The client won't pay: from overdue invoice to injunction

Marta delivered the work, issued a €2,000 invoice and waited. Thirty days passed, sixty, ninety - and nothing. The client stopped answering emails. Worse: if she issued the invoice, Marta may already have handed the VAT on it to the State, out of her own pocket. What can she do? There’s a path, and it’s more accessible than it looks.

First: the reminder (and late-payment interest)

Before anything formal, a written reminder may resolve many cases. If it doesn’t, send a formal demand (by email and, better, registered letter) giving a final deadline to pay.

And here’s a right many freelancers forget: in a commercial (B2B) transaction, you can charge late-payment interest from the day after the due date - you don’t have to “grant” the delay. Mentioning it in the demand usually speeds up payment.

The right tool: the injunction (injunção)

If the reminder isn’t enough, the next step isn’t court - it’s the injunction (injunção): a fast, cheap procedure handled by the Balcão Nacional de Injunções (BNI) to obtain an enforcement order (título executivo) - the document that later lets you enforce the debt (attach accounts, wages, assets).

How you actually file it: if you have a lawyer or solicitor (advogado/solicitador), they submit the request online through the Citius portal (electronic filing is reserved for these professionals). Without a representative - and you’re not required to have one - you file the request on paper or as a computer file at a competent court, which forwards it to the BNI. There’s a dedicated form and a court fee.

Injunction: the essentials

Where / how

Balcão Nacional de Injunções (BNI). With a lawyer or solicitor: online via the Citius portal. Without a representative: on paper or as a computer file, filed at a competent court (which forwards it to the BNI)

For which debts

Contract debts up to €15,000; or any amount if it's from a commercial transaction (not with a consumer)

Cost

A court fee (depends on the debt amount) - generally cheaper, at least at the initial stage (an objection can take the case to court and add costs)

Debtor's deadline

Once notified, generally has 15 days to pay or object

Result

With no objection or payment, it converts into an enforcement order - you move to enforcement

If the debtor doesn’t object, you get the order without even going to court. If they do object, the case proceeds to court like a lawsuit (with the costs that brings).

And the VAT you already advanced?

Here’s the part almost no one uses. If you issued the invoice with VAT and handed that VAT to the State, but never received it from the client, you may be able to recover that VAT if you meet the conditions, events and deadlines - it isn’t automatically lost:

Recovering the VAT from a non-payer (art. 78.º-A/78.º-B of the CIVA)

Doubtful debt

As a rule, invoice in default for more than 12 months, with objective risk of non-recovery and proof of collection efforts (or more than 6 months, if the credit doesn't exceed €750 with VAT and the debtor is a private individual or an exclusively-exempt taxable person). On the ordinary route (12 months) you request authorisation from the AT; the €750 route has its own deadline

Uncollectible debt

You recover the VAT when the proceedings confirm it (e.g. enforcement with no attachable assets, certain insolvency decisions) - in enforcement, insolvency, PER or RERE, under each process's conditions

Certification

The VAT adjustment is certified by a statutory auditor (ROC) or certified accountant, with rules that vary by route and amount (art. 78.º-D) - check with your accountant

It’s another reason not to let an overdue invoice “age” without acting: VAT is only recovered by meeting deadlines and rules.

Prevention is better: deposits and receipt-on-payment

Two simple defences for the future:

Ask for a deposit/advance before starting big jobs - it separates serious clients from the rest.
If you’re on the cash VAT regime (regime de IVA de caixa), you hand over the VAT when you get paid, not before - though if the invoice does go unpaid, the VAT becomes due after 12 months anyway.

Careful: the injunction isn’t for everything - any opposition filed within the deadline stops the order from being issued immediately (its merits are judged later, in court), and if the debt is disputed you really do need legal advice. And the VAT deadlines (on the ordinary route, 12 months in default and 6 months for the request) are tight: if you have an old unpaid invoice, talk to your accountant before the window closes.

✅ In summary

Don’t jump straight to court. Reminder with late-payment interest → injunction (fast and cheap) to get an enforcement order → enforcement. With a lawyer/solicitor you file via Citius; without a representative, on paper or as a file at a competent court. The injunction covers contract debts up to €15,000 or commercial transactions (no limit).
Don’t lose the VAT you advanced. If you issued an invoice with VAT and weren’t paid, you may be able to recover it, if you meet the conditions, as a doubtful (as a rule, default > 12 months) or uncollectible (enforcement/insolvency) credit - within the deadlines of art. 78.º-A/78.º-B of the CIVA.
With FIZ you see at a glance which invoices are unpaid and for how long, so you act in time - before the client disappears and before the VAT window closes. See the plans.