fixed sum for each late payment to cover the cost of recovering it: £40 for a debt of up to £999.99, £70 for £1,000 to £9,999.99 and £100 for £10,000 or more, according to the guidance on debt recovery costs, which also says you can claim reasonable further costs of recovery. How the interest is worked out, and when it starts, is covered in our guide to late payment interest.
4. Do you need to send a letter before claim?
That depends on who the debtor is.
The Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims applies to any business claiming a debt from an individual, including a sole trader. It says plainly that it does not apply to business-to-business debts unless the debtor is a sole trader. So if your customer is a limited company, the protocol does not apply. If your customer is a sole trader, it does.
Where the protocol applies, you should send a Letter of Claim before starting court proceedings. It should give the amount of the debt, say whether interest or charges are continuing, explain how the debt can be paid, and enclose the Information Sheet, Reply Form and Financial Statement set out in the protocol's annexes. The letter should be dated near the top and sent by post. If the debtor does not reply within 30 days of that date, you may start proceedings.
Where the debtor is a company, the court's Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct applies where no protocol does. It expects the claimant to write first with concise details of the claim, including how any sum is calculated, and the defendant to reply within a reasonable time, which it puts at 14 days in a straightforward case. If a party ignores these steps, the court can order them to pay costs, and a claimant at fault can lose some interest. A short, clear letter before claim is good practice whoever the debtor is.
5. How do you start a court claim, and what if it is ignored?
Money claims in England and Wales start in the County Court. You can make a claim online unless, for example, you do not know how much you are claiming, you are claiming against three or more people or organisations, or you or the debtor do not have an address in England or Wales. Otherwise you use paper form N1. The court fee depends on the amount claimed, from £35 for a claim of up to £300 to 5% of the claim between £10,000.01 and £200,000, as the court fees page sets out. If the claim is defended, the court allocates it to a track; our guide to the small claims and fast track explains which applies.
Once the claim is issued, the debtor must respond by a date the court gives. If they do not, you can ask the court for judgment: online through the money claims service, or on form N225 for a paper claim for a fixed amount. This is called default judgment, and our guide to default judgment explains the steps.
6. What can you do if a judgment is not paid?
A judgment says the money is owed. It does not, by itself, move the money. If the debtor still does not pay, you can ask the court to enforce the judgment. The main options are:
- An order to obtain information. The debtor, or an officer of a debtor company, is ordered to attend court and answer questions about income, spending, assets or accounts. It shows which of the other options is worth paying for.
- A warrant or writ of control. Enforcement agents can take control of goods and sell them. A warrant of control is issued in the County Court; a writ of control is issued in the High Court, under Part 83 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
- A third party debt order. Money held for the debtor, such as funds in a bank or building society account, can be used to pay the debt.
- A charging order. A charge is placed on land or property the debtor owns, so the debt is paid from the proceeds when it is sold.
- An attachment of earnings order. For an individual debtor in employment, the court orders the employer to pay part of their wages towards the debt. It applies only to individuals, not companies.
- Insolvency routes, as pressure. A statutory demand gives the debtor 21 days to pay or reach an agreement. After that, you can petition to wind up a company or apply to bankrupt an individual. You must be owed at least £750 to wind up a company, and at least £5,000 to bankrupt someone. These are serious steps with court fees and a deposit to pay, and the winding-up guidance warns that you might not get all or any of the money you are owed. They suit only a debt that is not genuinely disputed.
Which option makes sense depends on what the debtor owns, which is why knowing about their assets early matters.
7. How long do you have to act?
Under section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980, which applies in England and Wales, a claim founded on a simple contract cannot be brought more than six years after the cause of action accrued. For an unpaid invoice, that is usually the date payment fell due. After that, the claim is out of time.
The government's guidance also says that if a debt is over six years old you cannot usually make a statutory demand for it. Under section 29, an acknowledgement or a payment by the debtor makes time run afresh from that date, but the rules are specific. Our guide to the limitation period explains them. The safe course is not to let an old invoice drift towards the end of the six years.
8. What if the debtor is outside the UK?
The online claim service cannot be used if the debtor has no address in England or Wales, and a judgment from a court in England and Wales is not automatically enforceable in another country.
For some countries, a treaty helps. The Hague Judgments Convention of 2019 provides for judgments in civil and commercial matters to be recognised and enforced between the states that are party to it. The HCCH status table shows it entered into force for the EU on 1 September 2023 and for the United Kingdom on 1 July 2025. Under Article 16 it applies only where it already had effect between the two states when the proceedings were started, and it does not cover insolvency. Elsewhere, local law decides what is possible.
9. When should you pass it on?
You can take every step above yourself. Many businesses hand a debt over when:
- reminders and a final demand have gone unanswered;
- the debtor has stopped responding, moved, or changed name;
- you are not sure whether the protocol applies, or which court route to use;
- the amount is large enough that a procedural mistake would be costly;
- you have a judgment but do not know what the debtor owns;
- the debtor is outside England and Wales.
If you have an unpaid business invoice and want to know whether it is worth pursuing, tell us about the debt. You can also read how we work.
This guide is general information about the law in England and Wales as it stood when it was written. It is not legal advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. For advice on a particular case, speak to a solicitor.