The Work is Done, So Where’s the Dough?

aka Contract Breaches and Demand Letters

This is the age-old question that has plagued countless artists in the past and will doubtless plague countless artists in the future.

You’ve been hired by Company ABC to do some illustrations for them.  You’re smart and you work out a good contract, which entitles you to payment within x number of days.

You did the work on time and turned it in with no problems.  But the unthinkable happens and x number of days has passed and you are without money.  Now you’re hungry and have no electricity because Company ABC didn’t meet their legal obligation to you.  But, hiring an attorney or arbitrator, if that is what your contract provisions, is expensive at worst and time consuming at best.  You just want your rightfully due money!

Well, don’t call your lawyer quite yet.  There is one more thing you can do.

It’s called a Notice of Breach of Contract or a Demand Letter.  And it goes a little something like this:

By Registered Mail

Recipient’s Name

Recipient’s Address

Date

Dear Recipient’s Name:

Re: Contract between Recipient’s Name and Your Name dated Date of Contract (the “Contract”).

You are hereby notified that you are in breach of Specify Provision in Contract which Specify How Breached (ie.  you are in breach of Section 3 of the contract which requires you to pay within 30 days of acceptance of the work).

The said breach results from Specify Action which resulted in breach (ie. your failure to pay within 30 days of July 20th, 2009, when the work was formally accepted).

You are hereby notified that unless the said breach is remedied within Specify Applicable Cure Period (ie 10 days) of the date of this letter, then we reserve the right to exercise any and all remedies available to us under the terms of the Contract or in law.

You are hereby notified that we require State the Nature of the Demand (ie immediate payment of the contractually agreed amount of $1000.oo), failing which we reserve the right to exercise any and all remedies available to us under the terms of the Contract or in law.

Yours truly,

Your Name

You may want to include printed evidence that you have of your claim, such as emails saying the work was accepted, etc, depending on what the terms of your contract are.

I simply copied this format from the internet, and you can simply write it in plain English, if that suits your preference better.

Make sure you send the letter via the post.  Don’t send an email demand letter.  Note the day and time you sent the letter, make sure the date on your letter is accurate.

The hope is that the company will see this, go “Oh yes, paying them is a good idea for us” and just pay you.  If they still don’t, you may have to take it to the next step.  This may seem harsh or make you nervous, but it is really nothing but fair.  You deserve to be paid for your work, on time, and without a lot of runaround- it’s just that simple!