Responsibility of the parties under a contract, in particular, as in the case of other transactions involving serious money, is one of those patients. The legislation is designed so that the parties have freedom of choice. Unfortunately, they either misunderstand it or do not use it.
Preparation of contract
Transactions with citizens are concluded on the basis of model contracts, which may be subject to minor changes. Their shortcomings almost never become the subject of legal proceedings.
Another thing is the agreement between large organizations. All clauses of the contract are the result of long negotiations, negotiators can spend weeks on them.
Middle-aged companies use the same developed contracts, but the conditions are either poorly developed or not at all. The liability of the parties under a contract is a good example.
In the event of a dispute, the judge relies primarily on the terms of the transaction. There is an opinion that the contract is being prepared with the expectation of a potential trial. Therefore, the more detailed the conditions of liability, the scheme for calculating the amount, the procedure for the parties, the easier it is then to act, protecting your rights.
Normative regulation
Carefully written measures of responsibility of the parties under the contract is not bad, but we must not forget about the other terms of the contract. If you do not pay enough attention to them, it will be more difficult to prove the validity of your claims.
The law establishes the difference between the available types of contract:
- household contract;
- construction contract;
- design and survey work;
- work performed for state or municipal needs.
Starting to develop the conditions, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of regulation, including responsibility, and the legislator’s reckoning on the initiative of civil turnover. The rules of the contract in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation are designed for the parties to choose the proposed regulatory options with rare exceptions.
There are two more points: the lack of clarity in material conditions may lead to the recognition of the transaction as not concluded.
If there is a violation unacceptable by the norms of the law, or an excessive advantage in favor of one of the parties, there is a risk of invalidating the contract.
Contractor Status
General rules provide for the following clauses on the obligations and responsibilities of the contractor:
- the contractor, on his own and by means, performs the work according to the requirements of the order from the materials of the customer or his own, depending on what is written in the agreement;
- undertakes to start work in a timely manner and conduct it according to the schedule;
- the quality of the result should ensure its normal use for the purpose indicated in the task;
- the contractor must report on the use of the customer’s material, return the remaining materials or keep them to himself, reducing the price by the appropriate amount;
- the contractor has an obligation to warn the other side of the need to stop the work due to materials, errors in the technical documentation, negative consequences of further execution of the customer's instructions;
- work is suspended when other circumstances arise that, regardless of the actions of the contractor, threaten the quality of the work or its timely completion;
- the contractor ensures the safety of the property, materials, things transferred by the customer in the process of fulfilling the agreement;
- the contractor undertakes to provide the customer with the opportunity to monitor and verify the progress of the order without interfering with the process.
Customer status
But from what points are the duties and responsibilities of customers built:
- the obligation to accept the work in full or in stages;
- make advance payment, if it is provided for by the contract;
- pay for the work in stages, if it is provided for by the contract;
- the obligation to declare deficiencies or shortcomings that he identified during the inspection, so that later he has the right to refer to them;
- obligation to declare deficiencies identified after acceptance by the deadline stipulated by the agreement.
The described provisions regarding the status of the parties apply to all types of contracts.
Construction contract features
The responsibility of the parties under a construction contract is the presence of several persons by the contractor. They act either independently or are engaged by the general contractor.
The responsibility system in the customer-subcontractor relationship is built according to two schemes:
- the customer is solely responsible to the general contractor and seeks faults from him;
- the customer works directly with each subcontractor.
In the first scheme, the general contractor becomes the customer for the remaining contractors, paying off with them and making claims.
The contractor is responsible for the conduct of work in accordance with the documentation provided and within the budget.
If for some reason this is not possible, he informs the customer about it. The contractor is given the right to suspend work if the customer does not give an answer within 10 days or another period specified in the contract.
If the contractor did not report the need for additional work, the obligation to pay them is removed from the customer. The contractor still needs to prove that going beyond the budget and additional work was carried out in the interests of the customer.
The customer is responsible to the contractor for deficiencies in the technical documentation that he is forced to correct at his own expense, as well as for providing the information that the contractor needs.
Responsibility for consequences associated with the quality of the equipment and materials provided lies with the party to whom they were provided.
Features of a household contract
The responsibility of the parties under a household contract is primarily related to informing the client about the rules for using the facility so as not to harm him, nor himself, nor third parties.
If the result of the work does not meet the terms of the contract or regulatory requirements, the customer has the right:
- to demand completion at no additional charge;
- claim damages if the customer has rectified the defects at his own expense.
The customer is responsible for the refusal to pay for the work. If on his part there is an evasion of payment for work and acceptance of the result, the contractor has the right to sell the thing, take the payment from the proceeds and put the remaining money on deposit.
Proposed Responsibility
Participants are entitled to choose one of the options available in the law or to add something else to the contract. It is advisable to prescribe what measures are applicable for the relevant violations.
The contract in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation gives the following measures of influence on contractors:
- indemnification;
- collection of interest for the use of other people's money;
- payment of a penalty for unfair performance or evasion of obligations;
- deduction by the contractor of the property of the customer until the moment he pays for the expenses or losses incurred by him in connection with the performance of the contract.
Forms of liability may be combined at the discretion of the parties.The law also establishes additional ways of influencing violators for the listed forms of work, but nevertheless, the main obligation is compensation for damage.
Contractor damages
After analyzing the law, several reasons can be identified when the customer has the right to demand compensation:
- the terms are violated to such an extent that the fulfillment of the contract objectively becomes impossible and the customer has lost the sense of continuing further relations;
- deficiencies cannot be eliminated, or the contractor refuses to eliminate them within a reasonable time or period of time allotted by the agreement;
- involvement of a subcontractor violates the terms of the contract or provisions of the law;
- actions of the contractor led to damage or destruction of property transferred to him by the customer;
- any action or omission that led to material losses of the customer.
As can be seen, even the law provides an extensive list of situations in which failure to perform or improper performance of obligations under a contract serves as the basis for claiming damages.
Collection from the customer
The law on the reasons for recovering losses from the customer says the following:
- non-performance or such performance of obligations that makes the work of the contractor impossible or difficult that it loses the benefit of cooperation;
- the customer unilaterally refused the contract;
- any action or omission resulting in loss to the contractor.
Finally
Responsibility of the parties for violation of the contract is provided by law and contract. The law gives only the boundaries and outlines that the parties to the transaction are entitled to use.
Because of this, the possibilities of judges in resolving a dispute are limited if the relevant issues are not settled by clauses of the agreement. For example, when and how much is the injured party entitled to demand? What is the formula for calculating? Is a forfeit sought? Are claims for damages and forfeit combined, or is one thing applied? Thus, there are a lot of issues, especially in the construction contracts with the participation of many persons and a large volume of conditions.