daily rate agreed in email correspondence(outside contract) - does it have any value?

[luki]

Hi all,

I'm in a 12 weeks contract where the daily rate was not specified in. The contract roughly says that the daily rate will be agreed in separate conversation, I do not have the contract with me to get the right wording but that is the sense.

The daily rate was in fact agreed in an email conversation, in which we agreed for £N for the first 6 weeks, and "market rates" (higher than N) for the remaining 6 weeks.

from the client's email: "let's do a 6 week contract after which we can extend out to another 6 weeks as we close on our seed funding. We should be able to offer you about 300 a day for the first 6 week period after which we have the next seed round of capital to allow us to deal with market rates." - we did sign a contract for 12 weeks.

Now, the client is stating that is unable to face market rates, didn't give me an answer yet on what rate (higher than £N) they might be able to pay, but I was wondering if such email has any value, in case we can't get to a friendly agreement?

[SueEllen]

If you can't negotiate a higher rate with the client then you can terminate if you are unhappy with the rate you are on.

[BolshieBastard]

Hi all,

I'm in a 12 weeks contract where the daily rate was not specified in. The contract roughly says that the daily rate will be agreed in separate conversation, I do not have the contract with me to get the right wording but that is the sense.

The daily rate was in fact agreed in an email conversation, in which we agreed for £N for the first 6 weeks, and "market rates" (higher than N) for the remaining 6 weeks.

from the client's email: "let's do a 6 week contract after which we can extend out to another 6 weeks as we close on our seed funding. We should be able to offer you about 300 a day for the first 6 week period after which we have the next seed round of capital to allow us to deal with market rates." - we did sign a contract for 12 weeks.

Now, the client is stating that is unable to face market rates, didn't give me an answer yet on what rate (higher than £N) they might be able to pay, but I was wondering if such email has any value, in case we can't get to a friendly agreement?

Dear god, rate not specified in the contract? I supposed its not clear whether the rate is inclusive or exclusive of VAT?

Do people work in this way!? Clearly some do.

[Pondlife]

If they can get someone (you) to do the work @ £300/day then they could legitimately argue that £300/day IS the market rate.

How much are you expecting to get... and is it worth losing the next 6 weeks contract for?

[northernladuk]

Hi all,

I'm in a 12 weeks contract where the daily rate was not specified in. The contract roughly says that the daily rate will be agreed in separate conversation, I do not have the contract with me to get the right wording but that is the sense.

You are in a contract that has no specified daily rate? Jesus, you like living on the edge don't you. So you are technically in a contract to do work but no payment amount specified. You are going to be in trouble if the client decides to dick you about.

The daily rate was in fact agreed in an email conversation, in which we agreed for £N for the first 6 weeks, and "market rates" (higher than N) for the remaining 6 weeks.

from the client's email: "let's do a 6 week contract after which we can extend out to another 6 weeks as we close on our seed funding. We should be able to offer you about 300 a day for the first 6 week period after which we have the next seed round of capital to allow us to deal with market rates." - we did sign a contract for 12 weeks.

Now, the client is stating that is unable to face market rates, didn't give me an answer yet on what rate (higher than £N) they might be able to pay, but I was wondering if such email has any value, in case we can't get to a friendly agreement?

Relying on friendly emails regarding you rate puts you in a very difficult situation. It will stand up in court regarding the current contract but it will get very messy. Forget anything to do with the extension. You don't have a contract so it's all just discussions. Until you get a signed contract you have nothing so it won't stand up. Agreeing all this so early on could cause you problems with MoO as well but don't quote me on that.

Get your current rate agreed in a mail, forget the extension. Get it in writing. After that it's up to you to negotiate the rate for the future one and this won't mean anything until it's written in the contract and signed.

For gods sake get the daily rate in your contract as well.

[luki]

that's all sound advice; I'm sort of aware of it, and I'm not happy with what I've done, not to excuse myself but I am in a very friendly relationship with the client, I should have mentioned that, so there was a lot of "trust" involved.

I hope things won't turn sore, I was just wondering what value an email could have in the unlikely case things will have to go beyond a friendly agreement.

[luki]

If they can get someone (you) to do the work @ £300/day then they could legitimately argue that £300/day IS the market rate.

How much are you expecting to get... and is it worth losing the next 6 weeks contract for?

I was expecting £50/70 more, there is previous correspondence where I state my daily rate, and their counter offer was £300 for the first 6 weeks. Theoretically, 350/370 is what could be inferred as the "market rate", but again in up to interpretation of emails

[jmo21]

It's an extension.
There is no agreement in place for the extension, just some saw talk about it.

Did you think that meant the extension itself was guaranteed to happen?

At least they haven't said the extension is cancelled.

[luki]

It's an extension.
There is no agreement in place for the extension, just some saw talk about it.

Did you think that meant the extension itself was guaranteed to happen?

At least they haven't said the extension is cancelled.

it's not an extension. the contract is 12 weeks, the email agreement was £300 for the first 6 weeks, market rates for the remaining 6 weeks. we are just at the beginning of the 7th week

[tractor]

...

Hi all,

I'm in a 12 weeks contract where the daily rate was not specified in. The contract roughly says that the daily rate will be agreed in separate conversation, I do not have the contract with me to get the right wording but that is the sense.

The daily rate was in fact agreed in an email conversation, in which we agreed for £N for the first 6 weeks, and "market rates" (higher than N) for the remaining 6 weeks.

from the client's email: "let's do a 6 week contract after which we can extend out to another 6 weeks as we close on our seed funding. We should be able to offer you about 300 a day for the first 6 week period after which we have the next seed round of capital to allow us to deal with market rates." - we did sign a contract for 12 weeks.

Now, the client is stating that is unable to face market rates, didn't give me an answer yet on what rate (higher than £N) they might be able to pay, but I was wondering if such email has any value, in case we can't get to a friendly agreement?

As soon as I saw....

"after which we have the next seed round of capital"

....I would have run away as fast as Dwayne on steroids.

But seriously, with this and some of the other threads in the last couple of days, what are people thinking? This is BUSINESS for God's sake! No schedule agreeing the rate? Nothing in the conversations so far has any value. If you take the phrase '...about 300 a day....' they could have paid you 100 and said well that is 'about' 300.

My advice? Find another contract and while you are doing that, read up on running a successful business, seriously.

edit:

Following your other answers, a few cliches you need to consider are there are no friends in business and don't mix business with pleasure. They are accurate.