Charging a contractor a concession charge (or fee)?

I have a situation. I recently hired a friend of mine to work for my company. On several different occassions he used my space for his own business purposes. I did not have a problem with that as long as there was no type of solicitation on his part. Anyways, my partner wants to charge him the concession charge for using the space for his business. (If you don't know what that is a concession charge is it is a fee that someone pays you to occupy your property to make money) The thing is that I never said either way if I was going to charge this or not and now it is coming down to paying them for the work they did for us and she wants me to deduct the money owed to the company when he was working for himself. Can we do that? I wasn't sure either way. I mean this process is typical and would not be shocking to hear but I feel that since we didn't discuss it first it would be kinda rude to do it now. My partner reiterates business not personal. What should I do?

Answer:
Did you or your partner mention this concession fee in your contract with your friend. If not, your partner is asking for trouble if he deducts this fee from the money owed for the contractor's service.

On the other hand, your friend should not be conducting other business on your site, without your permission. You and your partner run all kinds of risks if someone get injured on your site, doing business with that contractor. However, if you DID give him permission, then a verbal contract exists between the contractor and you. If you did not mention any fees as part of the verbal contract, your partner has no right to charge those fees.

Tricky ground, here, is if you did not give your friend expressed permission, but knowingly allowed him to conduct that other business without making any attempt to stop him. By not stopping an activity you KNEW was occuring, may IMPLY verbal agreement and acceptance.

In either case, if no mention of a fee was made to the contractor, either orally or in writing, the contractor may successfully sue you guys for non payment if you deduct this fee. It's not rude. It's an eggregious breach of contract.

YOU may be put in a position to have to testify against your partner, in court, if your partner claims that your friend was told he would be charged a fee.

YOU put your partnership in a position where somone MAY get injured and sue you guys.

Your PARTNER is putting you guys in a position where you will probably get sued, and, likely LOSE a non payment suit.

Tell your friend to stop doing outside business on your site. Tell your partner to knock off any talk about deducting any arbitrary fees. Other Questions and Answers:

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Charging a contractor a concession charge (or fee)?

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