Web designer gone bust half way through project

walnuts

walnuts

walnuts

Associate
Joined
2 Jul 2006
Posts
135
Hi,

At work we started a project with a local web design company to create a new website for our company. Half way through the project the web design company has gone bust and we can no longer get a hold off them (they don't answer calls to mobile and landline is dead).

We initially paid half of the cost of the project upfront. I've been told we have no chance of getting any money back.

The only thing we have received from the web design company is designs of how the new website would look like (in jpeg format).

My question is are we legally aloud to keep these designs and get another company to finish off the website?

I would appreciate any help from someone in the web design industry to advise what my options are and what the usuall thing to do in this situation.

Thanks
 
Well if they have gone bust I can't see them coming to take you to court.
You paid for the prototype (is that the right word for design?) so I guess they are your property!
 
Draeger said:
Did you have a written contract of work with said company?.
Click to expand...

No contract and no documents were signed but the company submitted a written proposal which we agreed on. The proposal is a generic 4 page document outlining briefly what they will do for us.
 
surely they'd be willing to make the rest of the site for the rest of the money?

I can imagine that the design they made for you, is now yours
 
walnuts said:
No contract and no documents were signed but the company submitted a written proposal which we agreed on. The proposal is a generic 4 page document outlining briefly what they will do for us.
Click to expand...


Ah, right. So not a "Terms and conditions" thing then?.

I may be speaking slightly out of turn here, but as a web dev myself this is what I would advocate in a similar situation to yours.

You say the company has gone "belly up" and took a dive of the face of the earth.

Is there any way you can get in touch with any of the people involved as individuals?. I.E. Email addy's or similar?.

I'm sure if the company has gone down the pan and if it was a reasonably sized outfit that the indivuals tasked with the design and dev of your site have not vanished, moreover they are simply without a place of work to turn up to for duty at opening time in the morning now. :cool:

If you could manage to contact one of those indivuals, they after just being told they are out of a job with the company would most probably be over the moon with the prospect of doing some freelance work for you on the design you have up till now.

Lastly, to be honest, if they are not answering phones or replying to submitted questions via email then they are not making themselves available to address any issues you may have.

I would say that if you have the website files as it stands just now then it belongs to you and you should be able to go to another design company and pass that on for them to finish.

If your current/went down the tubes outfit have issues with that, then they will get in touch at some point I would assume, but I would think it unlikely that they would do so. :cool:
 
Yeah, there was no terms or conditions.

We only had contact with the lead web designer who was also in charge of the company. We’ve been trying to contact him for the last 2 months but we’ve had no response.

I don’t expect the company to be making a comeback as I found out this company's turnover was £50,000 in 2008 but they made a loss of £15,000.

I’m going to go with getting website finished by another company.

Appreciate the help from everyone.
 
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