Chasing, then serving formal notice

An unpaid invoice of 8 000 € bears late-payment interest from the day after it falls due, with no reminder needed. A flat recovery indemnity of 40 € is added to it, owed as of right between businesses.

When the claim falls due

Amicable recovery covers claims whose payment date has passed and which the customer has not yet settled. That date is not set the same way depending on whether the customer is a private individual or a business.

With a private individual, payment is generally due immediately: it is cash payment, and no period is granted. With a business, the period runs between thirty and sixty days according to the seller's sector of activity.

Between businesses, late-payment interest is owed from the date on which payment should have been made, the one shown on the invoice. It runs on its own, with no prior formal notice of any kind.

The reminder, which is never compulsory

Amicable recovery has two stages, and neither of them is compulsory. The reminder is nonetheless used almost systematically: the business contacts its customer by telephone or in writing to recall the invoice left unpaid.

It works where the non-payment comes from an oversight or a passing difficulty. It does not where it comes from a dispute: a solution to that dispute must then be found before any recovery operation is started at all.

One internal reflex usefully accompanies the reminder: warning the sales department, so that no new orders are taken and no particular payment terms are granted while the unpaid invoice is still running.

Where the reminder fails, there is no point multiplying others. The official page is explicit here: one moves to the formal notice, which itself requires no prior reminder, no more than a summons for payment does.

Three forms of formal notice

The formal notice is not compulsory either, save in particular cases. It takes three forms, and the choice depends on the amount at stake as much as on the effect sought on the debtor.

• A summons served by a judicial officer, of strong psychological impact, but whose cost makes it ill-suited to small claims
• A recorded letter with acknowledgement of receipt carrying a sufficiently clear and formal demand
• A contract clause providing that the mere falling due of the payment amounts to formal notice to the debtor
• For claims below 5 000 €, amicable recovery may be entrusted to a judicial officer

One case makes the formal notice compulsory: a subcontractor wanting to claim payment directly from the client must first serve formal notice on the main contractor, with a copy to the client. Direct action only opens one month later.

The formal notice produces an effect the reminder does not: it puts an end to the interest that started running from the default in payment. It is a turning point, not a mere step of commercial courtesy.

The debtor may use it too, and that case comes as a surprise. Where the creditor refuses to receive the payment owed, or does everything to stop the debtor paying, the debtor serves formal notice on the creditor to receive payment.

One last amicable route exists for claims below 5 000 €: entrusting recovery to a judicial officer. Delegating to a recovery firm stays possible too, but the official page recalls that this comes at a cost of its own.