Self employment notice period

sulphate

My DH is self employed and does about 1-2 days' a week work for one particular organisation. He submits invoices weekly and they pay him weekly. He doesn't get payslips, and submits a tax return yearly.

For various reasons he no longer wishes to provide his services to this organisation but they have told him he needs to give 3 months' notice.

Surely this does not apply as he is self-employed and does not have an employment contract?

Any advice appreciated!

TELLIT01

If he has signed a contract to provide services to this company presumably there is something in that contract about termination procedures.

getmore4less

What is in the terms he uses when he offers his services or the terms he agreed to when he took on the work?

Undervalued

TELLIT01 wrote: »

If he has signed a contract to provide services to this company presumably there is something in that contract about termination procedures.

Legally, a verbal contract is just as valid (although obviously harder to prove what was agreed).

If there was no agreement about termination then, assuming he is not an employee by default, het doesn't have to give any notice.

If he is actually an employee (despite claiming to be self employed) then he would be obliged to give a week's notice in the absence of an agreement for more.

jobbingmusician

Could he subcontract someone to do this work for him for the final 3 months? I suggest that he does this (he could pay them slightly less than he is getting.) I suspect the company won't like this, and they may unwisely tell your husband that he has to perform the work himself. If they do this in writing, he will have a nice little case to argue that he is an employee, and pursue them for holiday pay etc

MataNui

Even self employed people will typically sign a contract. This is a B2B relationship and not an employer/employee relationship so things are slightly different. If there is no written contract then there is no notice period required. If they wanted to dispute that then they would need to go through the courts. Without a signed contract they would need clear irrefutable evidence that a verbal agreement was made otherwise the court would tell them to go away.