
Ask HN: Recruiter took my money, what to do? - understanding
So the story goes: Somewhere in UK, I was hired through a recruiter a long time ago...
I have not signed or accepted any contract from the recruiter beyond period and day rate for the work.
My understanding is that the client did sign a contract with the recruiter, details of which I don&#x27;t know.<p>Fast forward a while.<p>The client approached me directly, asking If im available to do more work, which I was and we agreed a day rate and a period with the client.
As the contract finished, the recruiter found out that I was working directly to the client and swiftly got in touch with them.<p>From what I hear they are planning to&#x2F;have inflated my agreed rate with the client and charged them for my work.
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Now I understand that the client has breached the contract they had with the recruiter by hiring me directly, which opens the client up for legal action - not a great position to be in.
I can sympathetic they just want the problem to go away and get on with their life.
However, this leaves me with in a difficult situation as well, with my earnings for the past 2 months gone.<p>Client now maintains radio silence, not answering emails or phone calls. I have not spoken to the recruiter yet, wanted to get some advice on HN before I do so.<p>My understanding is that client and recruiter can settle the broken contract through legal means or settle out of court.
The recruiter however should not be able to charge for my work (correct me if im wrong), an agreement that was made between me and the client irrespective of their previous contract, as that would constitute as fraud.<p>Not sure what do now, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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understanding
I got in touch with the recruiter following celticninja's comment, the
situation is not as bad as first appears: The recruiter will seek to recoup
their fees (as in excluding my daily rate) as agreed between them and the
client way back when. I guess this is part of their contract. They have not
done so yet.

I am to invoice the client directly as agreed with them when they approached
me, the recruiter is not involved. The client has replied, although with
nothing of much interest, but I feel much happier knowing they haven't gone
off the radar.

Lesson learned on not invoicing often enough, many lessons learned in fact.
Thank you all very much for the advice, HN crew #1! <3 <3

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digitalzombie
> Lesson learned on not invoicing often enough, many lessons learned in fact.

You should write down summary of what you did for that day.

I had a client HR lady that handle the check that saw my invoice and she was
like it seems like I'm getting pay too much for such little work. Nice lady,
but she was dragging her feet making sure it wasn't a mistake or if I'm
pulling a fast one.

I sent her my daily summary of each and every day I've worked, bullet points
of what I did for that day. She stopped sending those silly email and the next
email was my check.

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cweagans
IANAL.

Short answer: lawyer up or don't get paid.

Longer answer: You don't have any relationship with the recruiter. The client,
however, does - they likely agreed to hire you through the recruiter for some
period of time. If they wanted to hire you, they should have reached out to
the POC at the recruiter's office. They didn't, though, and opted to work
directly with you. It's extremely likely that they'll have to pay a percentage
to the recruiter, but that shouldn't affect you at all (in terms of what
you're owed): they engaged you for work and they owe you compensation for it.
Take it to court and see what happens (or don't and probably don't get paid).

~~~
S4M
IANAL either, but I suspect there is a certain period of time (like 6 months)
after which the client is allowed to contact the OP directly, even if he got
his details originally through the recruiter.

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jacquesm
Whether or not the client and the recruiter have an issue with each other is
not your problem. You were contracted by the client so the client should pay
you. Talk to a local sollicitor on how to proceed if the amount is worth it (>
1000 pounds or so), otherwise charge it to your educational fund.

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Peroni
Hey. Hopefully you're still reading these responses.

I'm London based and have extensive experience with literally everything you
have described, on _both_ sides of the fence.

I'm not a lawyer. I'm not looking to sell you anything or charge you for any
assistance.

I am an employment law expert with extensive experience both as an agency
recruiter and in-house recruiter. I will gladly assist in any way I can
because your situation is the epitome of why I detest the agency recruitment
industry. My email is in my profile. Feel free to reach out.

~~~
understanding
Thank you for the kind offer, I will see how things progress next week.

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celticninja
AFAIK you should be able to get your money from the recruitment agency. If
they have charged the client a higher rate this includes their cut and your
wages. As you said you did not sign anything with the recruitment agency as
such you did not breach your contract.

Contact the recruitment agency, explain the situation and ask how you obtain
payment for the services you have rendered. If they have received their cut it
should be an administration process to pay you.

The more reputable the organisation the easier it will be. A small boutique
agency will find it easier to lose the money on their accounts whereas a
larger legitimate agency will need to account for that most eye at some point.

Call the agency first nd plan from there.

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saluki
How did you lose two months of earnings? Just curious if you worked two months
before invoicing the client.

(I am not a lawyer but just some thoughts/ideas) If you didn't work for your
client and it was a long time ago I would expect your client might have an out
with the recruiter that the time limit had expired or they should have been
released from the contract since you weren't even employed by them through the
recruiter.

If the client paid the recruiter for your time you need to take up the issue
with them.

1\. Determine if your client paid the recruiter.

2\. Sounds like your client paid your recruiter your rate + their fee so they
owe you your rate portion.

I would approach the client's HR or Finance department and present hey I
worked for you X hours at X rate, this amount of money is important to me(and
my family's) well being. Can you verify that my fees were paid to this
recruiter?

Then approach the recruiter and explain that you weren't aware an agreement
was in place, sorry about that, however my client indicated that they paid you
for my work and I want to provide any information you need to process my
payment for that work.

Kill them both with kindness initially, explain you weren't aware of the
contract between the employer/recruiter.

See how that goes.

Good luck getting this worked out.

In the future invoice more often . . . in the states the max I would go with a
new client is a week or two weeks (with possible retainer/portion up front),
maybe a month for on going work with proven clients.

~~~
s73v3r
I would go after the client for those fees. You did work for the client
directly, they should pay you. The contract is not your concern. Let the
client and recruiter hash it out over what's left.

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MCRed
Client owes you the money, if they are evading you then you need to get a
barrister involved. Recruiter might be liable- I think they would be if they
were in the USA- but that depends on UK laws. I'm not a lawyer and don't know
the law, but I would be surprised if you aren't owed the money for the work
you did.

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codegeek
Not sure about the legal aspect, but the bottomline is that your client messed
up. I am not going to do the whole recruiter bashing thing because we all know
most recruiters are useless. But the thing is that if your client had an
agreement with the recruiter, then they should have thought about it.

Yes you are the one who suffers but you should blame the client and if it
doesn't work, then move on. You really cannot get in the middle of this fight.
Not worth your time.

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JSeymourATL
> From what I hear they are planning to/have inflated my agreed rate with the
> client and charged them for my work. Now I understand that the client has
> breached the contract they had with the recruiter.

Question: Did the client actually pay the recruiter for the additional
engagement or not? Did you invoice the client directly?

In either case, you have no contract to back up your claim. The relationship
between client & recruiter has been damaged. It seems unlikely you will get
paid, especially if the recruiter is threatening the client with legal action.

> What to do?

Be persistent-- call/email the client daily until they reply. If possible,
show up in person at the office. Find out who his top boss is, does the
company have a CEO? Do they have investors? Call them, ask for help sorting
this out.

Moving foward, always have a formal agreement or contract in place covering
the scope of your work and how you will be paid.

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brudgers
When a client doesn't pay, you have two options:

    
    
      1. Take legal action.
      2. Take the loss.
    

Both have hard and soft costs.

Good luck.

