contract-law
Is the withholding of funding notice allowed?
<p>I run an independent business. The nature of my job means that I rely on annual funding from various organisations in order to keep a steady income. One organisation in particular, on which I’ve relied for a significant chunk of my annual income for the past ten years or so, have not yet told me if they will be funding me this year. I inquired about this 11 months ago and we have been in ongoing contact about it since then.</p>

<p>My question here isn’t about them funding me or not. It’s the fact that I have had to wait so long to receive conformation of anything; surely this breaks some code of conduct? I am being kept in the dark about whether I will receive the money that I need to stay alive.</p>

<p>If two parties have a contract, where one party is required to do X in exchange for the other party doing Y, then the terms specified in that contract would determine what happens. You would have to see exactly what it says, especially if the other party has the option to not give you money. A contract might say "A shall at his option give B $5,000 by date X; if A elects not to make payment, notice must be given 60 days before X". Failing to give timely notice is thus breech of contract. However if the clause only says "A shall at his option give B $5,000 by date X", then there is no requirement for advance notice. And this assumes that there is a contract whereby both parties have some obligation to the other.</p>

<p>A gift, on the other hand, carries no obligations on the giving party. There may be some social code to the effect that they should have told you by now, but failing to give advance notice is at most rude and certainly not legally actionable.</p>
