Can a Contract End After a Certain Amount of Time?

[nahlaelkazak]

Hi Everyone,

I had a fixed-price contract that started last August and after I submitted the first milestone, the client went out of contact and simply dissappeared. Today, about 45 days later, he contacted me asking me to work on the next milestone because "the system will very soon end the contract". I'm currently quite busy with other projects and can't start working on it right away. I just need to know if it's true that the contract can be ended like he said.

Thank you very much,

Nahla

[prestonhunter]

The Upwork user interface does not allow the freelancer or client a way to specify a specific date or time, or number of days, after which the contract will automatically end.

There is a "due date" associated with fixed-price contracts, but this is just a stored text string displayed for the convenience of both parties. It does not actually "do" anything.

A fixed-price contract may be closed manually by a client OR a freelancer at any time.

An hourly contract may be closed manually be a client OR a freelancer at anytime.

re: "I just need to know if it's true that the contract can be ended like he said."

After a period of time, Upwork will automatically return escrow funds to clients, because there is a limit for how long such funds may be held in Upwork's escrow account.

And dormant fixed-price contracts DO get ended automatically by Upwork, as far as I know.

[nahlaelkazak]

Thank you Preston for your reply. But since he's just funded and activated the next milestone, the contract is no longer dormant, right? So it shouldn't get ended by Upwork automatically, am I correct?

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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Preston H wrote:

And dormant fixed-price contracts DO get ended automatically by Upwork.

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ONLY if money is in Escrow. If no money is in Escrow, they do not end automatically ever.

Fixed priced contracts are ended when they approach 90 days since the last milestone was funded.

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Nahla E wrote:

 since he's just funded and activated the next milestone, the contract is no longer dormant, right? So it shouldn't get ended by Upwork automatically, am I correct?

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Correct

[francisco_brito]

Hey Petra, how are you?
These are old posts and comments, but I wanted to thank you for your work in answering and helping out the community, it's very kind and makes our lives better <3.

Have a good day everyone,
Francisco Brito