Hi, not sure if this is an appropriate forum for this, but found you through google and hoping someone can give me some advice. I'll try and avoid this turning into an essay too but a little bit of background is needed.
There are 4 companies involved. Company A has a large contract with Company B for B to provide a raft of services to A.
B found that it was struggling to provide one of these services, and so I set up Company C as a sole trader to provide this service to B. The contract drawn up states that C would receive total and exclusive handover of all of this element of the work from B in return for completing it at a rate that meant B was not losing any money on it (they had agreed a very low rate which was why they couldn't complete it on cost in-house, whereas C had a different setup allowing a small profit). This work was piecemeal, and the payment was due per piece rather than per hour or anything like that.
6 months down the line B cancelled the contract with no notice to give the work to Company D (despite the contract between B and C stipulating a 60 day notice period). When C pointed out the notice period and exclusivity clauses B agreed to pay C for the notice period as if the work had still been completed by them.
C agreed to this as is reasonable, and calculated a daily average of the number of pieces completed each day over the full duration of the contract so far, then multiplied up by 60 to get the payment in lieu of this notice period.
B have now come back and said that this average figure is a sticking point, and that they want to only pay C for however much work is actually done by D during the 60 days covered by the notice period.
This raises a few problems that I would like advice on if possible:
1) C has no access to A, B or Ds systems (nor does it want/expect it). How can C ensure that the figure it is told for the work completed during the 60 days is accurate, and hasn't been artificially reduced to save on costs.
2) The cancellation came half way through a month, and I assume that like with C, D is invoicing monthly. How can C ensure that the work is broken down in enough detail for an accurate assessment of work completed if D invoices for, say, 120 pieces in a month where C is only due 11 days of that month?
3) It is possible (though I don't know if I should expect it or not) that B will go back to A and ask for work to be delayed if not urgent until after the notice period finishes. This way B doesn't have to pay twice for work that can wait until after the notice period ends, even if that work would otherwise have been sent during the notice period if this situation did not exist.
So my basic question is can C (me) insist on the average charge as calculated given the above difficulties, or if not is there any way in which C can claim any right to visibility or disclosure for the work as completed during the notice period (which would still not completely solve problem 3 as the arrangement could be made via telephone with no written proof)
As I said hopefully I'm putting this into a relevant place, and thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can give, even if that is only to redirect me to somewhere more appropriate for my questions.
There are 4 companies involved. Company A has a large contract with Company B for B to provide a raft of services to A.
B found that it was struggling to provide one of these services, and so I set up Company C as a sole trader to provide this service to B. The contract drawn up states that C would receive total and exclusive handover of all of this element of the work from B in return for completing it at a rate that meant B was not losing any money on it (they had agreed a very low rate which was why they couldn't complete it on cost in-house, whereas C had a different setup allowing a small profit). This work was piecemeal, and the payment was due per piece rather than per hour or anything like that.
6 months down the line B cancelled the contract with no notice to give the work to Company D (despite the contract between B and C stipulating a 60 day notice period). When C pointed out the notice period and exclusivity clauses B agreed to pay C for the notice period as if the work had still been completed by them.
C agreed to this as is reasonable, and calculated a daily average of the number of pieces completed each day over the full duration of the contract so far, then multiplied up by 60 to get the payment in lieu of this notice period.
B have now come back and said that this average figure is a sticking point, and that they want to only pay C for however much work is actually done by D during the 60 days covered by the notice period.
This raises a few problems that I would like advice on if possible:
1) C has no access to A, B or Ds systems (nor does it want/expect it). How can C ensure that the figure it is told for the work completed during the 60 days is accurate, and hasn't been artificially reduced to save on costs.
2) The cancellation came half way through a month, and I assume that like with C, D is invoicing monthly. How can C ensure that the work is broken down in enough detail for an accurate assessment of work completed if D invoices for, say, 120 pieces in a month where C is only due 11 days of that month?
3) It is possible (though I don't know if I should expect it or not) that B will go back to A and ask for work to be delayed if not urgent until after the notice period finishes. This way B doesn't have to pay twice for work that can wait until after the notice period ends, even if that work would otherwise have been sent during the notice period if this situation did not exist.
So my basic question is can C (me) insist on the average charge as calculated given the above difficulties, or if not is there any way in which C can claim any right to visibility or disclosure for the work as completed during the notice period (which would still not completely solve problem 3 as the arrangement could be made via telephone with no written proof)
As I said hopefully I'm putting this into a relevant place, and thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can give, even if that is only to redirect me to somewhere more appropriate for my questions.
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