Incomplete contract, client won't pay
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- mbr
I have two contracts with a developer (housing). One for 3D and one for the website.
I was paid for 60% of the 3D, and was supposed to finish before the website, but my client insisted that I work on the website first. So, considering he was paying and I wanted to keep him happy, I did so.
On our last, and final meeting, he told me that his project was belly up (he screwed things up and could not get financing to build). This meant that ALL of the work I was doing was useless to him. He therefore said ' If it's not useful to me, I won't pay'. The website was at about 80% then, not to mention I made an entire site for a placeholder.
So I never received any money for the website(s).He has not returned phone calls or emails, that was over 2 months ago. I've been calling and emailing, and maintaining a professional tone.
Anyone have opinions? I will pursue this, if it means taking this to court.
He does not really have an 'office', so I can't just show up.Are collection agencies a reasonable first step?
- sparker0
if there is a signed contract, it doesn't matter if he went bankrupt...he is obligated to pay.
he signed, you worked, his short-comings are not your fault.
take him to court. he will more than likely pay up what he owes you...legal fees would be worse than just paying you.
but, according to contract, you don't owe him any work until paid. so, what ever you sent him, request back or remove from post-production (ie take down the site) until he settles.
- sparker0
if there is a signed contract, it doesn't matter if he went bankrupt...he is obligated to pay.
he signed, you worked, his short-comings are not your fault.
take him to court. he will more than likely pay up what he owes you...legal fees would be worse than just paying you.
but, according to contract, you don't owe him any work until paid. so, what ever you sent him, request back or remove from post-production (ie take down the site) until he settles.
- mbr0
I will. I am very determined when it comes to these types of things and I will not stop until the matter is resolved. The problem is, according to an laywer-drop out friend, is that the second contract was never fulfilled (although it was broken up into 4 parts, and I clearly met more than 2 of them). If it was completed, it would be easy. The first one was, though.
Legal fees may not be more than he owes me, as it's a decent amount. But it is in the contracts that the 'winning party will pay for all legal expenses'.
I hope he comes to his senses. It really irks me that people just assume they can go through life screwing other people.
It's not the first time he's f*cked up a large project - he told me he had been bankrupt before. So he's surely tried to pull this stunt before.
- freshmode0
It doesn't matter if the work isn't finsihed. You didn't turn in unfinished work, it went unfinished because of this issue. So it doesn't matter in this case.
You should find a demand letter somewhere & change it up to work for you, then send it to him.
If that doesn't work, try to take it to court on your terms, if that proves to be to hard then go to a collection agency.
Collection agencies suck. They take large % of your money. They can get it done, but not always when you want it to get done, especially if you are a small client to the agency. $10K can be a lot to you but to an agency that handles clients with $250K & up, you are small time. So try to do it on your own before you ask those chumps to do it for you.
Goodluck. This sucks. When he said he wasn't going to pay, what did you say? I would have laughed & said, "I agree, but you signed our contract & now you must pay." That would have made things weird for him & he would have reacted with some lame comment & from that point on, you would have been able to take legal action right away with no question. When it comes to money & 80% of your work being done, you need to step up & say something. If it were a client trying to low ball you then you could just walk away. But you did the work, next time have some damn balls!!!!! You should have followed him home or just followed him. He punked you in this case. You should have punked his ass back.
Again. Goodluck. Sorry this happened to you.
word!
- mbr0
Thanks for the advice, it makes sense.
Here's what happened, in short:
I made several animations of walk throughs (of his condos) that were to be used for online marketing. At one point, he was really concerned with the download times, I assured him that they would be as low as possible, and they were significantly lower than what we discussed before the contract was signed. So, at the last meeting, he said that he 'would not pay if he couldn't use it'. So I did several tests and deomstrated that the longest download for any of the 30 or so animations would be 1 minute on a 56k, and almost instantaneous on a broadband. Well within reason, I believe, for such a specific target audience. There were also about 25 still images that one could view for each floor plan . All said and done, I worked for about 75% less than what I should have been, this was an important project for me (for future work, not to mention his promises of more work for him).
That was it. I believe that he was trying to use the download time as a way out, but when I demonstarted that it could be done, he didn't care (this was the same point in time when he realized the screwed the project up and couldn't get funding - he spent $400k clearing the land, blasting, etc., all to discover he couldn't get the loans to build).
He even 'encouraged' me to work with his son, continually 'advising ' me to start a business with the guy (who knew nothing of what I needed him to do, shit, I had to teach him illustrator so he could trace some plans!!).
That's about it. But I the gloves are off. It is time to pursue things more aggressively. I really can't stand to think that he thinks he can get away with this, after I worked for 70 hrs a week for 5 months!!
It's much more than 10k.
Any ideas where to get a letter? I'll be looking for laywers on Monday, but anything would help in the meantime.
- rasko40
do you think he would try to get away with the same from the builders who have worked for him so far? - NO - get some boys together and gently suggest that unless he pays ca$h he will pay flesh.
start talking horses heads in beds heheheh. but seriously.
- Aliyah0
Always make sure your contracts include a standard cancellation clause.
Mine goes a little like this:
Cancellation (Kill Fees): If a project is cancelled for reasons beyond the agency’s control, a cancellation fee will be applied at a percentage ranging from 25% to 80% of estimated cost or invested hours and hard costs, which ever is the lesser. The percentage is determined pending the stage of the project ... etc ... etc yada yada :)
- mbr0
Yes, I'll include that next time. I was actually doing things fairly logically and as I had planned (no work until I received payment, etc.), but then the guy insisted on me starting the second contract 3/4 of the way through the first. That was an error that I will not make again.
Thanks for the advice. I learned about kill fees shortly after all this began.