Legal Question in Business Law in Washington

Items in estimate incomlete

We provided an estimate to a client detailing the items that needed to be completed and how many hours we estimated it would take. Their project was delayed several times, we never completed all of the items listed in the original estimate.

They wrote to us stating that they felt we were in breach of contract and that they had a quote from a different company that their project would only cost $5000.

We replied that we did not feel that an estimate equaled a contract. We then offered to pay them the $5000 to go to the other company.

They wanted to meet with us. We wrote explaining that we thought a meeting would only waste their time and ours, restated the offer to pay for the other company to finish the work.

They write back an very thinly veiled threat that refusing to meet with them would result in legal proceedings.

Should I stop wasting my time and pay for a lawyer to deal with this?


Asked on 8/13/08, 12:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Susan Beecher Susan L. Beecher, Atty at Law

Re: Items in estimate incomlete

An estimate may become a contract if the buyer agrees to it and the seller begins work. So probably you are in breach. However, they have already stated their damages ($5000) and you have already offered to pay them. They may have gotten some notion that they can turn this into their retirement fund, somehow. An attorney could probably help them recapture a sense of reality and bring this matter to resolution. Good luck.

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Answered on 8/13/08, 12:35 pm


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