Notice of Intended Court Action

**northernladuk** · 21 July 2012, 21:24

Am hoping you see why contracting without a contract is a pretty dumb thing to do now? Do you have anything in writing at all that details you relationship to your client however insignificant at all? Something that might define whether you were just writing code for them or were delivering a solution to them?

Also the 4 hour notice thing sounds a bit exceptional. Had you reached a natural point in the work or have you been binned ? Got to be some reason.

**NetContractor** · 21 July 2012, 21:40

I'm still not worried about the no written contract issue. By virtue of the fact that they continued to accept my work for 11 months, and pay my invoices on time the verbal contract is in place.

working without a contract is NOT dumb. I always knew the notice period would be short. Basically we deployed to client on Monday, Tuesday I got told this is your last day on the project. I think what it boiled down to is I was more expensive than the only guy they kept on, albeit that he had no experience with thetechnology which is why he then continued to struggle with performance issues that they are now blaming on me.

I was not binned in any regard. In fact they asked me to then go to London to quote for another piece of work (which we could not agree on timescales and caused the relationship to go sour)

I am basically writting them a letter to send on Monday. AND a letter to their client where the software was deployed. To them I am informing them of an intention to sue them. THey accepted my invoice and never reported any concern until the invoice was past due 2 weeks later. I even have an email stating that my timesheet was approved by the project manager.

I am also going to write their client and inform them that I am retracting all licences for use of the software which is still owned by me due to lack of being paid for it.

I think this was probably the wrong place to come for legal advice, but I wanted to think outloud.

Cheers

**Gentile** · 21 July 2012, 22:09

Originally posted by NetContractor View Post

...working without a contract is NOT dumb. ...

Yes, I'm afraid it is. But I'm guessing you're going to have to find that out for yourself the hard way. It's up to you if you want to take them to court, but you may just as easily find them stating that your "verbal contract" that doesn't exist allowed them to withhold any final payment unless they were 100% happy, which they're not. You didn't agree to that? - try proving it. Good luck.

**northernladuk** · 22 July 2012, 00:20

Originally posted by Gentile View Post

Yes, I'm afraid it is. But I'm guessing you're going to have to find that out for yourself the hard way. It's up to you if you want to take them to court, but you may just as easily find them stating that your "verbal contract" that doesn't exist allowed them to withhold any final payment unless they were 100% happy, which they're not. You didn't agree to that? - try proving it. Good luck.

Agreed. How can it not be dumb. It covers you forma whole host of issues not just being paid on time and as you will see it will make any action a lot easier to defend or prove. It also shows a level of professionalism as well.

**cojak** · 22 July 2012, 07:11

Your verbal contract was:

"We will pay NC 15 days on receipt of invoice."

And that was it.

Speak to Roger Sinclair of Egos, I'm sure he'll tell you if it was dumb or not.

**NetContractor** · 22 July 2012, 09:17

THe last comment was helpful. I will contact Egos and see where we can get to.

In fairness I asked several times for a contract. BUT they never sent me one. I Sent him a contract in August 2011, that was basically the PCG contract. I asked him to sign it, but he never did....But each month they continued to pay my invoices.

I dont know if the fact that they continued to accept my services after I issued a contract constitutes acceptance of the contract.

The client has said he will call me on Monday...so lets see where I get to.

**tractor** · 22 July 2012, 09:35

...

Originally posted by NetContractor View Post

THe last comment was helpful. I will contact Egos and see where we can get to.

In fairness I asked several times for a contract. BUT they never sent me one. I Sent him a contract in August 2011, that was basically the PCG contract. I asked him to sign it, but he never did....But each month they continued to pay my invoices.

I dont know if the fact that they continued to accept my services after I issued a contract constitutes acceptance of the contract.

The client has said he will call me on Monday...so lets see where I get to.

If you issued them with a contract even after the start date AND they continued to pay, I think that suffices - providing that you can prove that they received it. You still need to take legal advice though. Depending upon how much revenue is outstanding there are a range of actions you can take starting with Small Claims if <£5k

**cojak** · 22 July 2012, 11:04

Originally posted by NetContractor View Post

THe last comment was helpful. I will contact Egos and see where we can get to.

In fairness I asked several times for a contract. BUT they never sent me one. I Sent him a contract in August 2011, that was basically the PCG contract. I asked him to sign it, but he never did....But each month they continued to pay my invoices.

I dont know if the fact that they continued to accept my services after I issued a contract constitutes acceptance of the contract.

The client has said he will call me on Monday...so lets see where I get to.

That's much better than a verbal contract, I did that with my current contract. It puts a completely different slant on it, roger will have much more to work with.

**tractor** · 22 July 2012, 11:17

...

Did the OP include terms and conditions on each invoice? That would also potentially make a lot of difference, as they have paid invoices, they could hardly claim to be unaware of such terms.

Notice of Intended Court Action