archkre

A friend of a relative gave me a call and told me he needed his house renovated.
Since I don´t have an office and it would be a freelance work, we always had appointments
in the client´s house , more than 50 miles away.
After he told me the scope of the renovation I went back home and with the based on the
plans the client gave me started working on a proposal.
After having worked for more than a week on it, we have a showdown and he loved the
proposal.
I kept on working on that, but the next contacts were thru the phone.
Unexpectedly in the last occation he told me he really loved the proposal, but he wanted to
wait until the economy recovers from this recession to go on!
I didn´t receive a single buck after more of 2 months of work!
How to avoid this in the day to day professional practice?
How should I proceed to avoid this kind of stupid results in the profession?
Thank you

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'Back in the young fatherland'

prodham

why can't you still bill him for the work ? has he said he won't pay ?

the word is 'vain', by the way (i'm a bit of a spelling fanatic, sorry)

nicnic

I reckon some stern words and if that doesnt work send the boys around for some blunt trauma.

...anyway that really sucks, as a freelancer there isnt much you can do, even as a company its time intensive and expensive to chase this kind of thing.

I would have asked for 1/3 rd up front, and the other 2/3 rds at completion of 'sketch design' phase (where you are at now?).

Then the planning / construction is another phase that works the same way. This ensures you get paid at least some, and he has teh ability to hold work for a while between teh design and going ahead with documentation/build

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Maxer

You should never do work without a written contract that specifically spells out what the scope of work will be and what your compensation is and when it will be paid. If you don't do this then your just asking to be taken advantage of and the worse part is you have no recourse if someone takes advantage of you. If the guy ever does come back tell him he's going to have to pay all of your previous expenses in full as well as 50% of your total contract fees up front before you'll do any more work or give him access to you materials. You can't let people screw you like that.

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litleboy

just send him a letter+invoice, saying he needs to cover for the time you spent, and when the time comes you will deduct the payments from the final job. (on current marker if its after a few years). I recommend you to let him know it's just a small amount to cover the minimum expenses, make him understand that normally he should be paying way more than that but that's just to help him.

BrianKitts

The client has no legal obligation to make restitution for the work you did if there was no preset contract. Maxer's dead on about setting forth the contract before doing any work. Otherwise you are just setting yourself up to get burnt. Some clients are generous enough to make compensation if a project doesn't continue.... but for the most part with the developers that I've delt with, project on hold means all payments are on hold as well.

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Brian Kitts
ANSHEN + ALLEN

litleboy

If he gave him a verbal aproval to do a proposal of the design. as far I undesrtand, he was requesting some work.

BrianKitts I undestand your point and you are rigth, but I have had the same situation, and 80% of the clients pays something.

but, 2 months of work with nothing on writing, you owned this lesson.

mbowers

The distinction has been made. Our office writes a lot of proposals for work that we may or may not get. Do we get paid for it? NOPE. If the proposal succeeds then a contract is written for services.

We've always included a "kill fee". This fee covers any work that we have done to the date when the client calls and says to hold on or to terminate the work. It's usually a percentage of the total project, or based on the number of hours worked..it all depends on the agreement.

Working for relatives or friends of relatives is a sticky situation. Hope this helps.

archkre

I realize I need some tutorials on this kind of Architect-Client commercial relationship!
I was not taught that in the Architecture School.
Do you people know any material: books,e-book, tutorial or videos to learn how to face that kind of professional situations?
I suppose I went through too many 3dsMax or Vray tutorials and very few "how to make $$$ as an Architect"!
Thank you

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'Back in the young fatherland'

prodham

not many tutorials like that exist in architecture.

if you are motivated by making lots of money, you're likely in the wrong business (unfortunately)

best of luck !