Suing Agency for Contractual Breach

[Henrik67]

I am just spit balling here, has anyone heard of or thought of doing this? So how can an agency sign me up contractually to conditions (ROS for example) that the client doesn't respect? Either the agency never had the right to put it into the contract, or didn't reflect this in the agency client contract or the client is ignoring it.

How can contracts just be ignored? What is the point of them then?

[northernladuk]

I am just spit balling here, has anyone heard of or thought of doing this? So how can an agency sign me up contractually to conditions (ROS for example) that the client doesn't respect? Either the agency never had the right to put it into the contract, or didn't reflect this in the agency client contract or the client is ignoring it.

How can contracts just be ignored? What is the point of them then?

Your working practices trump the contract. The contract is between you and the agent. The working practices are with the client. The agents just don't bother doing enough diligence to check the two align. It is what it is and has always been.

You can't sue them as it will cost you many times more than you lost and it's a pretty small technicality. Just not worth the effort. You can cause a fuss and point it out but that will probably be the start of the end of that gig for you.

What losses are you going to sue them for?

[ladymuck]

What losses are you going to sue them for?

^^ this

[Henrik67]

Your working practices trump the contract. The contract is between you and the agent. The working practices are with the client. The agents just don't bother doing enough diligence to check the two align. It is what it is and has always been.

You can't sue them as it will cost you many times more than you lost and it's a pretty small technicality. Just not worth the effort. You can cause a fuss and point it out but that will probably be the start of the end of that gig for you.

What losses are you going to sue them for?

Thanks. It was a theoretical point and I was thinking in regards if a person had to make payments to HMRC could they then sue the agent for misrepresentation. It's a nonsense that the agent isn't on the hook

[GhostofTarbera]

Suing Agency for Contractual Breach

Thanks. It was a theoretical point and I was thinking in regards if a person had to make payments to HMRC could they then sue the agent for misrepresentation. It's a nonsense that the agent isn't on the hook

Agent is used to putting ROS into contracts to shut whinging permietractors up after qdos tell them so, 99.9% don’t ever use so agent is happy

You are the 0.01%


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[LondonManc]

Ah, so your contract says that you have ROS but client have told you no and that you're now wedge between the cheeks of IR35 slowly drifting inwards?

[northernladuk]

Thanks. It was a theoretical point and I was thinking in regards if a person had to make payments to HMRC could they then sue the agent for misrepresentation. It's a nonsense that the agent isn't on the hook

It's your business to run with the proper diligence... will be their argument.

You have to ask yourself why RoS got brought up? If you don't do anything about it it stands as it's there to be used. If you are a bit of a plonker you chat about it with the client and they confirm they won't and you've shot yourself in foot as you know now it's a sham (like PC did). Or did you try use it and client says no in which case, yes, that is a very unfortunate bummer.

[Henrik67]

Agent is used to putting ROS into contracts to shut whinging permietractors up after qdos tell them so, 99.9% don’t ever use so agent is happy

You are the 0.01%


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

Thanks for the reply. The ROS was in the contract from the off - I had never contracted before so surely it was reasonable to assume the contract had some validity - am I supposed to find someone in the client org to run through the contract T&Cs with?

[Henrik67]

It's your business to run with the proper diligence... will be their argument.

You have to ask yourself why RoS got brought up? If you don't do anything about it it stands as it's there to be used. If you are a bit of a plonker you chat about it with the client and they confirm they won't and you've shot yourself in foot as you know now it's a sham (like PC did). Or did you try use it and client says no in which case, yes, that is a very unfortunate bummer.

Thanks, yeah exactly. It is the elephant in the room no one wanted to mention! It just seems stupid that contracts are worthless

[Henrik67]

Ah, so your contract says that you have ROS but client have told you no and that you're now wedge between the cheeks of IR35 slowly drifting inwards?

Thanks, that's a fair summary