What to Do When a Customer Won't Pay Your Invoice

Remind the homeowner with a pay link the day after it's due, call within a week, then send a final notice with a pay-by date. If that passes, use small claims when the bill is under your state's limit. If it's over, file a mechanics lien (a claim on the house) before the deadline, which counts from your finish date.

That deadline is the part most advice leaves out. If the homeowner hired you directly, you often have something most people chasing a bill don't: a mechanics lien, a legal claim against the house you worked on, filed with the county. The dates below are worked out for California, Texas and Florida. Other states set their own, so look yours up before you send the final notice: search your state's name with “mechanics lien deadline” and “small claims limit,” or ask the county clerk. If you're a subcontractor billing a builder, the notice rules are different, so check those before you count on a lien.

The Clock Starts When You Finish

Your lien clock started when you packed up your tools, not when the customer stopped answering your texts. Here's one job, start to finish. A remodeler finishes a kitchen on October 6, 2026, and sends the final invoice the same day: $22,000 still owed, due on completion. That's over the small claims limit in all three states, so the lien is the path. The customer stops answering. This is the whole plan, with real dates:

On a $600 service call the reminder dates are the same, but step 4 sends you to small claims instead of the lien. If you gave the customer 30 days to pay, a third of a 90-day lien clock is gone before the bill is even due. In that case, run the same two weeks from the due date: reminder, call, final notice. If you clean houses or mow lawns, read the first check in step 4 before you count on a lien.

Already weeks in? Count from your finish date today. Past day 30, skip to the final notice in step 3 and send it now. Past day 60 in California or Florida, or within a month of the Texas deadline, file the lien first or call a construction lawyer today, and send the notice the same day. The lien deadline won't wait for the notice's deadline. If your lien deadline has passed, the lien is gone, but small claims and letting it go are still open.

1. Find Out Why They Haven't Paid

Before you escalate, work out which kind of late this is.

• They never saw it, or forgot. An emailed invoice can land in spam. Resend it by text as well as email, and check whether it was opened.
• They can't pay it all at once. Offer a payment plan in writing: amounts, dates, and what happens if a payment is missed. Record each payment when it comes in. A payment plan doesn't stop the lien clock, so if it runs past day 60, ask a lawyer before you agree.
• They say something's wrong with the work. Go look. If there's a real problem, fix it or credit it in writing, and ask for the part nobody disputes now. A fair fix keeps the conversation about the money. A demand letter over a loose outlet cover turns it into a fight.
• They just won't pay. Skip ahead to the final notice in step 3. Don't spend a month being polite.

Watch for one trap in a dispute: a check for less than you billed, marked “paid in full.” Cashing a check like that on a bill you're arguing about can settle the whole debt. California, Texas and Florida all have this rule.¹ Talk to a lawyer before you deposit it.

2. Remind, Call and Offer a Plan

Keep the first two weeks short and friendly. The day after it's due, send a reminder with the invoice number, the amount and the pay link, so paying takes a minute on their phone. A week later, call. A phone call gets you a reason, and a reason tells you which case above you're in.

Don't add a late fee your quote didn't mention. The homeowner never agreed to it, and it gives them one more thing to argue about. In California, a contract with no interest rate still earns 10% a year after the customer misses the due date, so you can ask for that interest without a late fee.² Put a late fee in your next quote instead.

3. Send a Final Notice With a Deadline

About two weeks after the due date, send one written final notice. It should say:

• The amount owed, the invoice number and the quote they signed.
• The date the work was finished and the original due date.
• What you've already done: the reminders and the call.
• A deadline, about 10 days out, written as a date.
• The one thing you'll do next if it isn't paid: file a lien or take them to small claims. Name only what you'll really do.

Send it by certified mail and by email or text, and keep copies. Keep the tone flat. You may need to show this letter to a judge.

Be careful what you threaten. In California, the debt collection law can cover a business collecting its own bills. It bans threatening arrest, or taking property or wages, unless you really plan to and the law allows it.³ And don't make up a “collections department” to scare them. Under federal rules, if you collect your own bill under a made-up name that suggests someone else is collecting, you count as a debt collector, with all the rules that come with it.⁴

4. When the Notice Runs Out, Pick a Path

If the deadline in your notice passes, stop waiting. Our advice: if the bill is under your state's small claims limit, go to small claims. It's cheap and quick. If the bill is over the limit, file the mechanics lien before its deadline and call a construction lawyer. If you can't file a lien and the bill is over the limit, ask that lawyer about a regular lawsuit. And if collecting would cost more than the bill, go to Path C.

Three checks can rule a path out:

• Does a lien cover your work? A lien is for work on the property itself. California, Texas and Florida list building, repair, demolition and landscaping, and Florida adds that the work must be for the property's permanent benefit.^{5, 6, 7} House cleaning, mowing and other routine service visits aren't on those lists. If that's your trade, plan on small claims.
• Were you licensed for the job? California won't let an unlicensed contractor sue for pay on work that needs a license, in small claims or to enforce a lien. One exemption covers small jobs: under $1,000 in total, no building permit needed, and you don't advertise as a contractor or hire help.⁸ Florida is just as strict: if the job needed a state contractor's license and you didn't have one, you can't enforce the contract in court, and you get no lien.⁷
• In Texas, is it the owner's home? A lien on a homestead (the home the owner lives in) needs a written contract signed before you started, by both spouses if they're married, and filed with the county clerk.⁶ A quote sent by text or a handshake doesn't meet that rule.

A lien and small claims do different jobs. A lien is a claim on the house, but it doesn't pay you by itself. If the homeowner still won't pay, you have to sue on the lien before it runs out. Small claims is the quick way to get a judgment: a court order saying they owe you the money. In California, that judgment can become a lien on their property too.⁹

Decide within a week after your notice's deadline. On a job due at completion that's around day 30, which leaves about 60 days before the lien deadline in California and Florida. If you gave 30 days to pay, you'll have about half that, so file soon after you decide.

Path A: File a Mechanics Lien in Time

If your bill is under your state's small claims limit, skip to Path B. Over it, you probably don't owe anyone a notice before you file. In California the only early notice goes to a construction lender (a bank lending money for the job), if there is one. In Texas you don't need one either.^{5, 6} What you can't miss is the filing deadline, and the lawsuit that has to follow it. You file the lien with the county where the house is; California and Florida call this “recording” it.

A final payment affidavit is a sworn statement, on Florida's form, saying whether everyone who worked under you and gave notice has been paid.

Two Ways a Lien Goes Wrong

• The contract was missing Florida's notice. In Florida, a contract over $2,500 for a home needs the state's lien notice printed in it. Leave it out, and the lien can be blocked if the missing notice hurt the owner.⁷
• You padded the amount. Claim only what you're owed for work you did. In Texas, a lien filed to defraud can cost you at least $10,000 plus the owner's legal fees.¹⁰ An honest disagreement about the amount isn't fraud.

Path B: Sue in Small Claims

Small claims court is built for bills like yours: a low filing fee, and no lawyer needed (in California, none allowed). Bring the signed quote, any change orders, the invoice, your final notice and photos of the finished work. The limit depends on the state, and in California on whether you sue as yourself or as an LLC or corporation:

Winning is the first half. In California the court won't collect the money for you, but it gives you the tools: an order for the customer to answer questions about their assets under oath, an order to take part of their wages, an order to take money from their bank account, or a lien on their property. The judgment lasts 10 years, and you can renew it before it runs out.⁹

Path C: Hand It Off, or Let It Go

Many collection agencies work on contingency: nothing up front, and a cut of what they recover. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts that cut at 25% to 50%.¹⁴ On a $600 service call, that can leave you $300.

Sometimes the right call is to let it go. Add up a lost day of work for court, the filing fee and the time spent collecting, and compare it with the bill. Don't count on a tax break to soften the loss, either. If you count income when the money arrives, which is what cash accounting means, you can't deduct an unpaid invoice as a bad debt, because the money was never counted as income.¹⁵ Ask your accountant how this applies to you. Whatever you decide, don't work for that customer again without a deposit.

Make the Next Job Easier to Collect

Everything above goes faster with paperwork you set up before the job: a signed quote with the price, the deposit, the due date and any late fee, plus a signed change order (a written OK) for every extra. The guide to invoicing as a contractor covers deposit limits by state and how to word the terms, and the free quote maker builds a quote with a deposit line and a signature line. In Florida, put the state's lien notice in any home contract over $2,500.⁷ In Texas, if it's the owner's home, get the contract signed by both spouses before you start and file it with the county clerk.⁶

Ask to be paid when the job's done, not in 30 days. In Intuit QuickBooks' 2026 late payments report, 55% of businesses that gave customers 30 days to pay had overdue invoices, compared with 26% of those asking to be paid right away.¹⁶ It's a survey, not a test, but the gap is hard to ignore.

Doing This in Invoice Goat

Here's what Invoice Goat does for this plan:

• The customer signs the quote on their own phone before you start, so the price and the terms are agreed in writing. That's the paper you'll want if it ever goes to small claims.
• The invoice history shows when the customer viewed the invoice, so “I never got it” is easy to answer.
• Every invoice has a link the customer can pay from by card or bank transfer, if you turn on online payments. Copy link gives you a link to paste into a text.
• When a payment plan comes in piece by piece, Add Payment records each one, and the invoice shows what's paid and what's still due.

We don't send payment reminders, so the reminder, the call and the final notice are yours to send. See what it costs on the Invoice Goat pricing page.

Sources and Dates

Sources checked October 11 and 12, 2026. This guide explains the rules in plain words; it isn't legal advice for your job.

1. Uniform Commercial Code section 3-311, accord and satisfaction by use of an instrument. Texas enacted it as Business and Commerce Code section 3.311 (https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/BC/htm/BC.3.htm), California as Commercial Code section 3311 and Florida as Statutes section 673.3111. https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/3/3-311
2. California Civil Code section 3289(b): a contract that does not state an interest rate bears 10 percent a year after a breach. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=3289
3. California Civil Code sections 1788.2(c) (a debt collector includes a person who regularly collects debts on their own behalf) and 1788.10(e) (no threat of arrest, seizure or garnishment unless the action is actually planned and permitted by law). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1788.10
4. Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.2(i): a creditor collecting its own debts that uses a name other than its own, suggesting a third party is collecting, is a debt collector. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1006/section-1006.2
5. California Civil Code sections 8050 (a work of improvement includes construction, alteration, repair, demolition and planting for landscaping), 8200(e)(2) (a contractor hired by the owner gives preliminary notice only to the construction lender, if any), 8412 (recording deadline for a direct contractor), 8416 (a copy served on the owner, with the proof of service in the lien itself) and 8460 (90 days to sue after recording). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=8412
6. Texas Property Code sections 53.021 (a lien for labor or materials to build or repair an improvement, landscaping and demolition), 53.052 (residential filing deadline), 53.055 (copy to the owner within 5 days), 53.056 (pre-lien notice for claimants other than the original contractor), 53.158 (deadline to sue) and 53.254 (homestead contract). https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/PR/htm/PR.53.htm
7. Florida Statutes sections 713.01(16) (an improvement is building, construction, demolition, excavation, landscaping and the like, done for the property's permanent benefit), 713.015 (lien notice in residential contracts over $2,500), 713.02(7) (no lien for unlicensed contractors), 713.06(3)(d) (final payment affidavit, delivered at least 5 days before suing), 713.08 (90 days to record, 15 days to serve), 713.22 (one year to sue, 60 days after a notice of contest); section 489.128 (a contract by a contractor without a required state license can't be enforced by that contractor, and gives no lien). http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0713/0713.html
8. California Business and Professions Code sections 7031(a) and (e) (an unlicensed contractor can't sue for pay for work that needs a license; a court may find substantial compliance for a contractor licensed before the job who acted promptly to fix a lapse) and 7048 (work under $1,000 in total that needs no building permit is exempt, when the person doesn't advertise as a contractor or hire help). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=7048
9. Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, What happens after trial: the court won't collect for you, but issues orders for wage garnishment, bank levies and liens on real property, and can order a debtor's examination; a money judgment runs out after 10 years unless renewed. https://sanmateo.courts.ca.gov/self-help/small-claims-self-help/what-happens-after-trial
10. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 12.002: liability for a fraudulent lien of the greater of $10,000 or actual damages, plus court costs, attorney's fees and exemplary damages; a Chapter 53 lien claimant is liable only with intent to defraud. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/CP/htm/CP.12.htm
11. California Code of Civil Procedure sections 116.221 (up to $12,500 in an action brought by a natural person) and 116.220 ($6,250 otherwise); California Courts self-help, Small claims in California: filing fee $30 to $100, no lawyer can represent you, the court does not collect for you (https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/small-claims-california). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP&sectionNum=116.221
12. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 500.1(a): a small claims case can be for no more than $20,000, excluding statutory interest and court costs but including attorney fees. https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1462349/texas-rules-of-civil-procedure.pdf
13. Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court, Small Claims: claims up to $8,000, not including costs, interest and attorney's fees, under Florida Small Claims Rule 7.010. https://www.miamidadeclerk.gov/clerk/small-claims.page
14. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CO: collection agencies on contingency receive a percentage of what they recover, often between 25% and 50% (published August 11, 2026). https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/how-do-debt-collection-agencies-get-paid
15. IRS, Topic no. 453, Bad debt deduction: a cash method taxpayer generally can't deduct unpaid fees as a bad debt. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc453
16. Intuit QuickBooks, Small Business Late Payments Report 2026: 55% of businesses that give customers 30 days to pay have overdue invoices, compared with 26% of those asking for payment right away. Based on Intuit QuickBooks surveys of US business owners. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/small-business-late-payments-report-2026/