How To Handle A Client’s Website When They Stop Paying

You finally got to your invoicing. Yes, we know you, you’ve already put it off for a few (six) weeks. But now, your client still has not paid that open invoice. It’s awkward. It’s frustrating. And if you handle it wrong, it costs you more than the unpaid invoice.

The invoice goes out. The due date passes. You send a friendly reminder. Nothing.

Another week. Another reminder. Still nothing. And while all of this is happening, you’re still paying for their hosting, renewing their plugin licences, running their backups, and keeping their site live.

At some point, someone on your team asks the question “Can we just shut off their website?”

The answer is more complicated than most people think. Getting it wrong — acting on frustration instead of process — can create consequences far bigger than the unpaid invoice itself.

This guide gives you a clear game plan. What to do first, what to do when that doesn’t work, what you can and can’t legally do (jk we don’t give legal advice or play lawyers on TV), and how to set yourself up so this doesn’t happen again.

TL;DR: Key Takeaways

Don’t act on emotion. Changing passwords or immediately suspending a site without contractual backing can expose you to legal liability – even when you’re owed money.

Your contract decides your options. Before doing anything, check what your agreement says about non-payment, suspension, and ownership. This is where you want an attorney.

Three ownership layers matter: the domain, the hosting account, and the website itself. Who controls each one changes what you can do.

Follow a documented escalation process. Polite reminder → direct follow-up → formal notice → service limitation → suspension → legal action. In that order.

Prevention beats recovery every time. The final section in our article is the one that saves you from needing the rest of it.

“How you hand a project off is how clients remember you. It’s almost like breaking up. They don’t look back on the cool homepage. They forget the rocket-fast load time. They remember the exit.”
Rocket.net – Grow Your WordPress Agency in a Smart and Sustainable Way

Before You Act: Understand Why They Stopped Paying

Before deciding what to do, spend 30 seconds thinking about why.

Most non-payment situations aren’t malicious. According to SCORE, the US Small Business Administration’s mentoring network, the most common reasons clients go quiet on invoices include forgetfulness, a temporary cash flow problem, a staffing change in their accounts team, or a dispute about scope they haven’t raised directly.

There’s also a pattern worth knowing about: sometimes a client who goes quiet is already in the process of moving to a new provider. They’ve mentally ended the relationship and feel less obligation to pay for services they no longer value. That doesn’t make it right but it changes how you approach the conversation.

Understanding the reason shapes the right response. A forgetful client needs a different nudge than one who is deliberately stalling.

The First Rule: Don’t Make Emotional Decisions

When payments stop, frustration is understandable. You delivered the work, covered the expenses, and sent multiple reminders.

Treat these as a process problem, not a personal one.

“We’re changing the passwords.”

“We’re suspending everything immediately.”

“We’re deleting the site.”

Those moves feel justified, but they can trigger legal disputes, chargebacks, reputation damage, and headaches that cost far more than whatever was owed.

From the Source – Developer Community Discussion

“I have one customer who it seems is always late paying for their annual hosting invoice. This year they’re now eight months overdue. I’ve sent numerous email reminders and left many voicemails. No response. I’ve had enough and was going to turn off their website. Before I do so, are there any other suggestions of things I can do before I take this drastic step?” reddit.com developer community discussion on client non-payment

The first question should never be “how do we punish the client?” Rather, it should be: What does our agreement actually allow us to do?

Read Your Contract Before You Touch Anything

Your contract is your strongest tool here – or your biggest weakness, depending on what’s in it.

Before taking any action, pull up the agreement and check what it says about:

Payment deadlines and grace periods

What triggers a suspension

How much notice you’re required to give

Who owns the domain, the hosting account, and the website itself

Data retention obligations after termination

What happens to premium plugin licences

What are your payment terms? Net 0, Net 15, Net 30?

Many agencies discover too late that their contracts explain how projects star yet say almost nothing about how they end. Clear suspension and termination clauses put you in a strong position. Without them, every decision becomes harder to defend.

The Three Ownership Questions You Need to Answer

Who owns what matters enormously. There are three separate layers, and they don’t always belong to the same person.

1. The Domain Name

The domain should ideally be registered in the client’s name, with your agency managing it on their behalf. If the domain is registered under your account, a non-payment dispute gets significantly more complicated. This means you carry more risk.

Many agencies apply a simple rule: the client owns the domain, the agency manages it. If you don’t currently operate this way, it’s worth changing.

2. The Hosting Account

The hosting account may belong to the client, to your agency, or sit inside a reseller account. Whoever owns the hosting account generally controls the ability to suspend it; but control doesn’t automatically mean legal ownership of the website living there.

If your agency owns the hosting account and pays the bill, you have a practical lever available if payment stops – provided your contract supports it. If the client controls their own hosting and just pays you a management fee, that lever doesn’t exist.

3. The Website Itself

Ownership of the website depends on what your contract says.

Key questions:

Was the site sold outright, or licensed?

Does your contract say you retain copyright until full payment is received?

Were premium themes and plugin licences transferred to the client, or are they still in your name?

Was the site built under a maintenance plan with different terms?

The Escalation Ladder for Late Payments

Most non-payment situations don’t need a lawyer, they need correct billing and contact info and they need a process. Follow these steps in order.

Step 1 — The Polite Reminder (15 Days)

Start with the simplest assumption: they forgot, or the invoice went to spam. Send a short, friendly message with the invoice reattached and a clear payment link. Write it as if they forgot to pay the invoice. Ensure the subject line is different from the first invoice that you sent. Keep the tone warm; no ultimatums.

“Can you help me? It seems I haven’t received payment for Invoice #1234. Did you receive it from my accounting program?”

“Can you help me? Is Jenny still the correct person to contact regarding invoices?”

Don’t rely on email alone. An SMS or WhatsApp message stands out and gets immediate attention – and automated billing platforms can handle this without it feeling personal. If you work with small businesses, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

For clients in certain markets, a statement via snail mail can also be surprisingly effective. It signals a level of seriousness that a digital nudge doesn’t. General Contractors, for example, don’t have a lot of time to sit at their computers reading email. But their office manager will get the statement.

Step 2 — The Direct Follow-Up (30 Days)

If the polite reminder gets no response, escalate the medium, not the emotion. Pick up the phone. Calls are harder to ignore than emails.

Keep it professional and brief: the invoice is overdue, you want to understand if there’s a problem, and you’d like to agree on a payment date by the end of the week.

“How can I help you get this paid?”

“Do you need anything from me in order to process this payment?”

This is also the point to reach out to an alternate contact. If your usual point of contact has gone quiet, escalate to a senior person at the company. Many payment problems live in the gap between the person who commissioned the work and the person who controls the cheque book.

If cash flow is the issue and they raise it openly, a payment plan is a reasonable response; but get it confirmed in writing before you agree to anything. Remember, many businesses respond to the loudest creditor.

Most non-payment situations resolve at this stage.

“Don’t do anything more for a client with a late invoice… you have more leverage for getting that invoice paid if the client is still waiting on half of a project.”
SCORE, 8 Options When Your Clients Refuse to Pay You

Step 3 — The Formal Notice (45 Days)

If two rounds of follow-up have gone nowhere, shift to formal territory.

Send a written notice to every contact you have at the company, stating clearly:

The total amount owed

The original due date and how many days overdue it now is

A firm deadline for payment (7–10 days)

That services will be suspended if payment isn’t received

That you reserve the right to charge late payment interest (check your contract and jurisdiction – this is a legal right in many countries)

At this stage, stop all non-essential work. Don’t take on new tasks or respond to support requests beyond the bare minimum.

Step 4 — Limit Services, Not the Live Site (60 Days)

If a formal notice gets no response, start reducing services but do this before pulling the plug on the website itself.

Pause or stop:

Content updates

SEO work

Development tasks

Consulting hours

Feature requests

Notice what isn’t on that list yet: the live website.

Step 5 — Suspension (If Your Contract Supports It) – (90+ Days)

If your agreement includes a suspension clause and adequate written notice has been given, you may be within your rights to suspend hosting access.

One widely-cited piece of industry guidance recommends giving a final 3-day notice before suspension, so the client has one last clear chance to settle the balance and avoid disruption.

Before you do anything:

Take a complete backup. Every file, the full database, everything. Store it somewhere you control.

Document the entire communication trail. Every email, call, and written notice, with dates.

Suspend – don’t delete. Suspension can be reversed. Deletion cannot – and deleting a client’s website can expose you to claims for lost business data, lost customer records, and property damage, on top of the original dispute.

Don’t post a public message on their domain. Replacing a client’s site with a “deadbeat” notice is widely flagged by legal professionals as defamatory and professionally damaging to you. A clean maintenance page is the limit.

The goal at this stage is cost control and leverage; not punishment.

“Suspending hosting services doesn’t mean you’re terminating the contract — it just means that the services are temporarily halted until payment is made… be sure to mention that if services are suspended, you’ll charge a reactivation fee to cover administrative costs.”
Michiel Grotenhuis

The Hidden Cost Nobody Talks About

Most of the focus in non-payment situations is on the unpaid invoice. But there’s a second financial problem running quietly in the background.

Agencies often continue absorbing costs for a non-paying client long after payments stop:

Hosting fees

Premium plugin licences (many renew annually)

Security monitoring tools

Backup services

CDN costs

SSL certificates

Uptime monitoring subscriptions

A single non-paying client can quietly cost hundreds — sometimes thousands – of dollars over time before anything gets resolved. This is why mature agencies don’t just chase the debt: they have an offboarding process that cuts these costs as quickly as the dispute allows.

Your Recovery Options

If the escalation process doesn’t resolve things, you have several routes. SCORE recommends evaluating all of them before committing to any one.

Formal Demand Letter

A formal demand letter from your attorney adds legal weight that your own emails don’t carry. Sometimes the threat of legal action is enough to prompt payment without ever filing anything. It’s worth the cost of a single billable hour if the amount is significant.

Mediation

A neutral third party helps both sides reach an agreement without going to court. It’s faster and cheaper than litigation, preserves what’s left of the relationship if that matters, and works well when both parties have a genuine dispute about scope or deliverables.

Small Claims Court

Usually the fastest and cheapest legal route for unpaid invoices. Key facts (USA, 2026):

Limits vary by state: from $2,500 in Kentucky up to $25,000 in Tennessee and Delaware. Most states fall in the $5,000–$12,500 range. Always verify your state’s current limit before filing.

Filing fees: typically $30–$300 depending on state and claim size, with most states in the $30–$200 range.

No lawyer required (in states like California, Arizona, and Michigan, lawyers are not permitted to appear at the hearing at all).

Default judgments: defendants fail to appear in roughly 30–40% of small claims cases nationally, resulting in automatic default judgments for plaintiffs who’ve documented their claims.

Winning vs. collecting: according to the American Bar Association, roughly 80% of US civil money judgments go uncollected. A judgment is a tool, not a guarantee – you may still need to pursue garnishment or property liens to receive payment.

One practical note: simply filing — before the case even reaches a hearing — has been known to prompt same-day payment calls from clients who had ignored months of follow-ups.

Debt Collection Agency

Collection agencies typically charge 15–40% of what they recover on B2B debts, with most commercial accounts falling in the 20–35% range.

Fresh debts under 180 days old typically command rates of 20–25%.

Recovery rates for professional B2B agencies generally range from 30–70% depending on debt age and complexity — and importantly, they decline sharply as debt ages. Invoices over 12 months old have only around a 10% chance of collection regardless of who pursues them.

If the relationship is over and you don’t want the hassle of court, a collection agency is often the more practical path.

Invoice Factoring

A factoring company buys your unpaid invoice from you and collects from the client directly. Advance rates are typically 70–90% of the invoice face value (some specialist providers go higher), with factoring fees of 1–5% of the invoice value per 30-day period. You get immediate cash and walk away from the chase.

As SCORE notes, losing a portion of what you’re owed isn’t ideal, but if you’re wasting too much time chasing a bill, factoring gets you a good amount of money and removes the hassle from your plate. It’s worth knowing this option exists, even if you don’t use it often.

“Keep an eye out for additional transaction fees or percentage deductions before you do factoring. Losing a quarter of what you’re owed isn’t ideal, but if you’re wasting too much time trying to get someone to pay a bill, factoring gets you a good amount of money and removes the hassle from your life.”
SCORE, 8 Options When Your Clients Refuse to Pay You

One warning on public callouts: naming non-paying clients publicly, even with accurate information, can expose you to defamation claims depending on how it’s framed and where you’re based.

Private professional communities are safer than public posts if you want to warn others in your network.

The Managed Hosting Complication

If you’re a managed hosting provider, or an agency hosting client sites through a reseller account, there’s an additional layer to think through.

The structure often looks like this:

Client → Agency → Hosting Provider

The hosting provider’s contract is with your agency, not the end client. The host doesn’t know the client exists, and they won’t suspend the site on your behalf because a client missed an invoice. That decision sits with you; and it needs to be backed by your own agreement with the client, not your agreement with the host.

This is why a clear suspension clause in your client-facing contract matters so much when you’re operating in this model.

Your Offboarding Checklist

Most agencies have a detailed onboarding process. Far fewer have a structured offboarding process.

Whether a client relationship ends voluntarily or through non-payment, a documented checklist makes the whole thing faster, cleaner, and less emotional.

Financial

What invoices are outstanding?

What recurring costs are you currently absorbing?

What’s the final payment history and any agreed plan?

Technical

Who owns the hosting account?

Who owns the domain?

Which plugin licences are in your name vs the client’s?

Is there a current site backup stored somewhere you control?

Communication

What formal notices have been sent and when?

Is there a documented record of all contact attempts?

Have all deadlines been communicated in writing?

Transition

Is a full site export ready if needed?

Are credentials documented and ready to hand over?

Has the client been formally notified of the termination timeline?

Your Reputation Is Worth More Than the Invoice

The WordPress and agency world is smaller than it looks. How you behave when things go wrong travels – and potential clients pay close attention to how agencies handle difficult situations.

Being perceived as professional, fair, and consistent creates more long-term value than winning any single payment dispute.

A practical note: a client who pays late with you will likely pay late with their next provider, too.

Sometimes the cleanest outcome is ending the relationship professionally and letting the next agency deal with the pattern you’ve already documented. Your reputation stays intact. Theirs doesn’t improve.

Most clients who stop paying (presuming your invoice is correct) aren’t deliberately bad actors. They’re disorganized, embarrassed, or in financial trouble they haven’t told you about. A firm but fair process resolves most of these situations before they escalate. For the ones that don’t, that’s what contracts, demand letters, and small claims court is for.

The Real Solution is Prevention

The agencies that rarely encounter payment problems aren’t lucky. They’ve built their agreements, payment structures, and hosting arrangements so that non-payment is difficult and expensive for the client before it becomes a problem for the agency.

SCORE recommends researching a potential client’s payment reputation before starting any engagement. Do other local businesses or agencies in your network have experience with this client? A quick conversation can surface a pattern before it becomes your problem.

Beyond due diligence, these structural changes make the biggest difference:

Require a deposit before work starts. Thirty to fifty percent upfront is standard. It covers your costs if the project falls apart, and it filters out clients who were never serious about paying.

Break payments into milestones. Never hand over a completed site before the majority of payment is received. The final deliverable unlocks on final payment, not before.

Include a suspension clause in your contract. Example: “In the event of non-payment exceeding 30 days, Provider reserves the right to suspend services with 7 days written notice.” If it’s in the contract, suspension is a right. Without it, it’s a risk.

Retain copyright until you’re paid. Your contract should explicitly state that intellectual property rights transfer to the client on receipt of full payment. This is one of your most powerful levers in a dispute and costs nothing to include.

Own the hosting account for ongoing clients. If you control the hosting and pay the bill, you have a practical tool available if payment stops. Most successful agencies building recurring revenue, bundle hosting into a monthly retainer.

Use automatic billing where possible. Card-on-file recurring billing removes the manual invoice cycle entirely. When payment happens automatically, most non-payment situations never start.

Final Thought

When a client stops paying, the first instinct is to shut something down.

In most cases, that’s the wrong starting point.

The right starting point is your contract. Then ownership. Then a documented process that moves clearly from communication to limitation to suspension, with legal action as a final escalation, not a first reaction.

The agencies that handle this well don’t do it through confrontation; they do it through process improvement.