Re: FN-FORUM: Contract termination - any legal experts?

date posted 2nd August 2007 10:17

Firstly I am not a legal expert but, it sounds to me as if you may have
a problem with a loosely worded contract.

It also sounds as if they are treating you very badly.

I am a bit confused about what you contract with them actually amounted
to, you mentioned "fixed price" and also that you charged monthly by the
day.

I assume that you did suspend work when they asked you, so they should
pay your last invoice with no strings attached. If it is more than 30
days late you can charge them interest and start proceedings in the
small claims court.

I would write them a letter saying this, and pointing out that the end
of the contract has no bearing on this.

Arguing about the contract will be another matter, and you may well be
wasting your time. Public bodies work from strict budgets and you will
probably find that after their restructure they now do not have a budget
to pay you out of. This of course is not your fault, but as public
bodies they don't necessarily care and can hang out for ages.

It really all depends on what the original contract said about how much
work was to be done for the fixed price and over what period,
If for example it was to maintain a website for a year for eg £1200, it
might be reasonable to claim £100 for each completed month of the
contract plus the notice period. But I guess it isn't that simple.

If you can do a sum like that it might be worth taking it to the small
claims court, basically they operate a policy of reasonableness,
wherever disputes about loose (or unwritten) contracts occur.
If you can demonstrate that you are being reasonable you will get a fair
hearing.

Check out the business link factsheets which are quite helpful on
matters like this. They may even have someone local who could advise you.

Do bear in mind how much time and energy chasing this will take you,
sometimes it is better to just walk away.

Go after them for the last invoice though, and if you take them to
court for that you might as well claim for something for the notice
period -given their behaviour so far.

sorry if that sounds a little confused
hope it helps

Carrie