Can I close hourly contracts on long unresponsive clients?

[sovranhoti]

Hi, 

I've done some work for various clients in the past on hourly contracts, and they have not contacted me again for more work. It's been 6+ months or up to a year since they haven't requested anything from me, and I've got 5-6 jobs lined up as "in progress". 

My question regarding this is whether I can close the contracts, or should I contact the clients and ask them to do so? I don't want to get a bad feedback from them if I do. Or should I contact them and let them know that because they haven't asked me to do more work for them for such a long time I want to close the contracts? And if they do not answer, can I close them without consequences? 

Thank you, 

Sovran. 

[spectralua]

Sure. Ask client is no more jobs then close yourself.

Client not must leave any feedback if you close it.

[sovranhoti]

Yes, but I'm afraid they'll leave bad feedbacks if I do, although there's no reason to since they haven't assigned any work to me for months or up to a year. But first I must ask the clients before I close them? 

[wlyonsatl · Accepted solution]

If it's been six months or more since a client has communicated with you I'd recommend you close these long-dormant contracts yourself. I'd usually do so after 4 - 6 weeks of non-communication and have never had such a former client complain.

Just include in the text of your feedback that you only closed the project because you hadn't done any work on the project for X number of weeks/months and you'd gladly re-start the contract at the client's discretion (whether or not that is true), so the clients have no reason to be unhappy with you closing the contract if they do decide to leave feedback for you.

Some potential new clients do pay attention to how many live projects you have according to Upwork, thinking that you may be too busy to concentrate on their project due to having so many projects already on your plate.

[3a761b81]

Yes you can close the contracts. There wont be any negative consequence. Just leave a polite message to the client that you are closing the contract because of no outstanding or new tasks and in case client wants to resume work, you are available and client will just need to initiate a new contract.