[thelist] Selling a site on eBay when a client doesn't want to pay...
Martin Burns
martin at easyweb.co.uk
Sun Jun 15 18:11:07 CDT 2008
On 15 Jun 2008, at 18:41, Nadeem Hosenbokus wrote:
First off, Hassan's right: talk to a lawyer.
That said (and IANAL, but I deal with this kinda stuff), some thoughts
which may be applicable:
> We have an overseas contact who deals with a client who wanted to
> build a
> property website. We started it late 2006 with a 2 month delivery date
> aiming for the site to be up and running early 2007. The
> requirements were
> fairly sketchy and we were fools to agree to it but we did.
No, you were fools to take a fixed price contract without a firm scope
and most importantly: a Change Control Process :-)
> It is now about one and a half years later and the project is still
> running.
> Every time we uploaded a preview, the client added a few changes
> here and
> there.
For each requested change, there should have been an instant response
of "We will produce an impact assessment on the time and cost; if you
want the change, you'll need to agree to the IA". Testing & defect
fixing time is of course part of the impact.
> Initially these weren't a problem
Yes they were - they established a precedent.
> Now the client wants the code without making any further payments.
Key question that your lawyer will ask: did your contract explicitly
assign ownership of code to the client?
If not, then your response can be summarised as: "Hahaha, pull the
other one, mate - it's got bells on"
> He says
> he'll take us (or the middleman rather) to court otherwise because
> we've
> taken too long to deliver.
Too long by what definition? There's not a court that would hold you
to the original timeframe when the scope's been so uncontrolled.
> So I have some questions for those who may have had some similar
> experiences:
>
> 1. If we were to take the code and offer it on eBay would we be
> violating
> any laws like intellectual property laws: the site basically allows
> users to
> create an account, upload the details of a property, have a solicitor
> assigned to it and then sell/buy online - but the unique parts of
> the site
> (that allow interaction between solicitors and users) haven't been
> built
> yet. All we have currently is a site that allows users to create an
> account,
> upload a property and make an agreement with another user to sell or
> buy.
Who would want to buy such code? I'm not convinced there's enough
value there to sell to anyone but the client.
> 2. How much liability would the middleman have if we sold the code?
> Could he
> defend himself in court if we don't deliver?
Who is your contract with? Are you contracting to the client, or sub-
contracting to the middleman? If the latter, what are the middleman's
responsibilities to *you*? If the latter, then I think they screwed up
in not managing the client. If the latter, then the terms of their
contract with the client could make life a little interesting for them.
If it's the former, then it's not their problem (unless part of their
contract with the client is to manage you).
Either way, I'd be asking: why is it your problem what liability the
middleman has? Everyone is responsible for their own outlook.
> 3. How would you end a project like this? It seems to be in limbo: the
> project hasn't reached the stage where the next payment is due but the
> client has said that he wants the code now without paying anything
> more. Do
> we ask him for a formal statement to the effect that we can stop
> development?
Here's a thought: sounds like you've created something that isn't
actually useful without more work being done on it. They can't simply
take your work and launch. So here's a suggestion (that assumes you
got your original 40%):
Go back to the original scope (pre the changes) - you *should* have a
copy of your code that was pre all the changes (and pre-testing too).
Give them that code as they've not paid you for any changes beyond it.
Call it quits at that. Write off the rest and *learn* from it about
how to handle scope and change.
Cheers
Martin
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