Contract Duration?

[ASHGOON]

Hi all - 1st time poster here - so be gentle!!

I have an offer of a contract starting early December, so need to hand in my notice and do all the co setup etc. I was told it was a 6 month contract, with the 1st 3 months being probationary.

I have just received a draft copy of the contract with the following clause:

"Contract Duration - 60 working days from commencement date."

I'm not sure why this is - before I talk to the agency, is this normal practice? Or have I just been misled as to the type of contract on offer here?

I have just setup my ltd co - waiting for the confirmation from companies house. How should I proceed with this - if this is a 2 month contract only, then I'm not going to take the position. Or are contracts normally started this way? Sounds stupid writing this, obviously sounds like I've been slightly misled here - so what course of action do I take with the agency?

Cheers!!

[Pondlife]

60 working days is 3 months over xmas which is quite common for projects at a new client.

[Xenophon]

60 working days is not far off a usual month anyway - give or take the odd day or two. You could work out when your last day is, but I would suggest getting that confirmed.

[thunderlizard]

60d = 12wks = normal for an initial contract.

Check the small print. It will probably have a bit that says you can be ditched at a few days notice anyway.
"6 months with 3 months probationary" is an unusual way of putting things. Sounds like they're really saying "we need you for 3 months: and probably for 6 months too but we don't want to commit to it".

[Hogan]

I was in a very similar position before starting contracting ...

If you've been told the contract is for 6 months and your gut feeling is that there is that amount of work there then you just have to bite the bullet.

Before leaving the security of permi-dome I wanted to secure a six month role in order to avoid any blips in income etc and basically lower the risk.

The six month contract ended up being two months as the project got shelved suddenly. Let that be a warning ! There were some panicky emails the week I got told the bad news I can tell you. Luckily got another role very quickly, but it just confirms what so many people say on this board about making the leap - there are risks, it's not easy money (well, not all the time) ... but it can be worthwhile.

Even though a contract says 'x' months, this is usually quite meaningless as many contracts will have say a weeks notice period (and from an IR35 point of view, the lower the notice the better).

Good luck !!!

[ASHGOON]

guys, thanks very much for the replies - really appreciated, and reassuring. obviously a lot of things I need to understand still, but this is a good place to start!!

Cheers.