Reply to: My contract blown up and the agency is refusing to pay the notice

[Spartacus]

@ Screwed

Random factors did not operate in your favour, that is all. You will spend more money, time and energy pursuing this than you will gain.

Chalk it up to experience and file it in the "remember that time when..." story box, and move on.

[TheFaQQer]

IMHO agencies are not best mates with each other thoiugh and dont meet regularly to swap contractor stories.

Most of the agents I speak to know each other pretty well - it's not uncommon for me to say to one agent "Oh, I spoke to someone at PimpCo about that role" and they say "oh, has that bugger Mr Pimp got in before me again?"

If there was a court case which flagged a contractor as someone who sued because the contract didn't start, then I would expect that there might just be some communication between them. Whatever their lobbying body is would probably take an interest in the case as well.

[psychocandy]

No, they are more likely to think "if this falls through because the client changes their mind, then I'm likely to be sued. So I can either bin this guy and find someone else who probably won't sue me, or I can get legal to spend a lot of time rewording the contract so that I won't get sued."


Assuming that you mean X instead of Z, then having a reputation for suing because the contract doesn't start probably WOULD be something that is likely to affect future dealings with the agency.

IMHO agencies are not best mates with each other thoiugh and dont meet regularly to swap contractor stories.

[castax]

Given there was no confirmed starting date (even if your negotiations were within two days) this is a major detail left uncertain. You have no contract.

[GillsMan]

@screwed

Don't waste your energy, money and time on a solicitor to try and get paid for "a month's notice", since you have not done any work, and have not suffered any losses on the contract (no work performed, no signed timesheets). Your company, in this instance, is interchangeable with "you", in this instance.

You took a business risk which didn't turn in your favour.

Move on and start looking for a new contract.

This, totally this.

[Scruff]

@screwed

Don't waste your energy, money and time on a solicitor to try and get paid for "a month's notice", since you have not done any work, and have not suffered any losses on the contract (no work performed, no signed timesheets). Your company, in this instance, is interchangeable with "you", in this instance.

You took a business risk which didn't turn in your favour.

Move on and start looking for a new contract.

[malvolio]

well the thing is that I decided to terminate my existing contract to jump on an other contract, so I have to give the notice to my current client once that the agency sent me the signed contract... As result of it, my current client was pissed off that I was leaving, my new contract did not start and now the agent who made pressure on me to resign my notice is also saying me that I was stupid to resign having a signed contract with a TBC date.... basically he is saying that the TBC date is just a way that the agency was using to convince me to resign without having the final client signed anything with them...
On my side, I don't have any problem to take to court the agency and/or the final client if they are not willing to honorate the notice that was on the contract, I have plenty of email to document it....
I understand that from a business point of view is never good to sue your clients, but it seems to me that the agency and/or the final client took a responsibility signing a contract, and I don't see such a big deal for two public companies (both the recruiter and the final client) to pay 10k for my notice, I lost much more money deciding to terminate my previous contract....

I think that in my decision, I took a risk, but it was moderate since there is a notice on the contract, probably the agency took a risk to sign a contract with me without having all the papers in order with the client, and if the agency want to make the client happy has to pay for my notice, simple like that it is just the risk of business of the agency.... the final client will give to the agency plenty of money to repay for the notice that they are paying to me.

the only outstanding doubt is to get a solicitor specialized in commercial law or employment law or somebody who use to work with agencies....

And there is your whole problem: you don't know what you're talking about. I suggest you find out.

[screwed]

well the thing is that I decided to terminate my existing contract to jump on an other contract, so I have to give the notice to my current client once that the agency sent me the signed contract... As result of it, my current client was pissed off that I was leaving, my new contract did not start and now the agent who made pressure on me to resign my notice is also saying me that I was stupid to resign having a signed contract with a TBC date.... basically he is saying that the TBC date is just a way that the agency was using to convince me to resign without having the final client signed anything with them...
On my side, I don't have any problem to take to court the agency and/or the final client if they are not willing to honorate the notice that was on the contract, I have plenty of email to document it....
I understand that from a business point of view is never good to sue your clients, but it seems to me that the agency and/or the final client took a responsibility signing a contract, and I don't see such a big deal for two public companies (both the recruiter and the final client) to pay 10k for my notice, I lost much more money deciding to terminate my previous contract....

I think that in my decision, I took a risk, but it was moderate since there is a notice on the contract, probably the agency took a risk to sign a contract with me without having all the papers in order with the client, and if the agency want to make the client happy has to pay for my notice, simple like that it is just the risk of business of the agency.... the final client will give to the agency plenty of money to repay for the notice that they are paying to me.

the only outstanding doubt is to get a solicitor specialized in commercial law or employment law or somebody who use to work with agencies....

[screwed]

I've used Lawspeed in the past. Give them a call and see what they say.

I have tried to call them they don't offer legal advice anymore....

[Batcher]

You mean they put in the contract what they actually mean? I don't see a problem with that. Plenty of contractors will work without notice periods, and apparently even experienced contractors are determined that they should be meaningless anyway, so why are the agents putting notice periods in their contracts? It can only be to mislead naive young contractors who want some small degree of security.

As for the contract hadn't started, does that mean for example if you cancel a holiday at the last minute you don't have to pay because the holiday wasn't started? The answer to that is, as we often read on here, "what does the contract say?".

The difference is that you pay a deposit on your holiday then normally the rest of the cost a few weeks before going.

That would be nice if the agencies had to pay us upfront before we started our contracts and we could keep the money if the deal falls through

[SpontaneousOrder]

You mean they put in the contract what they actually mean? I don't see a problem with that. Plenty of contractors will work without notice periods, and apparently even experienced contractors are determined that they should be meaningless anyway, so why are the agents putting notice periods in their contracts? It can only be to mislead naive young contractors who want some small degree of security.

As for the contract hadn't started, does that mean for example if you cancel a holiday at the last minute you don't have to pay because the holiday wasn't started? The answer to that is, as we often read on here, "what does the contract say?".

Your holiday was booked with a start date, though.

[kal]

If you get a few quid in lieu of notice its a bonus if not, c'est la vie, in the latter case there is certainly no mileage in going legal!

[VectraMan]

No work, no fee - why do you expect to be compensated by an entity that's also out of pocket as a result of there being no budget? Should the agency then sue the end client, who has no budget, to recuperate their losses?

Yes. That's exactly what should happen.

[VectraMan]

If suing agent/clients for notice period becomes prevalent all that will change is notice periods will change/disappear

You mean they put in the contract what they actually mean? I don't see a problem with that. Plenty of contractors will work without notice periods, and apparently even experienced contractors are determined that they should be meaningless anyway, so why are the agents putting notice periods in their contracts? It can only be to mislead naive young contractors who want some small degree of security.

As for the contract hadn't started, does that mean for example if you cancel a holiday at the last minute you don't have to pay because the holiday wasn't started? The answer to that is, as we often read on here, "what does the contract say?".

[DiscoStu]

I do enjoy these threads where the OP posts once then disappears...