[cml]

Hi All

What would you do?

We have a yearly contract with one of our Local Authority clients that remains silent as to void periods.  We are told by one of their officers that they have emptied this property because it was hard for them to manage their tenants and have now left it empty until they can decide what to do with it.  The problem for us is that although the decision is theirs to decide how they manage their property they did not consider our contract arrangements. We have billed them for this period and are told that they do not want to pay for it.  OK.......So we request that they give us another property to clean in the interim until they decided.........thinking we were being reasonable.

The problem here is if we agree to waiver contract terms this sets a trend which could see them take away properties whenever they feel like it from the contract.   If we pursue with payment this could damage our relationship with them.  Therefore we are faced with the dilema of either enforcing our contract terms or waive this for customer service. 

[The Great One]

Hi

Rock...You...hard Place!!!

Martin

[Fox]

You need to stand firm on this and point out that you have terms and conditions which they indeed signed at the out set.  I have been in a simlar position of office blocks needing to 'downsize' the cleaning requirement, I say as long as we get our three months notice of the change then we will oblige, in some circumstances I have accepted one months notice of the change because the retention part was still pretty big.  It has never damaged the working relationship as any professional understands business is business.

You have been more than reasonable by offering to take on another property instead so just confirm this offer when discussing it.  Just a note fo the future - aswell as in your contract make sure your quotation states something along the lines of 'public holidays, shut downs and works not taking place due to circumstances beyond our control are not included in this quotation and have been taken into account'.

Good luck
Fox

[cml]

Thanks guys....Yep...we stand strong on sticking to  contract terms otherwise their pointless. 

The problem is that some of these officers agree a contract and do not take the terms seriously.  Officers leave new ones start and fail to review their terms.
Here they decided to close the building not because it had burnt down or for some other plausible excuse....as far as we are concerned they should also have made the decision to pay up or replace another property like for like.
This agreement was drafted by them and not us so if they failed to include clauses covering their void periods we cannot go changing it now.  They should have accepted our agreement which would have covered this point.

[ceiling Pro]

Hi there,
It's not much but I hope this helps.....

A contract is a contract at the end of the day. Contracts are put in place to 'protect' both parties, if they are done right.
What has happened here is your customer is in breech of the contract. However, you are prepared to compromise/negotiate to sort out something that is reasonable to both parties.
This is the angle I would take and yes. you are entitled to something out of it. However, you are prepared to give something in return, so they don't pay for 'no service'.
Try taking this position and I think you'll get somewhere, afterall, it's compromise you are looking for.

It's not much but I hope it helps. I wish you the best of luck. Just remember, the person you are dealing with may work for the local authorities but is probably untrained in business law. Take a deep breath, be confident and try to get something out of it. Your customer is confident because he works for a bigger organisation and he just feels you need the work more than he needs you as a supplier.
Listen, consider, offer and close.

I hope this helps.
Neil