Is this technically even legal to change terms and conditions to receive payment after work is completed?

[JackM678]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I did some contractor work for an agency to manages foreign exchange students from high school where they offered me $200 to go to fours houses kids were staying at and inspect them for safety and complete a report and I filled out an W9 form.

Last week, I received an email with instructions on how to get paid and when I reopened it again on Sunday, December 9th, the instructions were that in order to get paid you need to register an account on a 3rd party app and put in your bank account information and they had a link that connected us with their company for payment upon completion.

However, at the bottom it stated the terms and conditions were that if we didn't register by December 11th at the latest, they would consider that as us not being reachable and all money earned would be forfeited.

I was on time and I had the deposit initiated to my bank account, but for others who had overlooked the email, is it technically legal to make those terms and conditions after they did the work they were promised to be paid to do and filled out the tax form along with it that they won't pay them if they don't register on an app in less than a week, and after they'll lose the money they earned?

I can see this being brought to court should someone have been owed a lot more than the $200 I made.

 

[adjusterjack]

It depends on the express terms and conditions of the contract signed by the contractor who agreed to do the work.

Or, if the work was commissioned through a website, the terms and conditions or terms of service govern the agreement.

Did you read them?

Read them now and see if they address method of payment.

 

[LdiJ]

It depends on the express terms and conditions of the contract signed by the contractor who agreed to do the work.

Or, if the work was commissioned through a website, the terms and conditions or terms of service govern the agreement.

Did you read them?

Read them now and see if they address method of payment.

I suspect that any clause in a contract that says that you don't do X (an administrative item, not a work performance item) by Y that you don't get paid at all for the work that you did, would be ruled as unenforceable by a court. That is very different than saying that you don't get paid UNTIL you do Y.

 

[JackM678]

It depends on the express terms and conditions of the contract signed by the contractor who agreed to do the work.

Or, if the work was commissioned through a website, the terms and conditions or terms of service govern the agreement.

Did you read them?

Read them now and see if they address method of payment.

There was no contract or any agreement. A coordinator I know in the area just said she normally will get 50 dollars extra up to x times per year for each report she does and she didn't have time so told me she'd submit it to the agency payroll as it just had to be someone over 21 to do the reports.
In the email they stated they owed me money and that they had my 1099 on file, but then they said I had to sign up on an app to get paid by December 11th or all money would be forfeited.

That kind of seems the same is someone hiring you to do contractor work, but then saying if you overlook an email after you did the work saying you have to give them your PayPal address in a couple days or they wouldn't pay you at all when it wasn't part of the agreement before you did the work.

It's not a big thing as I did it on time, but it just seems kind of petty as if they were hoping some people would miss it so they could get out of paying people.

 

[adjusterjack]

they were hoping some people would miss it so they could get out of paying people.

Yep, sounds like scammers to me.

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I can see this being brought to court should someone have been owed a lot more than the $200 I made.

And I can see the agency losing that fight. The terms and conditions of the deal when you and the agency made the agreement for the work are the provisions that would apply. If this rule wasn't mentioned at the time you entered into the contract then that rule is unenforcable by the agency because it cannot make unilateral changes to the contract that you had. I agree that it sounds like they were pulling a fast one on contractors who may not know the law very well and wouldn't fight it.