Contract Start Date Delayed

[kaiser78]

I have been offered and verbally (only at the moment) accepted a new contract role and am waiting for the paperwork to come through. However the clientco have pushed the start date back by at least 1 week and will not assure that it is only by 1 week at the moment.

In the meantime I have been offered another contract role, which is more of a dead cert and am waiting for the paperwork to come through. I will go with this role assuming the paperwork etc is in order on the basis that the first contract could still be pushed back by more than one week, but feel bad making this decision.

Has anyone else been in this situation before, having verbally agreed a contract and then rescinded ?

[SueEllen]

You are presuming that both contracts have terms in that you agree with.

[kaiser78]

You are presuming that both contracts have terms in that you agree with.

Yes I am presuming this and that they will also be IR35 friendly etc etc.

[SueEllen]

Yes I am presuming this and that they will also be IR35 friendly etc etc.

Until you know they are and both are checked I wouldn't worry about it.

[northernladuk]

Loads of people. Comes up every other month. A search is your friend.

[sal]

You verbally agreed to a contract with a specific start date, since the date is pushed back indefinitely, I wouldn't worry about that bit.

As for with which role you should go it's up to you to decide, as there are a million factors at play.

[LondonManc]

I was in the same position two weeks ago. Both contracts were agreeable, first past the post. They wouldn't think twice about binning you off at a moment's notice and you've not become a familiar face/known enough over there to be on their unofficial black list.

[jmo21]

yep, go for it.

The agent will still be annoyed though, so prepare for an angry call.

They'll mention black lists etc, and it *might* affect you in the future. That's the risk you take though. Chances are in the future it'll be water under the bridge if you fit a future role.

[fidot]

Whenever agreeing to a contract in principle, always say/write "subject to contract"

[BlasterBates]

If you don't have a start date then you can start an alternative contract without breaking your original contract, because there is no agreed date when you have to carry out the contract. You just inform them you'll honour the contract after the first one has finished.