Coercion in case of termination of service if open invoice is not settled?
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been working as a freelancer alongside my studies for 1 1/2 years, selling my services as a programmer.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been working for a client whom I suspect may not have any liquid funds or be interested in investing personal money (he is a guarantor) into his company.
He has outstanding invoices of nearly 1000 euros with me, due in the middle of the month - unfortunately, I did not specify an immediate payment deadline.
Since I was worried about not getting the money at all and do not want to extend any further work without payment, I called him on Thursday and asked him to settle the invoices before the deadline. This was rejected with the explanation that he should have known earlier, and I can expect at most a partial payment (about 1/4 to 1/3) by Monday. (There is no written documentation of this conversation and his offer, and I do not know if it was serious.)
On Friday morning, I sent him this email:
Dear xyz,
Based on my accountant's advice, I must insist on payment of the outstanding invoices before the xyz deadline.
Please make this payment before the deadline. Payment can be made either in cash or by bank transfer. However, payment must be received in the bank account before the deadline, so cash is preferred.
Best regards,
xxx
Have I committed a crime? We had planned to submit the project by Friday. Via email. No signature, no contracts. Or are these plans to submit by this deadline already a legally binding agreement? I do not know.
What do you advise me to do?
Best regards,
Someone who prefers to remain anonymous
