Contracted developer demands obscene hours payment

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:01

While I am going to get some proper legal advice tomorrow on this, I wondered if anyone had dealt with something similar.

I contracted a former colleague to do some work developing an application for me and someone else, on a per hour basis.

The developer firstly claimed an obscene amount of hours worked at 425 for something that barely exists or works. The app doesn't is buggy, doesn't work, is built against best practices and has a chrome plugin that does not even work.

Then all of a sudden he decided to walk away from the project and demanded £2,000 to hand over the code of the project. It took us a while to respond due one of us having a new baby and the other one moving house/job, but now he has sought legal advice and is requesting £2,650 payment.

His original request did not provide a period of time to respond before further action taken and just the day before the email from this tin-pot legal firm, he asked any further update to which that we would provide a respond by tomorrow.

While we we're happy to pay the £2,000 just to end all this civilly even though we dispute the amount, the fact he has got a tin pot legal firm with no prior warning and demanding extra money has put a few bees in our bonnet.

Now that he has this 'legal advice', is it too late to send a letter of dispute over the work carried out now that we have seen the actual output of the work, even if we did, would it get us anywhere as it's based upon the reliability of his word?

memyselfandi · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:05

A lot of this will be down to what did your contract with him actually say.

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:09

memyselfandi said:
A lot of this will be down to what did your contract with him actually say.

We have no contract, it was all done via word of mouth, probably should have mentioned this. The only thing I can see in writing is we agreed to pay him X per hour.

Mynight · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:15

If there's no contract it's going to be hard for him to go after you.

From my experience he should be able to account for the hours spent. Seems a rather large amount of hours for such a low amount demanded, even to make it "go away".

Legal advice is the only real solution.

Jokester · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:16

Sounds like you've written a blank cheque, by not having documented requirements or an estimate/quote for the job.

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:18

Jokester said:
Sounds like you've written a blank cheque, by not having documented requirements or an estimate/quote for the job.

It's part of the feeling I have now, as it was all 'mates rates etc', but the fact he has no written evidence of hours, does that leave us anything there?

Dis86 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:24

If he has no written evidence of hours he may struggle. However you've equally shot yourself in the foot.

kindai · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:26

Above advise wrong.

Actually quite easy for you to argue this in your favor as even though you have agreed to pay him a set amount per hour, no court will accept that you hired him to provide a non-functioning product. As long as it is as crap as you say it is and doesnt work then he has failed to provide work of an acceptable standard.

Go back and say that you'll agree to his £XXXX fee as long as the work is completed, working and bug free within X timeframe (whatever seems appropriate).

tom_e · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:26

Surely if what he's produced is complete rubbish then just call his bluff "keep your code we won't be paying you".

Dis86 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:30

kindai said:
Above advise wrong.

Actually quite easy for you to argue this in your favor as even though you have agreed to pay him a set amount per hour, no court will accept that you hired him to provide a non-functioning product. As long as it is as crap as you say it is and doesnt work then he has failed to provide work of an acceptable standard.

Go back and say that you'll agree to his £XXXX fee as long as the work is completed, working and bug free within X timeframe (whatever seems appropriate).

The problem is that the guy doesn't seem to be claiming the app is complete. So at this point - if he can prove the hours spent so far then he can demand payment for work completed to date.

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:31

tom_e said:
Surely if what he's produced is complete rubbish then just call his bluff "keep your code we won't be paying you".

He has this tin-pot lawyer demanding payment either way now.

Mynight · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:34

How long is “a while to respond”?

stockhausen · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:34

No message.

Maccapacca · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:35

How long between his invoice and now?

kindai · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:35

Dis86 said:
The problem is that the guy doesn't seem to be claiming the app is complete. So at this point - if he can prove the hours spent so far then he can demand payment for work completed to date.

Nope. He has a duty to provide a standard of work, if that standard has not been met he should be allowed to rectify it, but if he doesnt then you have a very strong legal standing not to pay:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/29

In fact, it is quite the opposite, if the code is buggy and non-functional you could sue him to have his crap code corrected if they buy it and have to have it fixed!!!

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:36

stockhausen said:
It sounds as if the "App" doesn't work and is bug ridden - why on Earth do you want the code

I accept it's our fault for paying per hour not for a set deliverable, so lesson learnt on that front. The tin pot lawyer is demanding the payment anyway now for the hours worked, I assume the increase is to cover his fee.

Maccapacca said:
How long between his invoice and now?

He has never sent an invoice, he sent an email demanding £2000 payment to hand over the code since he was going to stop working on the project. Never an actual demand to pay for the hours.

Mynight said:
How long is “a while to respond”?

6 weeks which is a long time I know, but one of us had a new born with complications and I was moving job and house so had my mind elsewhere.

stockhausen · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:38

No message.

Dis86 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:41

kindai said:
Nope. He has a duty to provide a standard of work, if that standard has not been met he should be allowed to rectify it, but if he doesnt then you have a very strong legal standing not to pay:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/29

In fact, it is quite the opposite, if the code is buggy and non-functional you could sue him to have his crap code corrected if they buy it and have to have it fixed!!!

But there's no contract formed ergo no agreed scope. Without an agreed scope or defined end-product how can you say something doesn't do what it's supposed to do? All he has to do is argue that it is part of ongoing works that seemingly the OP doesn't wish to pay for.

kitkat9933 · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:43

Dis86 said:
But there's no contract formed ergo no agreed scope. Without an agreed scope or defined end-product how can you say something doesn't do what it's supposed to do? All he has to do is argue that it is part of ongoing works that seemingly the OP doesn't wish to pay for.

Well he's delivered functionality that doesn't work, i.e. a chrome plugin that doesn't do anything.

Jokester · 24 Nov 2019 at 18:43

What was the reason for him walking away?

Contracted developer demands obscene hours payment

Sgarrista

Capodecina

Tea Drinker

Sgarrista

Capodecina