Legal Question in Business Law in Maryland

Verbal agreement to change in proposal

We have unfortunatley under estimated on a proposal. The customer has already signed original proposal, (which does state that there may be a need for additional materials/labor)and mailed the deposit. After begining the job we realized that additional materials/labor would be needed. Both parties agreed that original materials were not enough. Customer verbaly said to go ahead and do whaterver we needed to and it would be paid for. We did as requested. The additional work had more than doubled our original proposal. Now customer is not happy with job. Costomer refuses to pay anything. We have all receipts for delivery of materials,(to customers residence)which our labor is based upon. The amount due is around $6,500. Is the customer obligated to pay this? Or did we just learn a very bad lesson in verbal agreements?


Asked on 3/19/05, 10:51 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Sher Wagshal and Sher

Re: Verbal agreement to change in proposal

Your position would be stronger if, after discovering the estimating mistake, you had reworked the contract and re-signed it. Or at least gotten a written change order from the customer. While you still have a claim, if the customer's version of the events differs from yours, you will have a "swearing contest" in court.

You should try and sit down with the customer and see if you can come to an agreement as to whether his complaints are legitimate and how they can be worked out. If you reach an impasse, perhaps you can agree to submit the dispute to arbitration. Otherwise, you'll have to take the customer to court.

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Answered on 3/22/05, 11:24 am


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