One Reason That Contracts Matter
April 29, 2008
Recently, I heard a sad contract story. Or rather a sad no-contract story.
A business owner engaged the services of a Web designer to create the business’s Web site. The designer collected a few thousand dollars up front. No contract between the two parties was ever signed. The designer obtained a new domain name for the client but didn’t share any of the access information with the client.
Did I mention that the client had already paid several thousand dollars and that there was no signed contract? No contract laying out the service-provider’s duties and responsibilities—or the client’s. No contract describing the scope of the project. No contract disclosing costs, payments, and terms.
Not long after the designer accepted the money and secured the new domain name, the designer died unexpectedly, leaving the client without the several thousand dollars and without access to the new domain name. And that’s how the situation still stands today.
So if contracts have never seemed important to you in the past because you felt that a handshake and knowing the other party was contract enough, think again.
Unexpected death is one good reason to have a contract.
