Contracted developer demands obscene hours payment

[kitkat9933]

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?

 

[kitkat9933]

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.

 

[kitkat9933]

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?

 

[kitkat9933]

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.

 

[kitkat9933]

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.

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.

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.

 

[kitkat9933]

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.

 

[kitkat9933]

What was the reason for him walking away?

he said stated 'personal reasons'.

I can see his reasoning for getting a lawyer involved then however inconsiderate it is to you.

I can't see this working out in his favour if he can't provide evidence of the hours worked. Since it was based on hours worked rather than project he could be entitled to payment even if the work is unfinished but he'd have to prove his hours. That he's charging so little for so many hours worked I'm leaning towards he's full of it and just wants to get some money.

6 weeks no reply and potentially things changing as all software does over time. I can see his side as well.

Have you checked out the law firm to see if it's legit?

Have you looked into your own lawyer?

Getting some legal advice in the morning. It's a tin pot legal firm, with the guy sending it being a qualified conveyancer and having several black marks for his advise in the past.

 

[kitkat9933]

His reasons for walking away are probably neither here nor there, the fact of the matter is that he has "walked away".

Did you describe to him what exactly you wanted the "App" to do? Was anything ever put down in writing? Hourly rate, date for delivery - ANYTHING at all?

Nope our own fault here, all done verbally apart from the hourly rate agreed at £8.50 an hour.

lesson learnt and I’m happy to pay the original amount he demanded for both sides to walk away civilly. But to demand an extra £700 without warning has irked me on a matter of principle.

 

[kitkat9933]

But as pointed out, he could simply argue it's work in progress.

Potentially, but it’s not just part done; it’s done. The code is so poor, it’s not functional.

 

[kitkat9933]

You horrible man. I pay my broom pusher £9.50 an hour!

It was the agreed rate in exchange for equity in the future of the product.

 

[kitkat9933]

This screams that this was a cash offer that the Taxman was not to be informed about.

the person involved did definitely not tell the taxman I know that much.

 

[kitkat9933]

The sad thing is I am willing to pay the original £2000 just to be able to walk away from it all, but the extra £700 demanded for nothing has irked me.

 

[kitkat9933]

Giving no scope is a crazy notion. How could you ever get to the point of completion without a statement of work?

I'd walk away, not pay a thing, then write some actual requirements and hire someone better.

We have a scope etc but it was all verbal and on peoples personal notes (not shared with each other except verbally) as it was all mates rates etc..

 

[kitkat9933]

My totally worthless, layman's opinion of this based on what I know, combined with 10 minutes of googling and what's been written is as follows;

Although there was no written contract which both parties signed, there was a verbal agreement - which as far as I can tell is a contract, and can it some circumstances be upheld in court.

https://londonlawpractice.com/how-to-enforce-a-verbal-contract/

To me, even though it was verbal there must be some evidence that this agreement was undertaken, presumably the website / code he wrote exists somewhere, and that could be produced in court.

So from the court's view. on one side, you have the claimant, who wants his money for the job, on the other side you have the defendant who presumably didn't pay, because the work was not up to standard, and he's potentially not liable because the work completed was essentially not completed / satisfactory.

As much as I believe you when you say this guy produced a pile of nonsense - I actually think he might win the case against you. Simply because; you agreed to pay him 8.50 an hour but didn't.

Even though he did some poor quality work for you, in weighing up the balance of probabilities - he still did produce work, and I think a judge would award him some cash for that..

Either way if I were you I'd get a professional opinion pretty quickly, or just pay the money - otherwise it could get a lot more expensive.

Just to add to this as I've posted a few times, I'm happy to pay the original amount he quoted, regardless to the fact I believe the work sub-par, what I have issue is him demanding another £700 without any basis or warning, with him pulling a figure out of the air. The problem I have now is if as a gesture of goodwill I pay £2000 as this tin pot lawyer is involved, they will chase for the £700 out of air for his fee.

 

[kitkat9933]

The lawyer part is purely fabricated. No solicitor would get out of bed for that kind of money and I would charge on a per letter basis in order to "mediate". I would also I would also expect my client to have made more than one attempt to collect monies owed as that shows an element of good faith on the claimant. Any threatening letters you receive at this stage I would hazard a guess are from wannabe solicitors who have googled a legal letter template and are to be ignored.

I am thinking around the same opinion. There was only the original request, no chase further than that. The tin pot lawyer has had several complaints logged by the solicitors association and is a conveyancer by trade. I am guessing a (family-)friend of the developer or someone in need of work and getting paid to send a few emails.

 

[kitkat9933]

If you were happy to pay the £2k then why not just do it (please god not cash) apologise for the 6 week delay and tell him to go away? will he really want to chase/dispute the other £650?

Yes, the tin pot lawyer wants his £650.

 

[kitkat9933]

Seems my business partner cba with the hassle and is just going to pay it.

to me it was a matter of principal. Lesson learnt don’t mix friends with business... oh well got some new toys today that make the day ok..

 

[kitkat9933]

Not really great that you were paying your mate just a little over minimum wage to develop an App for you to profit on.

Well he wanted 33% equity in addition, so it's a balance.

 

[kitkat9933]

33% equity in something worth nothing isn't really all that relevant anymore tbh...

I'd just start over tbh... and if you're going to bring in someone else then have some weekly meetings, get a bit more oversight re: what they're doing/what they're expecting to do and how they're progressing... I mean how can you let someone you're apparently paying by the hour rack up 400+ hours (presumably over several weeks) without knowing what they did at a more granular level?

You really need clear specs, deliverables, some acceptance tests etc... break the project down into stages and be prepared to change course.

I think perhaps you should go read up on some development methodologies. I've never been overly fussy about being overly ridging in adhering to one (some people can be super anal/inflexible with these things) but a lot of the principles behind them are pretty sound (so pick one that works for you, any would be better than your previous approach) because you've gone way too far into the "back of a fag packet" methodology.

Just to add, we have the project specifications, deliverables, tests etc on a shared project board. But the bit we didn't have was the agreed payment terms etc with the contractor as it was mates rates or how we would log his hours.