Sued for Damages After Contractor Ineptitude

[Blunderer]

Good, that's a start. Don't take ill-informed opinion and speculation from this board on such a serious matter. Speak to your insurers now. Right now. As soon as you have finished reading the next sentence.

They can refuse to play ball if you don't notify them of a likely claim as soon as you know of one.

Have you spoken to them yet? Come on, get dialling!

Don't worry, that's the first thing I did.

Thanks for all the advice here chaps.

They have signed off all timesheets but there is no disclaimer. There will be from now on, though....!

[realityhack]

This is what I am not sure on, bogeyman, because the client's contract was with us rather than him so it us they are going to sue apparently.

What does the contract between you and the contractor say re liability due to professional misconduct/failure to deliver services?

[Blunderer]

I have not told the contractor as yet. I have paid him everything apart from his last payment (weekly) of about £2K. I have withheld that.

[bogeyman]

Unfortunately it will though as the contract is with the agency not the contractor. The client sues the agency, the agency counter-sues the contractor.

Indeed you are correct.

[PAH]

Hey! Hands up all those solid pros here who DON'T have professional liability insurance.

The only insurance I have is forced upon me, for my car.

I thought it was a legal requirement though to have some forms of insurance when contracting via your own limited company. I'll worry about that if the government ever gets a clue about enforcing it.

I notice the agencies often say insurance is a requirement, buy again they don't check.

[TheFaQQer]

Don't worry, that's the first thing I did.

Thanks for all the advice here chaps.

They have signed off all timesheets but there is no disclaimer. There will be from now on, though....!

It's still a good sign - they approved the timesheet. It's not unreasonable to argue that they wouldn't have signed it if they weren't happy with the work.

But make sure that it's on anything similar from now on - get it changed and sent out to anyone you've already got placed. If you've got people out there, then I would make a few other changes so that it's not so obvious that this is the reason that you're changing the timesheet template

[Captain Jack]

Don't worry, that's the first thing I did.

Thanks for all the advice here chaps.

They have signed off all timesheets but there is no disclaimer. There will be from now on, though....!

Good, there's no point you worrying much more about it now, other than the inevitable them trying to wriggle out of settling the claim should one arise.

Be polite, be firm, insist on everything in writing, keep your insurers informed. All should be well, although it's fairly safe to say you have lost them as a client.

As soon as you get a written statement of the nature and extent of the damages from them, give it to your insurers and get them to notify the contractor that you will be counter claiming against him/her.

[Pondlife]

If they have client signed timesheets then why did they (the client) not object to signing them on the day they brought their system down?

If (s)he did not opt-out from the EB & A regs then you have an obligation to pay for all work done provided the work was done and since your contract was (probably) measured in hours and not deliverables, they did the work.

I think you may struggle. I personally have Prof Ind insurance to cover this unlikely scenario but I also see it as very difficult to prove it was all the contractors fault.

[Blunderer]

These answers are all pretty reassuraing and as I'd hoped, to be honest. And I know a forum is not really the place to be discussing this. I am just being a bit paranoid and trying to see if there's a loophole here whioch could bite me in the arse. Because we are a small business and not inclined to be shelling out thousands for this.

So I should not be telling the contractor or unmbrella co. or anything?

[BoredBloke]

Didn't you say that the contractor was through a brolly - sue them. They should have insurance since he is their employee.

That will teach you for placing odd contractors - place normal ones in the future. I realise that they can be a bit thin on the ground though.