I was engaged to do some work for another company and it was agreed that the work would be completed on an hourly basis.
Part of the work included supplying material and also plant and equipment which again would be hired at either an hourly or daily rate.
In submitting the invoice I indicated the hours for each operative and also the hourly rate (the hours and rates varied for each operative), along with the plant hire, equipment and materials.
When bringing the hours across I inadvertantly put the wrong totals for two operatives and it showed the hourly rate rather than the sum total e.g. 60 hours worked @ £15.00 per hour and in the invoice total it showed £15.00. The total of the discrepancy is over £1 K under in the invoice total column.
The company has paid the invoice total but it does not account for the actual charges and the error only became evident when computing the end of year accounts.
Is the company legally bound to pay the under payment
Ah this is where you need to weight up the actual affect of chasing the underpayment? do you own up and admit the mistake and send a revised invoice to them to which they may dispute? or do you let it slide because you may get more work from them?
It there a contract in place signed by both parties that would prove the invoice to be incorrect?
This is more of a customer service issue rather than a legal issue to me. £1k is a lot of money, will trying to correct your error affect your future relationship?
