Client-supplied material clause in contract
After some discussion on Twitter about the quality of material sometimes supplied by clients to be processed, marked up, copied, printed or otherwise actioned by us I thought I’d just share this; my latest addition to my proposal/contract template: a clause about client-supplied material.
It’s the first version of this new addition (and I may in future word it a bit nicer), but it’s in my for-use version of the contract - can’t remember if I’ve actually got it past a client yet … only put it in last week after having a client expect me to process amateur photos that were scanned at low resolution on a crappy scanner … and produce a professional-looking brochure. If they can’t figure out for themselves that this just doesn’t work, then hopefully this clause will help explain how critical it is to the success of a project that client-supplied materials are of high quality:
- The Client agrees to ensure that all materials supplied to the Vendor or third parties engaged by the Vendor for performing the services specified by this contract will be of high quality and suitable for the material’s intended use.
- The Vendor may at their discretion refuse to use Client-supplied material that the Vendor deems is not of high quality or suitable for the material’s intended use.
If the Vendor chooses to refuse Client-supplied material:
- The Client will agree to compensate the Vendor for the acquisition or purchase of replacement material’s of high quality and suitable for the material’s intended use.
OR
- The Client may acquire, purchase or provide replacement material of high quality and suitable for the material’s intended use.
OR
- The Client may determine that the acquisition, purchase or provision or replacement material of high quality and suitable for the material’s intended use is not possible within the Client’s budget and/or timeframe; in this event the Client may choose to terminate the contract.
- The Client will agree to compensate the Vendor for the acquisition or purchase of replacement material’s of high quality and suitable for the material’s intended use.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:54 am
Mind if I just rip that off you verbatim?
August 31st, 2007 at 12:55 am
Ha go for it. You want the whole contract?
September 1st, 2007 at 1:08 am
If this is really a regular enough issue for you that you need to have a clause in your contract, I think you need to find some better quality clients. Either that or there’s something going seriously wrong in the communication process. In 9+ years I have never had a client refuse to work with me on content quality.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Mind sending me the contract? It’d be a great starting point for me asI hope to go fully freelance soon. Thank you!