Fixed-price contracts with money in escrow and no activity for 90 days are considered “dormant,” and the funds in escrow are released. This prevents money from being held in escrow for too long.
Important:
To avoid a dormant contract, we recommend keeping an active milestone with a deadline within 90 days.
After 90 days of inactivity from the latest milestone due date, fixed-price contracts with funds in escrow will be considered dormant and closed. Here’s how it works:
- After 76 days of inactivity, when there are still escrow funds in fixed-price contracts, clients and freelancers receive a two-week notice before the contract closure
- If no action is taken, we send a second notice, one week in advance, before closing the contract
- We encourage clients and freelancers to work together during this time to decide who will receive the funds in escrow
- By this time, if the contract is not closed and no action is made to fund a new milestone, the contract will be considered dormant
- We will notify the client when the contract becomes dormant and ask that they take action
- If the client doesn’t take any action within seven days, we will notify the freelancer that the contract is dormant
- At this point, the freelancer has seven days to request the release of the funds in escrow
- After the freelancer requests the release of the funds in escrow, the client has 14 days to respond to that request. If the client denies the freelancer’s escrow request, a dispute may be filed. If no action is taken by the client within 14 days, the funds are released to the freelancer
If neither the client nor the freelancer takes action after being notified that the contract is dormant, the funds in escrow are released to the client. Learn more about what happens after a contract becomes dormant in the fixed-price service contract escrow instructions in our Terms of Service.
