Typical client situation - Needs advice

Question

Ok. Client's project (an app) was suppose to get over in 2 months time. We continued to send him builds. BUT, everytime we send him the build, he will take 2 months to give feedback to that build. And that too he will just check one portion of the app.

Now, because of all these delays, the project has been dragged 1 and half years. My development costs are not fully paid by him and has by all means exceeded the final project cost. I am staring at a loss on a project which is not fully paid up and not sure how long will it drag. And I don't want to work anymore on that project.

In such situation, to recover my cost, can I reskin the app and sell it to someone? Is that legal? There was no contract with the client about he owing the copyright of the code.

Please advice.

Answer 1

No contract? Sounds to me like it's yours still.

Too short of an answer? I agree.

Lessons to be had:

1. Use a contract and Scope of Work. Everytime. Especially for project work (instead of hourly, I mean).
2. Document your interactions. If you have a conversation on the phone or in person, make sure you document it. A great way to do this is to email them, saying you just wanted to confirm we talked about Topic A and B, and deadline C today.
3. Collect milestones before doing additional work.

Next, this situation. Have you talked to them about how this is impacting the project? If the client does not take the project seriously, it's going to be hard to take your invoices seriously when they eventually come. Explain how the project is going to suffer if you do not get the feedback you require, and let him decide. Give him a hard deadline to respond by, and hold to it.

If he doesn't respond or doesn't have a good reason for not responding? Absolutely! Add the project to your portfolio, and allow it to be used for other companies. This is assuming you are correct, in that no contracts were used for this project, including a Non-Disclosure Agreement.