Contract invalid when payment terms not honored?

[Joe Strummers Guitar]

Evening everyone.

Supplied contractor to client, they wanted to use their contract, no issue, contract terms 30 days. Have not paid before 60 days on any invoice and now beyond 60 on final. Does them not paying invalidate their non-compete clauses ? Talking to solicitor tomorrow but wondered if anyone encountered this before.

[StevieBee]

I'm not entirely certain I fully understand the arrangements and relationships here but I think what you're essentially asking is if late payment of invoices nullifies any contract that exists.

Unless that is expressly written in the contract then, no.

[Marcellus]

IIRC a breach by one party of a contract doesn’t entitle the other party to breach the contract.

(Or two wrongs don’t make a right)

[Joe Strummers Guitar]

Thanks gents

[Ean218]

honored? US contract law may be different to UK.

[Zetec-S]

Not exactly what the OP is after, but you can apply statutory interest on the late payments

https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-intere...

[Collectingbrass]

Marcellus said:

IIRC a breach by one party of a contract doesn’t entitle the other party to breach the contract.

(Or two wrongs don’t make a right)

This. You need to consider charging late payment fees and termination, but you need to do it properly. I would also get a Dunn & Bradstreet credit reference on them and all your clients & assess the late payment risk.

WRT non-compete, as an Employee I've had these disregarded as these are restraint of trade for the employee. It may be different in a B2B relationship, but I would be surprised if it was as they want the expertise your contractor has gained from working for their competitors. One for your solicitor though, and I would also look at how this affects any IR35 assessment of the role.

[MustangGT]

Collectingbrass said:

WRT non-compete, as an Employee I've had these disregarded as these are restraint of trade for the employee. It may be different in a B2B relationship, but I would be surprised if it was as they want the expertise your contractor has gained from working for their competitors. One for your solicitor though, and I would also look at how this affects any IR35 assessment of the role.

Not sure how they could enforce a non-compete? Your supplied contractor is probably not considered an employee of theirs, and is a contractor who is a specialist in a field. It is likely that a non-compete clause would be struck off by a judge as restrictive. To enforce I would expect them to pay for the contractor for the non-compete period because he/she would not be able to work elsewhere at their request.