Agent threatening to take legal action - urgent advice needed

[MarillionFan]

What the rest have said. No contract has been signed and you are not duty bound or legally bound.

You can tell the agency straight, that as a contractor you get paid by the hours you work and a delay until Jan was unacceptable & because of their delay they have lost the business.

[darmstadt]

If you haven't signed you are not bound, end of.

In Europe the bar to show acceptance of a contract is a lot higher than here in the UK. Any threat of legal action is baseless.

Not true, at least for Germany. If both parties agree on the contract a verbal communication is all that is needed normally sealed with a handshake. A signature on a contract comes later although legally its much better to get a signed contract, you have to be very careful.

[Scruff]

Verbal contracts are binding in the UK, too. However, proving their existence is not easy.

[original]

Thanks to everyone, gives me confidence that I am not on the wrong side of any law.

I have decided to go ahead with the contract here. I hope good senses will prevail over everyone.

[evilagent]

No signature, no contract, generally speaking.

You can flip this the other way, YOU have lost money by being expected to not earn for another two months. And potentially even more, if the Jan start date got moved.

You could argue you have lost confidence in the client/agency for not sticking to verbal start dates in November.

You have made a business decision to make money over a nebulous promise.

Once they get their toys back in the pram, they might quieten down.

[DirtyDog]

I had been pursuing two jobs opportunities through two different agencies with the same client in Netherlands. I never thought Client would take such long time and it ended up in a mess. One of the agency had really bad terms so I was not kind of very happy with them but since I have been out of job for a very long time, I was continuously communicating with them. While the other agency found out about this, had also better terms & conditions, pay rate and I had worked with them in the past, job through them was also a better one. So when it came to choose between the two agencies, I went with the later for all the above reasons said.

Then I kept on following up with them and I was being promised that I will be starting this job in the last week of November but few days before it was to start they called me and told me that it will be starting on first Monday of January. I let them know my disappointment but did not say that I will start looking for other job opportunity.

In the next two days, I was offered a short 3 weeks contract in UK and I took it. I did not tell the above agency about this contract to begin with. They sent me some draft copies of the contract (starting 06/01/2014) and I asked for correction (such as dob, place of birth and address) to be made. In the next 2-3 days they sent me the final copy of the contract. In the mean time, my current client (3 weeks contract) is offering me a long term opportunity and I am willing to take it but I have not signed the contract extent ion. Now I have gone back to Netherland agency and told them about the situation that I cannot take their contract, which offcourse has made them furious.

Did you say anything (and more importantly, put anything in an email) which might be construed as acceptance of the contract? Just because you haven't formally signed a piece of paper does not mean that you did not accept the contract.

It is naive to think that just because it's not on that one piece of paper no contract has been formed.

[DirtyDog]

Give me some more confidence people please. Can I really be drawn into a legal action if for example they claim (true or not) that they have or will loose substantial amount of business..

Yes, you can be drawn into a legal action. Whether they have any grounds for doing this, and whether they would win, are separate issues - but there is nothing to stop them suing you.

[DirtyDog]

Until you have drawn your signature on the contract there is no agreement.

Really???

So if I reply to an email:

Thank you for the contract paperwork. I accept the contract and am looking forward to starting soon.

For and on behalf of
DD Consulting Ltd

that doesn't constitute acceptance?

[original]

Really???

So if I reply to an email:


that doesn't constitute acceptance?

I have not said anything like ' I accept the contract and or looking forward to starting soon'.

I understand that can pull me in a legal suit (who wins is different thing), I just cannot afford to (time or money wise) into the legal hassles. I have been out of contract for way too long and this is very unfortunate.

I am just worried as hell.

[DirtyDog]

I have not said anything like ' I accept the contract and or looking forward to starting soon'.

I understand that can pull me in a legal suit (who wins is different thing), I just cannot afford to (time or money wise) into the legal hassles. I have been out of contract for way too long and this is very unfortunate.

I am just worried as hell.

If there is anything which implies acceptance, then you could have something to worry about; if there isn't, then you don't.

Is there a notice period in the contract that you haven't accepted? If there is (for example) a four week notice, then you may be best using that notice period from now to never start. If the contract is a normal UK-style one, then you have the right to accept or refuse work anyway, so just do that.

Even if you have accepted the contract, I'd think it unlikely that they would take legal action, but I don't know how the contracting industry / legal system in the Netherlands works.