Many times, when a business owner suffers as a result of a breach of contract, it’s because the other party completely fails in their obligations. For example, a business owner hires a construction company to renovate their office space. The company takes a down payment but never shows up to do the renovation, so the contract has been breached. The business owner may need to take legal action in order to get the money back from the contractor who agreed to do the job.
However, there are other scenarios in which a contract may be fulfilled, but its terms could still have been violated based on the timing of the performance. There are often deadlines written into contracts. If these deadlines are not met, even if a job is eventually completed, a business owner can argue that the stipulations in the contract were not actually upheld. This can sometimes lead to disputes if the other party did not know about the deadline or believes that they still fulfilled their obligation per the structure of the agreement.
Timing may be everything
Deadlines may have a significant impact on the value of a contract. That’s why missing a deadline could still be classified as an overall contract breach and may be an actionable breach as a result. For example, perhaps a company is supposed to carry out a job but needs the parts and materials to do that job. They contact a vendor who can provide the proper materials. The vendor gives them a date for delivery and they sign a contract. If the vendor misses that deadline by even a single day, what does it mean for the company? They may have hired extra employees or just assigned the employees they have to that job, but they can’t start without the proper materials. That could cause them to waste an entire day of work, which has a significant financial impact on their operations.
What options do you have?
Contract breaches can happen for many different reasons, all of which may have a financial impact. Business owners need to be sure that they know what legal options they have at their disposal.
