Email Contract

[audicab]

Hopefully somebody can help, we have a client who we have worked with for a long time, we have never had a signed contract but we have an agreement by email for a 12 month period and a PO Number which covers all 12 months of invoicing.

There have been a few changes at the company and some new people coming in and they want to cut short our agreement with 8 months to go.

Obviously we are trying to see if there is anything that we can do to ensure that they stay with us, but if the new people want to bring in their own suppliers where do we stand legally if the worse came to the worse. Does an email agreement and a PO Number for a 12 month contract cover us legally.

Many Thanks

[JonRB]

Personally (speaking as a layman) I would imagine that an email contract isn't worth the paper it's not written on.

[Eric Mc]

A contract doesn't have to be on paper or signed for it to be a valid contract. Signed paper contracts are the best type of contract, but they aren't the only ones. A verbal contract can be just as valid. I would say a e-mailed agreement to terms and conditions would be very much better than nothing.

I wouldn't shy away from
a) enforcing the contents of the contract

or


b) seeking compensation if it is to be terminated earlier than originally agreed.

[jo strummer]

An emailed contract is very enforceable, the more specific the better obviously, I will invariably ask for read receipts when emailing sensitive material, nothing deflates a "didn't get it" argument quicker than the forwarding of a read recipt.