the right to refuse work

[LyNx]

Lets say i made two bookcases. The client is a right pain in the buttocks. A year later, they want one more but i don't want the work. I tell client (nicely) where to stick the third bookcase and then get an email stating that if i don't make the matching bookcase they will sue to get the costs of having all three made somewhere else.

I don't want to post what i really would like to say to this person but surely they have no right in telling me "i have to do it"

 

[Roger]

Forget it - they don't have a leg to stand on. It's pure bluff .....

 

[LyNx]

problem is, i had to take this person to court for non-payment. So i think they will do anything to mess me about.

 

[Freetochat]

It all depends on the contract that you made. Obviously the supply of the first two have been completed, but if there was discussion at the time that matching additions would be needed in due course, then IMO, they could make it difficult for you. If however this is a 'new' enquiry, then it would constitute a new contract.

 

[Freetochat]

Based on your second comment, I would refuse to do any further work based on the failure to pay, regardless of any assumed agreement.

 

[LyNx]

I don't plan on doing a single thing again for this person :twisted: :evil: :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

did you win, if so have they paid you yet.

 

[LyNx]

they have now paid. Even at court they told the Judge payment will be sent on the monday. 4.5 months later i start getting a payment. first a cheque that i couldn't cash for a month. Then a cheque payment to me and not to my company as i clearly stated. Then another cheque payable to me again for the wrong amount.

Finally got the payment :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Lynx

of course you don't have ot make a third one as long as no contract was signed promising a third bookcase?

Discussions are not important, only a signed contract where you state that you will make 3 would stand up in court

ignore them

 

[Jake]

Just say you won't do it under any circumstances and nor will you pay to them. Point out that they have the two which someone else can copy so they aren't out of pocket anyway, especially as if you had done the third for them you have wanted £20k up front to do business with them again. So actually they'll be better off finding someone else to match a third, or even make all three.

There isn't anything they can do (legally). The only circumstance in which they could have would have been if you'd agreed to do three at the outset, and even then after fundamentally breaching the contract themselves they'd be stuffed.

 

[LyNx]

so i can show them my middle finger :wink:

they even had to cheak to tell me the price they was going to pay for a third too :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sorry, my hourly rate has just gone up to £500/hr

 

[Anonymous]

my hourly rate has just gone up to £500/hr

Steady on, thats nearly my prices :lol:

 

[sliver]

Some people just aren't in the real world are they?? :roll: :?

They won't pay up, so violate your right to make a living. Then they soon know where the lawyers' office is when you decide you don't want to play their silly games don't they??.......Plonkers.

Tell 'em you'll get the lads round if they get stroppy. Philly, when's the next get together again??? :lol: :lol:

Cheers, Sliver. :wink:

 

[LyNx]

funny part, is when i took him to court, he tried telling me that he'll claim £400 a day wage loss and around £150 travelling to the court. He lives 4 doors down from the courts and turned up looking like a tramp and smelling like one too (£400 a day :roll: :roll: :roll: )

 

[ProShop]

my hourly rate has just gone up to £500/hr

Steady on, thats nearly my prices :lol:

Mmmmmm, You two are too cheap

 

[engineer one]

lynx, unless you agreed in writing to produce a third item at some distant time, then it is impossible for this guy to do what he wants. even a distant timescale would have to in law be "reasonable".

but i agree with everyone else, charge a ridiculous rate, and demand an upfront deposit that covers everything, then take a loooooooong time to make it. preferably from greenish wood :lol: :twisted:

the get out of jail card is that previously he got work done then refused to pay you for it until you got a judgement. that implies he is keen to commit fraud in basically getting work done for nothing in the expectation that you will swallow this bullshit.

paul :wink:

 

[mailee]

Phew, for those rates you two should have a workshop full of wonderful goodies! :lol:

 

[JFC]

WOW ! I thought i was the only one that had to deal with total idiots .
Im suprised you have spoken to them after the last non payment . My first words would have been **** *** :shock:

 

[engineer one]

lynx couple more thoughts

occassionally english law is quite useful, and here contract law has a couple of useful tools for you.

1/ contract law unfair terms and conditions. this basically says that a contract has to be fair to both sides, and you cannot be forced to undertake a contract which is inequitable and what is being suggested is certainly that.

2/ i wonder if the guy actually understands contract law.
there are three parts to a valid contract
a) offer what you claim you can do and what price
b) acceptance where the buyer accepts what you can do and the price
c) consideration. the bloody money in exchange for the work done.

reading what you have said, the guy breached the first contract because he had no intention of paying you, and thus did not complete his part
the consideration until forced to by the court, and even then only on his terms.

so tell him to waste his time by trying to enforce the contract. :twisted:

paul :wink:

 

[LyNx]

I am going to tell him where to stick it.

Funny thing, he thinks it's all sorted and we should carry on as if nothing happened in the first place. "this is how businesses are these days" he quoted me.