Dear all, I've a remote client who have digitally signed a working contract with me and we are halfway through the development process. We have worked together for a couple of one time off projects and this is the first time that we have signed a 1 year working contract to handle his web development projects. In the past, his communication is satisfactory prompt with the max 3 days lag in replying. However, this time round, the communication on his side is badly lag. He seems to have some unsettled issues with his client and it delays the whole project process for half a year. He has paid up 50% of the project fee for stage one and two but we have already gone up to stage 3 of the project. He will have out of a sudden update and request change to be made in a shorter than possible time. Due to his lack of responses, I've periodically reached him to inquire about the project status if we should terminate the project and I'll gladly forfeit the fees for stage 3 work and delivered all the source files of what I have worked on so far so that we can stopped on this project but he refused. He insisted that I keep working on this project and gives assurance he will keep the project going more promptly. However, there is no more response from him in the past 3 months. In this scenario, do I have the right to terminate the contract without his approval? Our working contract stated either party who wished to terminate the contract early will have to write in to gain another party consent but it doesn't include if the parties involved will have to respond with a certain period of time else the contract will automatically ceased. I've sent him an early contract termination agreement last month but he has no replied yet. As I am fully aware of the project workload and the time needed monthly to complete it, we have worked towards the commitment by number of hours furnished monthly and the turnaround time. Though he has not been living up to our initial verbal agreement that he will provide a certain level of support and communication to make sure the project flow smoothly, I've always tried to put forth my best effort to meet his sudden requests. Now, the scenario i'm trying to avoid is him coming back out of a sudden with a sudden flush of project requirements while I'm handling other clients work with urgency too. It's not feasible for me to allocate a time for his project without knowing when he will be back in action. In this scenario, do you think I will be in an appropriate position to assume the contract is terminated and able to say NO to his future work requirements IF he does come back out of a sudden? Or maybe have the rights to not meet up with his deadline? Any advice? Thanks in advance!
Bit of a hard one without seeing the whole contract. If you have sent written notice of termination (you should also state your reasons why in this for future proff) and haven't had a response you could assume he has accepted this, but then again he could say he never recieved anything (swings and round abouts as normal). If there is nothing in your contract saying that someone losses X for terminating the contract and money has been split as per the contract up until not (e.g. you haven't got half a billion which was meant to be split) then the contract is pretty easy to break anyway as it doesn't say if the other party doesn't respond/agree to the termination you have to pay, turn over all rights of the project or something similar. Like I said need to see the contract in whole, but if it was wrote by a lawyer (and in a lot of cases even if it was) I'll put my wages for the next ten years its easy to get out of without them replying and you losing out.
Sterling, Thank you for the time taken to help and advice. Reasons were stated clearly for early termination. True on your point that says he could denied receiving it. I will try to email again and CC a copy to another as a 'proof'. I provide services mainly locally and it was only these 2 years that I started working remotely as well. The contract I have is more for local business than remote work. For this contract, it stated any party who wish to terminate contract will have to write in for another party's consent but it doesn't stated who will bear the loss. As it was hardly impossible for me not able to contact my local clients directly for mutual consent if anything goes wrong. Will bear that in mind when I work on a new contract specifically for remote business. Thanks for the advice