Cancelled Contract - " I no longer need this work completed"

[#1]

Hi all, 

I created a job to write up a draft contract. I picked a candidate and hired him, adding a milestone and funding half the payment in escrow. I then sent him a message asking him what info he needs from me. 

No reply, and 12 hours later, I asked him to hold off from doing anything because negotiations within our company were delaying things and we may not need the contract. 

Unfortunately these delays took over 3 months, and didn't go as planned, so we don't need the contract. 

A few days ago I sent the freelancer a message saying that we no longer need the contract and I wish to cancel. I didn't wait for his response (I know, I should have) before cancelling the contract with " I no longer need this work completed", and requesting a refund of the amount in escrow. 

His responsie was: 

**edited for Community Guidelines**

I want to be fair, as he may have spent time researching if not actually creating the contract, and I certainly don't want to affect his job success rate. 

What can I do about this now that I've already requested the refund? 

Thanks for reading.

[#2]

This is likely posted in the wrong section. 

[#3]

re: "This is likely posted in the wrong section."

This is the correct section.

[#4]

Thank you for being such a thoughtful and fair client. Many are not. Same for freelancers too.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

The freelancer is not being truthful OR he doesn't understand how JSS works and thinks it will tank his JSS. Refunding the project will not tank his JSS. NEither will the cancelled contract. What will tank his JSS is if when you close it, you leave him poor private feedback. IF you answer the private feedback question "would you recommend this freelancer?" which is on a scale of 1 to 10, and you rate him poorly, it would negatively impact his JSS. But the contract closer and refund themselves have no impact. It's you, the client's feedback. 

ETA: You could pay him $5 for the inconvenience of the time he spent to get things started with you and the inconvenience of waiting 3 months. That wouldn't be a terrible thing to do. 

[#6]

Thank you for the detailed response. 

How could I now pay him the $5, though, if the contract is cancelled? 

The next step is only for him to accept or dispute the refund, I believe. 

Edit - I think  I can pay a bonus, actually.

[#7]

A client can use the "Send bonus" tool to pay a freelancer. Can do thst with an open contract OR a closed contract.

[#8]

Hi Ben,

Thank you for your message. I would like to clarify that refunds or canceled contracts do not affect the Job Success Scores of freelancers. Since the contract is already ended and the refund is already requested for the escrow funds, you cannot change the refund amount now. If you would still like to pay some amount to the Freelancer for their time, you can either request freelancer to accept the refund request and send them a bonus on the ended contract or the Freelancer can dispute the refund request and you can inform the arrangement to the mediation team when they reach out to you.

Thank you

Pradeep 

[#9]

Thank you all for your input. 

The freelancer is happy with things and accepts the $5 bonus.