That moment I realized my contract was missing a kill fee clause

A client ghosted me after I delivered 12 social media graphics for $900, and when they finally came back 6 weeks later asking for changes, I had zero legal ground to charge extra because my old contract had no reversion or kill fee language, so now I always add a line that says unused concepts revert to me after 30 days and revisions cost a flat $50 per round - has anyone else had to rewrite their whole contract after one bad experience?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith1649d ago

Man that's a rough lesson to learn... I had almost the exact same thing happen with a logo project years ago and it stung bad enough that I rewrote my whole contract that same weekend. Now I just keep it simple with a flat kill fee of 50% if they bail after the first draft, and a hard 14 day deadline for feedback before I assume it's dead.

robinc604d ago

Heard a story once from a guy who put a 30 day feedback clause in his contract, client came back on day 29 with a list of changes that basically redid the whole project. He ended up charging them for a second round of work, but the whole thing dragged out for months and he said he'd never touch that kind of deadline again without a way to cut it off early. What's your cutoff on feedback before you just walk away?

park.aaron9d ago

14 days sounds generous honestly... I had one client ghost for 6 months then pop up asking for revisions.