Commuting expenses and clients refusal to pay..?

[AtW]

150 per month

How does this compare with your contract monthly earnings? If it's a small amount you might want to consider taking a hit since you are unlikely to find job in the next 4 weeks due to Xmas etc.

[Xil3]

How does this compare with your contract monthly earnings? If it's a small amount you might want to consider taking a hit since you are unlikely to find job in the next 4 weeks due to Xmas etc.

So they would want back the last 3 months worth of expense claims which = 450.

I'm leaving next week for xmas for almost 3 weeks... so I won't even be around for xmas... starting work again in Jan.

[Xil3]

I know 450 doesn't sound like a lot to some, but with xmas around the corner and other bills, so 450 is a nice dent.

[AtW]

starting work again in Jan.

The way it goes you might not be starting it in Jan. You have to ask yourself how good you are at either fighting court case or more importantly finding new job quickly - if you earn in one week more than £450, then you might be better off playing noob and apologising profoundly saying that you were a bit mislead by the contract. This way you will be better off financially. Of course you might have to sacrifice a chunk of pride - you will need to get used to it if you want to last long as a contractor.

[BoredBloke]

Why not ask them if they would be interested in paying it back more slowly - a few 'free' hours per month rather than paying it back in one lump sum. Personally I think you are running the risk of losing your contract for a fairly small sum of cash in the whole scheme of things. As AtW said, if they dump you now, your 3 weeks might suddenly become a whole heap longer.

[BrowneIssue]

As I am fairly new to contracting, I was never aware that clients don't pay commuting fees. Either way, I'm not going to cough up so much dough just because people don't read what they sign.

I walked away from a well-paying, high-profile gig earlier this year because I read the contract and didn't like what it said. The agent was quite cross I had read it and even more so that I disputed it. Ain't life a bitch?

You might find it is you coughing up the dough because you didn't read what you signed.

I normally try to be supportive and positive, especially to newbies. In your case I am going to make a rare exception:

Go back to permie work. It is contractors with attitudes like yours that gives the rest of us a bad name.

YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE BLOODY CONTRACT, STUPID, BEFORE YOU SIGNED IT! IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, PAY SOMEONE WHO DOES.

[DiscoStu]

I walked away from a well-paying, high-profile gig earlier this year because I read the contract and didn't like what it said. The agent was quite cross I had read it and even more so that I disputed it. Ain't life a bitch?

You might find it is you coughing up the dough because you didn't read what you signed.

I normally try to be supportive and positive, especially to newbies. In your case I am going to make a rare exception:

Go back to permie work. It is contractors with attitudes like yours that gives the rest of us a bad name.

YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE BLOODY CONTRACT, STUPID, BEFORE YOU SIGNED IT! IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, PAY SOMEONE WHO DOES.

[Xil3]

I walked away from a well-paying, high-profile gig earlier this year because I read the contract and didn't like what it said. The agent was quite cross I had read it and even more so that I disputed it. Ain't life a bitch?

You might find it is you coughing up the dough because you didn't read what you signed.

I normally try to be supportive and positive, especially to newbies. In your case I am going to make a rare exception:

Go back to permie work. It is contractors with attitudes like yours that gives the rest of us a bad name.

YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE BLOODY CONTRACT, STUPID, BEFORE YOU SIGNED IT! IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, PAY SOMEONE WHO DOES.

Maybe you should go back and read the whole thread... cause you're clearly clueless. I did state that it was stated in the contract that any expense authorized by the client is required to be paid! Which means the contract is in my favor and not theirs!

[VectraMan]

YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE BLOODY CONTRACT, STUPID, BEFORE YOU SIGNED IT! IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, PAY SOMEONE WHO DOES.

To be fair, I looked at mine recently because I'm being moved to a different site and wondered if I should be claiming expenses for the extra distance, and it doesn't say anything explicitly about any one site or anything to do with commuting vs. travel on the client's business. It just has something about expenses needing to be approved and accompanied with a receipt.

Easy mistake if you didn't know, and really the muppet signing the timesheets should have picked this up from day one.

For £450 I think I'd give it up to keep in the client's good books. How much are you going to spend on lawyers trying to fight it? How much will a day in court cost you in lost income?

[DiscoStu]

Maybe you should go back and read the whole thread... cause you're clearly clueless... I did state that it was stated in the contract that any expense authorized by the client is required to be paid! Which means the contract is in my favor and not theirs!

Clearly your expenses were authorised by mistake, otherwise the client wouldn't be trying to get them back. The question now is do you have a tantrum over 1-2 days pay and lose your gig, or accept that you should never have claimed for them in the first place, mend some fences and carry on with your contract...