Contractor With No Written Agreement: Can You Still Recover Payment?

You did the work on a verbal agreement. A handshake at a meeting. A scope discussed in messages. An email that said “go ahead”. No formal contract was ever signed. Now the client refuses to pay and is hiding behind the absence of paperwork. The good news: Australian contract law does not require a written agreement for most commercial work, and a Letter of Demand is still the right opening move.

What forms a binding contract

Under Australian common law, an enforceable contract exists wherever there is:

• Offer — your quote, proposal, or scope
• Acceptance — their “yes”, “go ahead”, purchase order, or simple use of the work
• Consideration — the agreed payment
• Intention to create legal relations — assumed in a commercial context
• Certainty of terms — enough detail to know what was agreed

None of those requires a signed document. Email threads, Slack messages, text messages, voice notes, voicemails, and even verbal exchanges followed by emailed deliverables can together prove the contract existed.

The evidence to gather before you send the letter

• Every email and message about scope, price and timeline
• The proposal, quote or scope document — even if unsigned
• Evidence of acceptance — replies saying “go ahead”, purchase orders, deposit payments
• Evidence of delivery — the files, login credentials, photos, sign-offs, “thanks!” replies
• Evidence of use — the work appearing on their website, in their marketing, in production
• The unpaid invoice and any reminders sent

Quantum meruit — the safety net

Even if the formal contract analysis fails, you can still recover under quantum meruit (“as much as he deserved”) — a long-standing equitable principle that says where work has been performed at the request of another and accepted, the requester must pay a reasonable sum. It is the legal answer to “the contract is unclear so I owe nothing”.

The Letter of Demand

For unpaid work without a formal contract, the Letter of Demand is even more important than usual because it forces the dispute into the open and creates the documented record courts and tribunals expect to see. It:

• Sets out the engagement chronology with reference to the messages and emails
• States the agreed price (or the reasonable market rate if no price was fixed)
• References the work delivered and the evidence of acceptance/use
• Cites the contract law and quantum meruit basis for recovery
• Sets a clear deadline (typically 14 days)
• Names the next step — your state’s tribunal or the Local/Magistrates Court

The flat fee

The wizard asks about the engagement, the messages, the work delivered and the invoice. Our Programmatic Algorithms draft the letter on professional letterhead and send it to the client. Some “no contract” disputes resolve at this stage because the client realises the absence of paperwork is not the shield they thought it was.

Next step

Send the demand letter, and from your next job onwards, run a one-page service agreement before work starts. Claim Done’s Service Agreement ($49) takes ten minutes and sets out the terms so a later dispute is easier to resolve.