Hello Reddit

I currently teach at a high school in an inner city that is nonprofit/public charter school. I accepted a new job and need to leave my current teaching job at the end of this semester (which would be in the middle of the school year). The school is now giving me a notice that I need to pay liquidated damages for $3,000 as per the employment agreement.

At the beginning of the year they had me sign an agreement of employment which states:

"As noted in the employee handbook, *school* is an "at will" employer and this letter is not a contract, nor does it alter the "at will" relationship. Your signature at the bottom of this page simply serves as an acknowledgement of receipt and acceptance of the terms of employment outlined in this letter. "

The letter also states the following:

"Employees that resign after signing this agreement will be liable for liquidated damages (i.e., fee) at the discretion of *school*. Such damages shall be in the amounts noted below.

- Resignation that is provided on or after August 1, 2021: three thousand dollars ($3,000)"

In the employee handbook, there is also a section that states "These personnel policies and procedures do not constitute a contract between school and employees" Saying multiple times that staff are at-will employees and either party can fire/quit at anytime.

Since this is not an official contract, am I not legally liable for liquidated damages? A lot of the teachers at the school think this is a scare tactic for teachers to stay and we are not legally forced to pay this fine.

So Reddit, would I need to pay up? Being a teacher we obviously don't make any money and that amount would be a lot out of my bank account.

I signed a 2 year contract with a corporate dental offices in the state of California. However due to safety concerns and questionable ethical practices (being pressured to sell braces to patients who should not have them being a major concern) by the company, I have decided to terminate the contract early after a year. The contract says I can quit at any time, but can be liable for upwards of $15,000 for liquidated damages.

As courtesy, I stated in my resignation letter to stay on until the end of the calendar year (for patient handoff it recommended 45-90 days notice in dentistry). However after not hearing back for a few weeks after my letter, HR called me demanding I pay them the full $15,000. Are there any options to explore aside from paying them upright and moving onto my next job? Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Bit of an odd one. I have an online job with very low hours and I'd like to quit. I am, I suppose, mid cycle of work (technically).

I've had a read over my contract, and it says

"Independent contractor agrees to pay the following liquidated damages for voluntarily terminating the ongoing working relationship prior to completing all work" (I've shortened slightly).

At the very end of the contract it says:

"Miscellaneous: ..... If any payments required to be made under this agreement shall be in excess of the amounts allowed by law, the amounts of such payments shall be reduced to the maximum amounts allowable by law. Moreover, to the extent that any provision of this agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable because of any lack of geographical limitation, it is the intention of the parties to this agreement that the subject provision be modified to he both enforceable at least as applicable to the people's Republic of China and the Republic of Korea or services rendered therein or to clients residing therein"

Basically, I want to quit but don't want to pay the damages. Do I have any wiggle room here?

Thanks!

edit: I'm based in NI, the company is US based with a UK arm

edit2: looks like such liquidated damage clauses are enforceable :( for reference, the penalty is 68% of what I would be paid if I finished up the job. (I'm paid by milestone. Milestone 1 has been paid, the penalty is 68% of milestone 2's payment which I no longer wish to complete)

I had $8k held up for 180 days by PayPal and now they’re saying they won’t give me any of it for “liquidated damages”. Anyone know what to do? They originally just said they would do the 180 day period not completely steal my money

Final damage screenshot seconds before account was liquidated:

https://i.imgur.com/e0sEWEm.jpg

Thanks to me UPRO and TMF now are 50% stress tests on TOS, no margin reduction credit, and from 36% and 24% stress tests respectively. Or maybe I'm on reg-t when I took the screenshot, IDK and IDC. Talking with risk management apparently I flew under the radar as they didn't see a margin balance due to the box spread until other account alerts went off as customer service will take a look in when anyone is negative 1 million or more PnL as a courtesy to chat with their clients. Needless to say customer service was horrified and I got another margin phone call to wire in $1,250,000 in the next five minutes or they'd liquidate. I guess they give Portfolio Margin customers a little bit more leeway...

I took the five minutes to grab this one final screenshot. I'm hoping for some bailout money from coronavirus too.

I talked with the bankruptcy lawyer that set me up with the asset protection plan and he already dropped me as a client. I never imagined beer-virus would do this to me.

I'm gonna take some time to just not think about the virus or anything else.

TL;DR what strike/put/call/etc

I discovered a bug in my broker's risk management software. I guess buy RCL calls per my previous DD.

Edit: Previous post entering the trade and proof of portfolio margin/etc:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/fepd4q/portfolio_margin_is_10x_worse_than_u1r0nymans_box/

Can Liquidated damages be applied to a construction project when it was not noted in the contractors provided contract?

Currently have a contractor renovating 2 bathrooms where the total fee is 24k of a 4 week project. During first week tradesmen were fired for lack of experience and damaged caused. Second tradesmen quit during fourth week because of salary issues with owner, owner decided to remove all work progress that happened as he feels that second tradesmen work had a lot of discrepancies.

Do I have any recourse even though there’s a promise to make it all correct with no out of pocket expense from me except the inconvenience.

Located in Nevada, USA

Sorry for littering this sub with yet another tenancy post, but...

Seems like I drew the short end of the stick and rented a condo below noisy owners. Newish concrete building, sought second opinions from residents and realtors, researched online posts, and everything pointed towards peace and quiet within. Appeared true when I first moved in, then the random stomping started early mornings, then all sorts of noise throughout the day, now I can't sleep or focus on work/study with random ass shit getting through my headphones and white noise as if I lived under a fucking basketball court. And thanks to COVID, I can't go anywhere else to avoid the noise.

I had sent a formal complaint to the strata back in November, complained to my property managers, they sent a letter to the owners earlier in the month - nada. It only got worse. Already know I have no choice except to move out. Hooray for sharing a roof under people who don't give a flying fuck about measly tenants.

Anyways, my whining aside, my tenancy agreement has a "Liquidated Damages" clause that forces me to pay $500 if I break my lease early. I looked up legislation and there's nothing wrong with it, but the law doesn't give any relief for liquidated damages if a tenant is forced out due to extenuating circumstances. I am allowed to go to the Tenancy Board over noise if it diminished the value of my tenancy, but it's a lot of time and resources to invest over something rather abstract, as well as antagonistic to my property managers, if I were to do that over a relatively small sum.

Should I just break the lease and eat the liquidated damage $$$, or is there an expectation from the property managers to provide relief from that sum - given the circumstances under which I'm moving out?

In Ohio if that matters

I’m confused because American jurisprudence says

“while this need not be a precise dollar amount, it must be shown that some harm or damage in fact occurred.”

But then Ohio jurisprudence says

“No proof of damages is required to support a liquidated damages claim.”

And then later

“In cases involving valid liquidated damages clause, the party seeking such damages need not prove that actual damages resulted from the breach.”

I am at the end of a fixed term rental lease in Vancouver. I have a new job and decided to move closer. My lease ends Jan 31st but in November I found an apartment in an ideal location, that I could afford. The owner there agreed to hold the suite for me until Jan 1st. So I told my current landlord (a large company, not an individual) that I wanted to move one month before my lease expired and could, if they found someone to rent it, move earlier.

Their response was to remind me there was a $500.00 liquidated damages clause AND I'd still have to pay the final month's rent.

I have checked and they haven't changed their regular advertising - they have several buildings and just run regular ads all the time. So, no real extra cost has been incurred to get this unit rented. However, I signed the agreement so am willing to hand over the 500.00.

I can see one or the other being reasonable - but both 500 dollars and the full months rent. Is that enforceable?

This is leaked in Roy's stream and there is a summary post in NGA

HuaMao also leaked that Guangzhou Charge can match Shanghai Dragons and Shu is very op.

My school district has decided to send all students and staff back into the buildings for the fall. We were just informed of this today. We were expected to sign our contracts two months ago, before we we knew anything. On the Zoom call with the superintendent, he told everyone to be patient and wait until August 1st for more information. Per our contract, teachers are already expected to pay $2000 for resigning in July. August 1st happens to be when the penalty increases to $3000. I am not comfortable with going back with all staff and students and risking my life for this job. I don't see how the district can expect teachers to sign a contract months before their reopening plans and then ask them to pay thousands of dollars because they don't want to put their lives in jeopardy for this experiment. I've already contacted my union rep regarding this issue. Has anyone else had a similar experience or insight to share? Thank you.

I know the overall distinction between liquidated damages and penalties, though I would like to know a few second opinions on whether a clause in a commercial contract stating that:

> company Y (who is selling goods to company Z), must pay a reasonable sum of $190 per each day that the delivery is delayed.

Is that kind of clause likely to be a liquidated damage or a penalty?

My take is that the fee is not exorbitant and its intention might be to recover loss, despite not knowing the actual pre-estimated loss arising from any delay. Thus, I find it to be a liquidated damage clause, do you agree?

Hi, first time poster here. I'm manufacturing a product for the first time, and speaking with some potential manufacturers in China.

As I'm making original (but not patent-able) designs, I wanted to get some protection against counterfeiting/theft. After doing some research, it seems like an NNN agreement *might* provide some protection if it is drafted in a way that disincentivized breach and would be enforceable by Chinese courts.

My question is, I'm trying to find out what a reasonable amount to input for liquidated damages would be. It seems I'm meant to choose a number that is large enough to make the manufacturer fear seizure of their assets by the courts, but not so large as to render it unenforceable by the courts. The only concrete number I've found was $350,000 per breach - but I'm a first time manufacturer in the prototype phase with no product/brand recognition and low MOQs, so this seems high.

I appreciate that NNNs may offer little protection in reality, but I decided that on balance my preference was to have at least something in place to encourage an honest relationship from the go.

Any pointers, especially real $$ amounts to consider, from your experience would be much appreciated.

I live in Florida and I am currently trying to end a lease to close on a new home purchase. My lease (signed July 2020) initially called for 1 month of rent as liquidated damages along with paying back a one-time rent concession if I terminated the lease early early UNLESS MODIFIED BY ADDENDUM. However, we signed an addendum to incorporate the option as provided by FL statue 83.595 below and I selected choice (1) to pay 2 months of LD without needing to give 60 days notice. My landlord is saying I would now owe 2 months of LD AND payback the concession. The language of the law is not very clear but every blog / law post I seen is saying that the intent of the law was that option (1) is a CLEAR 2 months of rent and that is it. They would not be able to also collect back on the one-time concession. Who is in the right?

Interestingly, we did not sign this addendum at the time of initial lease signing (July 2020) and signed on (Oct 2020) so is it even valid? Can I make the argument that the terms in the initial lease stands?

http://www.naylornetwork.com/fap-nwl/articles/?aid=20118&projid=1326

https://evict.com/concession-payback-and-the-early-termination-agreement

http://www.nolo.com/sites/default/files/FL_EarlyTermination_LiquidatedDamagesLeaseAdden.pdf

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0083/0083.html

**83.595 Choice of remedies upon breach or early termination by tenant.—**If the tenant breaches the rental agreement for the dwelling unit and the landlord has obtained a writ of possession, or the tenant has surrendered possession of the dwelling unit to the landlord, or the tenant has abandoned the dwelling unit, the landlord may:(1) Treat the rental agreement as terminated and retake possession for his or her own account, thereby terminating any further liability of the tenant;(2) Retake possession of the dwelling unit for the account of the tenant, holding the tenant liable for the difference between the rent stipulated to be paid under the rental agreement and what the landlord is able to recover from a reletting. If the lan

I'm moving across the country and was wondering if my company has grounds to charge me due to not completing my hours for the BCaBA/BCBA certification.

In my contract, it states "post certification" for at least 6 months, but I recently decided to go for the BCBA due to the area I'm moving to.

Now the company wants to charge me liquidated damages due to "collecting hours and not staying with the company".

Another noted item, I will not be getting a finalized sheet as they want to charge more for that, so I'm opting to no get anything signed.

(Long story short, the new company that hired me will be able to help me with my hours more effectively)

Does the company have grounds to deduct from my paycheck?

Have anyone here changed their approach to liquidated damages in signing contracts bid before the pandemic only to get a contract during the pandemic?

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering how common are these clauses and if there's a way to reach a reasonable amount. Client wants me to sign one that's 20x the contract value if I cause 'damage'. That can be an email sent to the wrong person or disclosing the entire information that they own.

We're an early stage startup (i.e. no revenue) looking to work with a specific Chinese manufacturer. We're asking that they sign a NNN agreement. But we're not sure what a reasonable amount of liquidated damages would be if they were to breach the contract. We want it to be enough to prevent breach of contract, but not so much that this prevents them from signing.

Last year, my employer (a public charter school) decided to introduce the policy of liquidated damages for teachers who resigned during the school year. This was also a normal practice when I worked in a traditional public school, however the main difference is that I had a rolling contact when I worked at a traditional school.

Due mainly to stress and feeling especially overworked, I voluntarily resigned from my job about two weeks ago with last week Friday being my last day. I went into the network office today to finalize my resignation paperwork, complete my exit interview and get any remaining paperwork pertaining to my resignation. They asked about the liquidated damages while I was there (which happens to be equivalent to almost two paychecks), to which I replied that I want to know what the money would be used for and expressed that I would like to see the legally binding paperwork so that I could take it to a lawyer. I still don't have said paperwork at this time, however they are working on getting it to me digitally by the end of the day. Based on the description of the "paperwork" that they had, it sounded as though it was just a short letter explaining how much money I owed based on when I left.

When I got home, I dug out my copy of a document that we sign known as a letter of continuing employment. This letter basically says they would like to continue to employ us for the following year and addresses our sick and personal days, holidays, compensation, and the liquidated damages policy. It also says very specifically "this letter is not a contract, nor does it alter the "at will" relationship". I also looked at the employee handbook, which at this time still appears to be missing any information about liquidated damages.

My question is, are the liquidated damages legally binding since I was an "at will" employee without a contract?

Am in the midst of disputing a $50 wilson fine for overstaying a 180 minute free parking spot.

In my correspondence I made it clear that they were not allowed to legally profit from claiming liquidated damages, and that seeing as the spot earns them no money AND there were other spots available (confirmed by their photographs of my car) the $50 is unreasonable and unenforceable. They insist that the $50 is a "breach of contract and the cost of enforcing the car park's terms and conditions".

What is my best angle here? should I

1. Offer them what I deem to be fair compensation ($5 or less)
2. Invite them to take it to a disputes tribunal
3. Stop communications (I don't feel this is a good option at all)

Any experience dealing with these guys in the past 6 months or less would be helpful as I am aware of the Bell Gully/Honeybees case recently resolved in the UK was settled in favour of the private company and not the individual.

I'm about to have a ground-floor extension built, and the builders' contract has arrived. Before we signed, we were advised by friends to have a 'liquidated damages' clause added (essentially an agreement that the contractor pays a penalty for each day the project is overdue). Is this common? And if so, what would be a reasonable amount (we're in UK). If it's not in the contract, is it likely to be part of common law?

I'm an Architect and a Contractor. Everyone building a house with a contractor needs to pay a lawyer to review the contract and for the love of god, Include Liquidated Damages in all your contracts. This will gt rid of 95% of the posts i see where contractors are months late and they never call back etc. Liquidated Damages. Set at $100 dollars a day, I guarantee you will see these hacks straightening up.

Asking for a friend.

Employee news reporter worked for approx: 80% of their contract and then quit. They discussed early termination with mgmt and provided plenty of notice. Higher ups said nothing would probably happen as employee had been a good worker for 2+ years, etc, but no assurances or waivers were given in writing.

The only part of the contract "breached" was leaving before the term was up. Employee did not breach non-compete portion, was not terminated for cause, etc. Employee left for a better job in a different industry.

This was for a Sinclair news station. Employee's contract was substantially similar to those demonized in a few articles lately:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/sinclair-employees-say-their-contracts-make-it-too-expensive-to-quit

Approx 1.5 years after leaving employee has been served with a lawsuit alleging the exact type of liquidated damages stated in the article above. It is a % of salary x time remaining on the contract. It turns out to "only" be about $5,000 but Sinclair is also seeking actual atty fees etc.

With all the negative press Sinclair has gotten, I figure SOMEONE must have actually litigated this out somewhere by now? As far as I see it technically leaving before the term is up is a breach by employee, however:

1. the contract is so incredibly employer-sided and it's either sign or don't get the job. Can this be attacked as an "adhesion contract" or not realy a fair deal to start with? Any cases in support?
2. The liquidated damages are a "penalty" rather than a bona fide estimate of damages. Realistically I think Sinclair has zero actual damages, they can just pick another poor struggling fresh out of college grad to put out there with minimal/no training. But how does one prove this is a penalty?
3. Has anyone been through this and WON?

location: United States (southern state, sorry would rather not specify for anonymity sake)

Thanks for the help.

When you break the rules of a private parking company, they stick a notice to your car that is formatted to look similar to the local council fines. But only the government is allowed to issue fines (or stick things to your car?). They justify the "fine" by saying it's not a fine, it is liquidated damages as a result of you breaking a contract. A contract you entered automatically by parking in any of their parking areas. These areas are not protected with boom gates or ticket machines at the entrance but they do have signs posted.

The price of parking is $4 for the first 30mins. The "liquidated damages" they charge you is $65 and they ticket your car within 5 minutes.

My situation:

At 7:37pm my car was parked here in supermarket customer parking after the supermarket had closed. My car was only there 12 minutes and they had ticketed my car 4 minutes after it was parked. I don't know if the supermarket customer bays are also owned by the private parking company, but there is no way that the car parking company can justify $65 in damages even if they do own those bays. At most the damages would be the $4 they charge for the first half hour. That's not the problem I need help with.

How should I proceed?

(1) I can contest the fine by following the instructions on the back of the ticket and lodging my claim with an "enforcement services" company. This company is owned by the parking company, it has the same board of directors and the same postal address. Lots of people say this method of contesting the fine is a sham. They say that all appeals are rejected with a robot letter and they use your appeal to get your name and contact information because they don't have the authority to get your details from the government without starting legal action.

(2) I can do nothing. Our attorney general said that motorists are under no legal obligation to pay these fines. The other advantage of this method is that in 2 months or so I might "forget" who was driving my car at the time it was ticketed and they can only get their damages from the driver. Not the owner of the car. The downside of this method is that the problem could snowball into a court case where I have to pay their legal fees if I lose.

The other issue is that my car will go on a "list" that may get it towed or wheel clamped if I park in any of their carparks again in the future. They aren't technically allowed to punish the owner of the vehicle but