Book-keeper witholding my accounts

[fingerscrossed]

Good afternoon everyone, I have been trying to get my accounts done for some 5 years now! Paying the usual fines for not submitting them. At first I gave them to a friend to put onto Sage so I could keep track of my business myself, she did not do them and it took a year to get my paperwork back. Then I met a book-keeper who had her own business and said that she would do the work for me, so I handed all the paperwork to her. After a year of delays (she took on new staff to cope with extra work, then got pregnant) I started to get peeved and went round and demanded my paperwork back, I was told there were only a few days of work to finish it all, so I left it with her. 3 years later I had had enough of hassling her and being fobbed off, so I went round when she wasn't there and recovered my paperwork from her assistant.
I took this to my accountant who is now completing the work. I had agreed to do some work for the book-keeper in exchange for the first two years accounts, I did the work two years ago.
Now she has emailed to say she still has all my payment invoices and will give them back when I pay my bill to her, which she hasn't produced yet!
Where do I stand legally with;
1)Her keeping my paperwork
2)My extra expenses like all the fines I have paid, interest on any tax I should have paid, and a threatening estimation of my tax liablity which would be higher than the actual(I am guessing).
3) Deducting the extra payments from her bill, when it arrives

Thanks

 

[Former Member 1]

My instict here is that you need the services of a lawyer... However...

The invoices are your property. By refusing to return that property it strikes me there is a possiblity she is guilty of theft. This isn't the same thing as a garage refusing to return a car on which it has carried out repairs. In the latter case there is an issue of title in respect of value added to the property...

We've had similar run-ins back inthe day when original source material was lent to a broadcaster to do a conforming edit. In the end our solicitor simply called the police!

I would also have thought her guilty of breach of contract, in respect of which you may well be entitled to seek damages. But the bottom line is that only a solicitor can advise on these matters.

Even if there was one here they're not about to give legal advice for free on an open internet forum... It wouldn't be wise either from a business or liability standpoint. I'm also forced to comment that it seems extraordinary that you've let this go on so long! Paying fines and all! You should have sought legal advice sooner!

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Dave,

I know your only new to the forums but who in their right mind leaves something like this lingering for five years!

I guess there are some legal issues here and like Matt says they are not for a forum like this and need specific legal advice. You've got the paperwork back now which is the most important thing and I would urge you to get things completed as quickly as possible.

Given the timeframes involved etc I would say to you it's not really worth all the hassle and upset to pursue it. Get things back up to date and move forward. I would be putting this one down to experience.

Sorry I cant be more positive

 

[Gouldie0]

Hi Dave,

I tend to agree with both Matt and , why was this left for so long and when you initially engaged with the bookkeeper, did you not agree a 'terms of engagement'?

Sounds a bit odd but did you ever seek legal advice throughout the 5 year period? What was the value of the work you completed for her?

All being said though I do think a line needs to be drawn in the sand, move on and try and use this as an example of what not to do next time.

Kind Regards

Neil

 

[fingerscrossed]

Thanks for your replies.

With all due respect , it was not left 'lingering' for 5 yrs, if you read my initial post all the info is there, I did do a lot of chasing and promises were made, you have to have some faith in people that they are going to produce the goods!

I cannot move on until the final bills are paid as the book-keeper has not given me a bill for the work so that needs to be settled. The tax man has not given me my tax liability yet, so until all that is sorted out it still hangs over me!

Neil, there were no terms of agreement, just trust and faith in someone doing their job properly, they came recommended and worked for a big local company, so I thought all would be OK.

Just to point out, in my previous business all my accounts were done on a yearly basis no problems, its just unfortunate I met up with this so called book-keeper, and yes I think legal help is inevitable.

Dave

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Apologies if what I said above offended you in any way. I promise you that was not my intention. I just dont think I would have left things that long irrespective of how well someone came recommended.

Anyway irrespective of that, you mentioned above that there were no terms of engagement, do you have anything in writing with regards to the work you performed and how this was to be paid? Have you invoiced for it?

 

[Former Member 1]

I did do a lot of chasing and promises were made, you have to have some faith in people that they are going to produce the goods!

You need to have a bit of faith in folk for sure... But at the end of the day you can't run a professional business on the nod.

I learned a long time ago that no honest person has anything to fear from putting what they've agreed down on a bit paper... And in my business certainly the importance of a solid audit trail cannot be over stressed.

Little point in recriminations though and it's a lesson learned the hard way. I suspect the key priiority here is to apply a bit of leverage to recover the records that are being held hostage. You may find a shot across the bows from the solicitor does the trick....

 

[fingerscrossed]

, no offence taken and yes it was crazy to leave it that long but I am not an accountant, and as my dad taught me, what you don't have knowledge of you leave to those who do. I was told that everything was in hand and she dealt with the perusing tax man no problem, at one point I demanded my paperwork back and was told it would only take a couple of days to finish, 1 year later and nothing! My priority was to get the work done and out the door so my customers were happy.
I was using some estimating software that all my pricing/invoicing was done on so I had all the figures for turnover/expenses etc at hand, so I wasn't flying blind as it were.

Anyway lesson learnt.

Thanks for the input

Dave