RightSolicitor Legal Discussion & Legal Advice

[GF101]

I have a lovely muddle on my hands at the moment. A company I was dealing with is undergoing a split and I need to ensure that when I pay the final outstanding balance I do so to the right person.

The business is a sole trader. The person we originally knew and contracted with brought in a new partner to 'deal with the admin and business management' and it now appears, at least according to her, that she is the one with the business and accounts as he is an undischarged bankrupt. (I can't check this without a private address for him apparently and I do realise he should have declared it.)

Deposits were paid. They worked on the job together and delivered (just) on the contract altho not without major issues which we had intended raising and attempting to resolve with them. But they have now fallen out. She claims he was abusive and that he was taking drugs during the contract and that it was this behind the problems. We had some indications of problems altho nothing sound enough to act on but it has added to the doubts we now have.

He has compounded this by now asking for the final payment to be made to a family member's private bank account! She says he will take the money and leave her with the business debts and revealed that she has questions and concerns about the legitimacy of his supplier invoices.

My instinct is that legally I must pay to the account to which we also paid the deposits and that if he has a legitimate issue with that it's for him to resolve. In truth I don't want to be involved in their dispute or have to choose between them but I am forced into a position of trying to play solomon here.

I didn't know her until he introduced her and a short while ago would have said I trusted him. However he undoubtedly let us down on the job whatever the reason and the switch to a family bank account doesn't ring right at all and if he's bankrupt may put me in a legally doubtful positon so at this point frankly she sounds much the more credible of the two.

How do I ensure that I pay the right person and that the debts for the work carried out are discharged by us... and for us with suppliers of our supplier as it were?

Can I ask for full and open accounts (which he was happy to agree to in the first instance) so that I can check the invoices that are supposedly being paid from our budget are both legitmate and are settled as they should be?

What can I ask for to prove who owns the company that we owe the balance to when it's a sole trader business?

And lastly am I within my rights to simply ask if he should have declared bankruptcy when we first spoke?


Thanks for any help anyone can offer on my fine little mess!

regards

GF