A client is trying to sue me for breach of contract

[Web Design Belfast]

Can anyone please advise me further on this matter? A web design client has sent me a solicitors letter threatening to sue me and take court action on the grounds of breach of contract and negligence and also possibly on the grounds that sensitive information stored on their website was accessible by search engines.

This was a very low budget project, the contract was not signed, plus, in my professional opinion - the client got everything they asked for and more, excpet for the 12 month web hosting and support service. I only provided 2 out of the 12 months as the web hosting and support services are no longer needed by my client.

The web site was developed for a 'classified ads' site with full admin area, along with manageable advertising boxes and I only charged £500 for this, plus £95 for a 12 month web hosting and support package. Surely, the contract largely favored my client from the outset and perhaps the courts may see the contract as void.

My solicitor is due to write back to my client. However, I wanted to know if anyone had anymore information they could provide me with? I really do feel and always have felt that the services I have provided have always been 100% in accordance with the original contract / specification in place. However, now I am concerned that the court may see things differently for whatever reasons.

How easy will it be for my client to prove breach of contract and negligence?

The issue of protecting sensitive information was never discussed between myself and the client and I have written in my T&Cs, that the client should never assume that my buisness will automatically implement security measures to protect sensitive information and the client should have done his/her own research first and if any security measures were needed - they should be discussed properly and written into the contract.

All advice is welcome

[Web Design Belfast]

Moved to legal forums

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

What are they claiming you breached in the contract? Was it the hosting?

If it was, just give them the 12 months hosting. It costs you almost nothing really.

[MH1]

Did they state in the brief to you that all sensitive information was not to appear to search engines, and did they also state what they considered sensitive information to be?

[awebapart.com]

Was the solution a fully bespoke system developed by you, or was it a semi-bespoke solution based on some open source system/script.

If it is the latter, then also check the licence for that open source system. There will probably be some clause stating that the system provides no warranty for fit for purpose, e.g GPL states:

15. Disclaimer of Warranty.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

So if you have delivered a semi-bespoke solution based on an open source system, then unless you have made warranties of your own, or made statements in the contract to override or add value to the licence, then that licence still holds true.

Effectively, in a semi-bespoke situation, the client is using a 2 supplier system, the original open source system supplied by whoever developed it, and the integration/customisation you supplied. But then again your contract might say otherwise.

[Web Design Belfast]

What are they claiming you breached in the contract? Was it the hosting?

If it was, just give them the 12 months hosting. It costs you almost nothing really.

My client is trying to use anything and everything against me and web hosting is 1 of them, the solicitors letter was very vague however, so we will just have to wait and see, I have everything covered in my T&Cs and my contract - I'd be happy to give back the web hosting.

[Web Design Belfast]

Did they state in the brief to you that all sensitive information was not to appear to search engines, and did they also state what they considered sensitive information to be?

No, nothing was mentioned about the protection of sensitive material at any time by my client. I have it written in my T&Cs that the client should not assume I will protect this sort of info, it needs to be properly discussed and written into the contract before any security measures can be implemented.

[123Simples]

In order to bring any kind of action against you the plaintiff (your former client) would need to outline precisely what their grievance is - a vague "I'm going to sue you" letter would need to outline the exact problems that your former client was claiming against your company.

Breach of Contract

Breach of a contract may terminate the obligations of the contract. A breach occurs when either one or both parties to a contract have failed to perform an obligation as expected under the contract. A breach may occur when a party:

Refuses to perform the contract
Does something that the contract prohibits
Prevents the other party from performing its obligations

[Web Design Belfast]

In order to bring any kind of action against you the plaintiff (your former client) would need to outline precisely what their grievance is - a vague "I'm going to sue you" letter would need to outline the exact problems that your former client was claiming against your company.

Breach of Contract

Breach of a contract may terminate the obligations of the contract. A breach occurs when either one or both parties to a contract have failed to perform an obligation as expected under the contract. A breach may occur when a party:

Refuses to perform the contract
Does something that the contract prohibits
Prevents the other party from performing its obligations

The actual site required quite a lot of bandwidth and diskspace and I let them know that I would not be providing a more premium package as relations with my client and gone sour at this stage - I did contact their new web designer regarding this issue and also offer to provide web hosting until they were in a position to transfer the site to a new hosting provider. My client requested me to update nameserver and send website and DB files awhile after this but I was worried that by doing this, this would mean that I could not prove that I kept to my side of the contract, i.e. giving them a complete working site with no bugs. So, I didnt do this for them and sought help from my solicitor instead.

I mean, can they sue for breach of contract for these reasons?

[123Simples]

As far as I know WDB they can only sue you if they can demonstrate that somehow you failed to carry out some of the "contracted" details that you would have ran through with them before undertaking the job. They asked you for a:
The web site was developed for a 'classified ads' site with full admin area, along with manageable advertising boxes
which you delivered

They then wanted web hosting
plus £95 for a 12 month web hosting and support package
from which you say you provided 2 months out of the 12 (I assume that then either relations were breaking down at this point as you say, or the web hosting package they were on was not large enough to cater for their additional bandwidth and diskspace (this is probably something that should have been included in the "contract" in the first place), that if they then needed to upsize their web hosting, that they would have to do this if the site needed more resources.

Regarding the transfer of files and updating nameservers -
In your T&C's on your website do you make it clear somewhere that if a client moves webfiles to another host, that you are not liable for any issues that may occur since the files will have only been tested on your own servers? Furthermore has your former client fully paid you for the website and design? If so, then depending on what the "contract" was between you, you may either have to send the files as they are now, or better still, wait until your solicitor fully checks what it is and what it was not, that both you and your former client had agreed to

[Web Design Belfast]

As far as I know WDB they can only sue you if they can demonstrate that somehow you failed to carry out some of the "contracted" details that you would have ran through with them before undertaking the job. They asked you for a:

which you delivered

They then wanted web hosting

from which you say you provided 2 months out of the 12 (I assume that then either relations were breaking down at this point as you say, or the web hosting package they were on was not large enough to cater for their additional bandwidth and diskspace (this is probably something that should have been included in the "contract" in the first place), that if they then needed to upsize their web hosting, that they would have to do this if the site needed more resources.

Regarding the transfer of files and updating nameservers -
In your T&C's on your website do you make it clear somewhere that if a client moves webfiles to another host, that you are not liable for any issues that may occur since the files will have only been tested on your own servers? Furthermore has your former client fully paid you for the website and design? If so, then depending on what the "contract" was between you, you may either have to send the files as they are now, or better still, wait until your solicitor fully checks what it is and what it was not, that both you and your former client had agreed to

I think I'm covered by the contract in terms of the 'working classified ads site that I provided', so this is no longer a worry.

Thanks for the advice on the T&Cs and the additional bandwidth issue, I have learned now to include this in future contracts.

Yes, I have been fully paid by my client and I will only refund back the monies for web hosting via my solicitor at this stage.

I think at this point, they can only argue the fact that I didnt send over website files and DB immediately, but as there was an ongoing dispue and serious threats and allegations been made by my client, I felt it was necessary to seek advice of my solicitor first and felt that I had the right to withhold these (also in my T&Cs) They could try and argue about the bandwidth issue, but then, the site never actually reached its bandwidth limit and I expressed that my client's new designer contact me for the files and DB (which never happened) and my client advised me that all future dealings lie with the solicitors.

I have now got professional indemnity insurance for any future disputes - it will save a lot of stress

;)

[123Simples]

I think you have done everything correctly, and I'm glad the pointer on T&C's was helpful. Good luck with the case and hope all works out well for you