Change of Agent - Trying to chang OptIn/Out status

[TheFaQQer]

Correct, they can vary the rate or other terms though.

+1

One agency offered me the worst possible contract if I insisted on being inside (references to me personally, personal liability, no RoS etc.) - if I opted out, then they would do an IR35-friendly contract.

Lots of arguments and they only backed down when I said "shall I ring the client and tell them not to expect me then?"

[Contreras]

I think #1 is the main one.

I insisted on being opted in once with an agency who didn't understand how it worked. They eventually came back and said that they were concerned because they had a clause in the upper contract which said that work had to be invoiced within six weeks of it happening or the client could refuse to pay. Because I wasn't opted out, I could invoice at any stage and the agency had to pay regardless of whether they got the money from the client or not.

Interesting. My experience is the opposite - agent insisting that I sign the opt out, claiming (and I think he believed it) that it was to do with IR35, then AWR, then after checking with his boss came back and said look we need you to sign otherwise the client can take you on direct and I lose my commission. My response: well are you making it a condition of the contract?, met with <silence> and it wasn't mentioned ever again after that.

What's funny is the client *did* want to cut out the agency for a follow-on contract on a different project but they had just taken on a new HR recruitment bod and she put the blocker on it saying the agency would hammer them for fees, even though I have reason to suspect they didn't even have an upper level contract in place.

[evilagent]

Certainly nothing to do with IR35

Often the most salient point is about payment - Contractor does not get paid, because Agency has not been paid. Contract, via Agency, is between Contractor and Agency - whether Agency gets paid or not, should not be allowed to affect Contractor being paid.

Strictly speaking, (sorry to now become pedantic when my post was about pickiness)
you either get paid off a signed timesheet, not whether the agency get paid.

If an agency is on 60-day terms, for example, and you get paid off a weekly signed timesheet, your financial risk is not 60 days work unpaid, but about 1 week unpaid. The agency will be paying you way before the client pays the agency.

Also, are you acting as a temp-worker, expecting to be paid hourly or daily, or acting as a business taking some modicum of financial risk?

The restriction on returning as a direct client is what it's all about.

[Taita]

Correct, they can vary the rate or other terms though.

Of course they can but they cannot ask let alone insist on opt out without breaching the regs.