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Hello
Long story but im basically a naive entry into the food industry from the medical sector. My eventual plan is to open my own restaurant but in the meanwhile I started taking over the kitchen of a bar next to my house.
I was warned about the owner before since he owns many bars and is notoriously untrustworthy. Often such "pop up" arrangements are informal but because of what i heard I got a lawyer friend of mine to set up a basic contract. She herself works in another legal field.
The background:
1) I was told by the owner that the bar was selling around 1k of food a week, unfortunately I was naive not to have this in writing but his secretary was there when he said it (wether she would testify against him is another question). I have since found out they were doing £2-300 a week.
2) The initial plan was to give them a 25% cut as payment for using the kitchen but then he said that another food operator had just offered him £420 a week for the same bar but would give me first refusals. I again naively agreed to it (I since have contacted that other food operator who said he is lying and he told them the same thing- that I had offered him 420/week but they wisely saw through it and rejected this as being too costly)
The terms of the contract say that I have to give a 30 day notice which ends on the 15th (and I have paid up to the 8th). It also states that i have to "invoice them on a weekly basis for the food sales which would be reconciled by them and paid". I now see that this was too vague because it doesnt specifically say that they have to pay it within X amount of time depending on how you interpret it. I understand that the "default" is 30 days.
He is now asking for another 420 for the 9th-16th BUT he still hasnt paid me my invoices for the 1st 2 weeks. I put a "to be paid in 7 working days" on the invoice and have emailed him several times about this and he refuses to even acknowledge the question and keeps on asking about the final payment. I have just sent an email saying that we need to clarify this issue before I can proceed and if he doesnt respond to me again I will look into stopping trading.
My worry is that I keep on invetsing money on premium food and labour but I havent had anything back yet and I suspect he may try and find some excuse to hold onto most or some of the money which is why im cautious about continuing past the period I have paid to. All the sales go through his till so I guess one way he could do this is to tamper with the figures about how much food sales I made even though I kept my own record.
I want to get out of this place as soon as possible even though sales have been markedly improving over the weeks.
Should I pay for another week and continue trading till the end of my notice period on the 15th and then "hope" i get all the money back from him. Or should I stop trading from the 8th even though that could possibly be breach of contract?
And yes, I know I should have got a proper contract by a contract lawyer but I cant do anything about that now!
Thanks in advance guys!
Long story but im basically a naive entry into the food industry from the medical sector. My eventual plan is to open my own restaurant but in the meanwhile I started taking over the kitchen of a bar next to my house.
I was warned about the owner before since he owns many bars and is notoriously untrustworthy. Often such "pop up" arrangements are informal but because of what i heard I got a lawyer friend of mine to set up a basic contract. She herself works in another legal field.
The background:
1) I was told by the owner that the bar was selling around 1k of food a week, unfortunately I was naive not to have this in writing but his secretary was there when he said it (wether she would testify against him is another question). I have since found out they were doing £2-300 a week.
2) The initial plan was to give them a 25% cut as payment for using the kitchen but then he said that another food operator had just offered him £420 a week for the same bar but would give me first refusals. I again naively agreed to it (I since have contacted that other food operator who said he is lying and he told them the same thing- that I had offered him 420/week but they wisely saw through it and rejected this as being too costly)
The terms of the contract say that I have to give a 30 day notice which ends on the 15th (and I have paid up to the 8th). It also states that i have to "invoice them on a weekly basis for the food sales which would be reconciled by them and paid". I now see that this was too vague because it doesnt specifically say that they have to pay it within X amount of time depending on how you interpret it. I understand that the "default" is 30 days.
He is now asking for another 420 for the 9th-16th BUT he still hasnt paid me my invoices for the 1st 2 weeks. I put a "to be paid in 7 working days" on the invoice and have emailed him several times about this and he refuses to even acknowledge the question and keeps on asking about the final payment. I have just sent an email saying that we need to clarify this issue before I can proceed and if he doesnt respond to me again I will look into stopping trading.
My worry is that I keep on invetsing money on premium food and labour but I havent had anything back yet and I suspect he may try and find some excuse to hold onto most or some of the money which is why im cautious about continuing past the period I have paid to. All the sales go through his till so I guess one way he could do this is to tamper with the figures about how much food sales I made even though I kept my own record.
I want to get out of this place as soon as possible even though sales have been markedly improving over the weeks.
Should I pay for another week and continue trading till the end of my notice period on the 15th and then "hope" i get all the money back from him. Or should I stop trading from the 8th even though that could possibly be breach of contract?
And yes, I know I should have got a proper contract by a contract lawyer but I cant do anything about that now!
Thanks in advance guys!
I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some advice!
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