Act quickly to claim fees, or lose out

Professionals seeking payment of their fees need to do so promptly or risk becoming time-barred, a recent Court of Appeal decision has shown.

In Smales v Lea & Ors, an ex tempore decision delivered on 19 October, the court upheld a finding that the appellant surveyor’s claim for payment was out of time.

The surveyor completed work on the window of a property with subsidence in 1998 but did not bill the homeowner’s insurer (his fees formed part of the owner’s insurance claim) until 2001. The insurers queried the bill. Due to ill health and other reasons, the surveyor did not respond until 2007. The insurers were only willing to pay a lower sum than that invoiced for. In 2008, the surveyor commenced proceedings for payment of his fees from the executors of the owner’s estate (the owner had since died).

The court found that the surveyor’s cause of action accrued from 1999 at the latest because he was able to claim payment once he completed the majority of the work and did not need to wait until he performed all his obligations (which included completing the insurance claim). Therefore, his claim was time-barred.