How to say NO to a contract?

[The Wikir Man]

I don't agree with you at all. Couple of things I can make out.

You are new to contracting and IR35.
You have limited experience dealing with agents/clients.
You are couple of posts away from losing 'Not worth listening to'

You don't think that having a right of substitution and using it helps your IR35 defence?? I suggest that you read up on it.

With the exception of your last point, you could not be more wrong.

[cojak]

Edit : How about. 'Thank you for considering me for this role. Upon meeting the customer I realise this role is not for me and wish to persue other options in the market. Thanks for all the fish.'

<sigh>

Thanks NLU! I've cut and pasted that into a mail to an agent (minus 'thanks for all the fish', obv...)

See? You can give useful advice even if you don't think you have!

[Joe Bloque]

IR35 defence is soo not related what I need now. Anyway congratulations on your impending 'Lurker not a fighter'

[northernladuk]

Thanks NLU! I've cut and pasted that into a mail to an agent (minus 'thanks for all the fish', obv...)

See? You can give useful advice even if you don't think you have!

Oi cheeky!! That was meant to be serious. I thought i would get in to trouble with the new scarey mods for ranting and not helping so added that afterwards.

and whats wrong with thanks for all the fish. I am sure they would like that to cheer them up after losing such a good candidate <cough>

[northernladuk]

IR35 defence is soo not related what I need now. Anyway congratulations on your impending 'Lurker not a fighter'

Heehee 56 post man calling the 30 post man....like battle of the gnats..... Fight fight!!

[Joe Bloque]

Heehee 56 post man calling the 30 post man....like battle of the gnats..... Fight fight!!

Actually that a welcome to the club

[The Wikir Man]

IR35 defence is soo not related what I need now. Anyway congratulations on your impending 'Lurker not a fighter'

I'm not actually suggesting IR35 defence. Read it carefully.

My suggestion was that the most professional way out of the situation is to actually act like a business and perform both roles. The fact that it helps your IR35 defence is a (helpful) byproduct. You asked for a professional way to deal with your situation, and I provided it - if you cannot see that, then I wouldn't worry about trying to look professional.

This topic has been done a few times over the past year or so - I reckon a search for "unprofessional" would bring back a few hits. Have a look at some of the suggestions that have been made by more experienced CUK members than yourself.

And thanks - I pay so little attention to the rankings they are almost meaningless. Especially since LR posts stopped counting, too.

[Joe Bloque]

You assume that the contract would have a notice period in it. Many that I have seen do not have a notice period.



Oh, aren't you good to them You're going to give them a day to resource their urgent project. Assuming that you had a notice period, and that notice period is two days or more, then they would be in a better position if you started and then left. But you convince yourself that you are doing it for their benefit.



If the project is urgent, then you may well find that they are more likely to come after you - they will need to re-advertise and short notice, and in order to fill that urgent requirement, may need to offer a higher rate to get someone on quicker. If they find resource via a different agency, then the agency you went through may well be looking to recoup their losses and loss of potential revenue.



There is no way to protect your position easily.

The BEST way out of this would be to take role 1, and then start looking for a substitute to either do role 1 or role 2. If role 2 falls through, then you stick to doing role 1; if not then you bring your substitute in and they do the work. Everyone wins, especially as it helps your IR35 defence.

Somehow It was difficult to believe you had experience of susbstituting in previous contracts. That is not possible in my case.

[The Wikir Man]

Somehow It was difficult to believe you had experience of susbstituting in previous contracts. That is not possible in my case.

In which case, you are right - you don't need to worry about IR35 at all, since if the contract is for you and you alone, you will be inside.

If you'd said that, it would have been much clearer.

[bassy]

My twopence.
You've verbally accepted contract 1 and they are expecting you on Monday. You bail on them now then you're dropping them in it. You don't even know if the second role will actually materialize - ask a number of contractors and a few over the years have been in the boat of being told that a contract "is just waiting on a PO" - and then the contract never materializes for a number of reasons.

So you have a firm offer, you've verbally agreed to it and you have a start date that you have agreed to. If I was the client of role 1 and you bailed at this stage I would be rather annoyed.

If you had wanted to hold off role 1 until you knew that Role2 was signed, sealed and delivered then you should have said that you could take role 1 depending on satisfactory contract terms and not agreed a start date until contract terms were agreed by both parties.

My advice is take role 1 its a firm offer on the table and as you have agreed a start date it's the professional thing to do.