Worried about being sued for breach of contract

Mesittinghere

Hat spent half an hour writing this thm lost it :mad:

Try again,

We quoted for a job which was accepted by our customer with an agreed schedule of works, 4 stage payments, one deposit, one on completion and two interim.

Estimated timescale of 6-8wks.

No deadline.

2wks after we start cust introduces deadline of wc 18thmarch. We not estimate finish til 29th.

We do best to finish by then and expect we will be fully done by 22nd.

Cust is having property photographed Thursday 21st and wants all scaffolding down by then, they have said if its not down then our arrangements will end regardless of us finishing, despite me explaining scaffold can't come down just for an afternoon.

Can they sue us for breach of contract or damages even if they get rid of us? They seem to think they can. It's been much worse than this and we wanted to leave job but were advised if we left we would breach and at risk of being sued.

They've sued 1st builders and owe money to 2nd. We are 3rd.

Customer is international corporate lawyer and all round unreasonable bloke.

Really fed up now thanks all for any help

paddyrg

Customer sounds like an ****hole, a coked-up petulant bully. Is he in the right? Not from the sounds of things, and he was stupid to book in a photographer for whilst he had building work going on.

That said, is it worth fighting? If his way is to cheat and bully and he has all the tricks and abuses of processes available to him to do so, he can sit it out longer than you can fight it. See the local CAB today, see if they can help or get you a chat with a solicitor to sort out what's what.

Can you cut your losses, strike the scaff, and get out? Horrible situation, I feel for you.

Mesittinghere

thanks paddyrg

he is an a hole of epic proportions!

I have all emails re everything id love to leave but k ow he will sue as its a clear breach, just not sure of he can if he chucks us off.

will get some more advice today
and take it from there

Wywth

Mesittinghere wrote: »

Hat spent half an hour writing this thm lost it :mad:

Try again,

We quoted for a job which was accepted by our customer with an agreed schedule of works, 4 stage payments, one deposit, one on completion and two interim.

Estimated timescale of 6-8wks.

No deadline.

2wks after we start cust introduces deadline of wc 18thmarch. We not estimate finish til 29th.

We do best to finish by then and expect we will be fully done by 22nd.

Cust is having property photographed Thursday 21st and wants all scaffolding down by then, they have said if its not down then our arrangements will end regardless of us finishing, despite me explaining scaffold can't come down just for an afternoon.

Can they sue us for breach of contract or damages even if they get rid of us? They seem to think they can. It's been much worse than this and we wanted to leave job but were advised if we left we would breach and at risk of being sued.

They've sued 1st builders and owe money to 2nd. We are 3rd.

Customer is international corporate lawyer and all round unreasonable bloke.

Really fed up now thanks all for any help

Contracts are all about agreements.
An agreement is when someone makes an offer and another party accepts it.

You offered to do a job for a price and the customer agreed. Time was not 'of the essence'

Contracts can be changed by the agreement of both parties.
Building contracts are notorious for this, often as a result of the customer wishing to change things as the building is ongoing.

It's up to you to agree or not agree to such requests, but as Simon and Garfunkal say you should strive to 'keep the customer satisfied'

Could you not have put more men on the job, and/or worked overtime, to finish 2 weeks earlier than you had hoped ... with the customer picking up the tab for the extra cost?

Too late now.

All you can do now is ask the customer if they want the work completed at the agreed price or want the scaffolding removed with immediate effect. If they want the scaffolding removed immediatey (i.e. a change to the original contract) get that agreement in writing first.

paddyrg

Does make you wonder how people can live like that, he must have to wear latex gloves to open his car door every morning. I'm sure he's got the money, but it won't count for a lot on his deathbed

Mistral001

First mistake you made is doing work for a lawyer. Second mistake you made is agreeing to a deadline being introduced half way through the contract.

I suggest that you write donw as much as you can remember now about what happened, with dates etc. ALso make a log of everything that is done on the job from now on. Also immediately after you speak to the customer, write down exactly what you said and what was said by the customer, thus you need to keep converations short and to the point. Write notes of all telephone conversations as well. You should also keep all records of texts, emails letters you send and those sent by him.

If he does not pay at the end of the job then take him to court. If the amount of the final bill is close to the Small Claims court limit then I would deliberately lower to just under the limit. Small Claims courts are set up so that the lack of legal representation is seen as the normal and even advantageous.

Mesittinghere

Thanks Mistral001 and Wywth

We havent agreed to the deadline but did say we would work our hardest to meet the deadline for them in an attempt to give a good service. we brought an additional 3 men on to the job and in fact anticipate finishing this friday 22nd.

All our converstions are by email or text messages so i have every record of every demand and have been very careful about how i have worded things to cover us. I believe we have been more than reasonable and have tried our best the weather has been causing us problems, incidentally, i got them to confirm in writing that they wanted us to continue cementing despite our advising them of the minus temperatures and the possible risks of compromising the cement work so I have tried to be very careful.

I just wanted to really clarify whether he would have any grounds for sueing us for breach of contract even though if he throws us off the job, so in effect making it impossible to finish the job.

He is a slippery fish I know!

Mistral001

Are you at the back of your mind hoping that he throws you off the job, knowing that it will almost be impossible for him to find another contractor to take on the job? You have acted in good faith up to now it would appear so perhaps just keep on going and get the job finished to your usual high standard even if he does not appreciate it and is annoying you.

Mesittinghere

well we would like to see the job to completion as we would like to get paid for the last weeks work otherwise it will be a waste and a loss . I just want to know if he could pull some sneaky loop hole that maybe i dont know about and try to twist things and say that we are breaching the contract by not finishing it even though he wont let us finish it, this sounds daft now i know but ive not been sleeping too well lately stressing over it all!

Mistral001

I just read your original post again and see that actually you are thinking of walking off the job. In that case I would have thought you would certainly be in breach of contract as your contract was not for an unfinished job. Unless he tells you to leave the site and determines the contract you basically need to keep on working as far as I can see. It appears that you cannot meet an agreed date for completion. Well so be it, there might (I stress might) be consequences for that but I would imagine with a clever guy like this, there would be more consequences for you by walking off the site.

PS. When you have the job complete and the final account settled perhaps you should put a notice in your office. "If you are a lawyer please do not ask me to do a job as refusal may cause offense"

Wywth

Mesittinghere wrote: »

Thanks Mistral001 and Wywth

We havent agreed to the deadline but did say we would work our hardest to meet the deadline for them in an attempt to give a good service. we brought an additional 3 men on to the job and in fact anticipate finishing this friday 22nd.

All our converstions are by email or text messages so i have every record of every demand and have been very careful about how i have worded things to cover us. I believe we have been more than reasonable and have tried our best the weather has been causing us problems, incidentally, i got them to confirm in writing that they wanted us to continue cementing despite our advising them of the minus temperatures and the possible risks of compromising the cement work so I have tried to be very careful.

I just wanted to really clarify whether he would have any grounds for sueing us for breach of contract even though if he throws us off the job, so in effect making it impossible to finish the job.

He is a slippery fish I know!

Are you in breach of contract?

If not, then anyone attempting to sue you for such will end up with egg on their face.

If your customer is the "international corporate lawyer" he tells you he is, he'll know the process should be to issue you with an LBA before commencing any legal action.