Yes of course, more than happy to have a chat with you about it, and you don't need to pay. I must stress that any advice I am giving is based on my experience in recruitment over the years rather than giving qualified legal advice though, I'm not a lawyer. PM me.
Lots of good reading here... https://www.northstandchat.com/threads/what-do-job-agencies-really-mean-rant-3.92404/
What a thread that was. All time top 3 on NSC.
It's a fair clause if the client has signed the terms agreeing to it. But he hasn't, because they didn't follow their own process correctly. No way the agency will get a lost fee here.
From their point of view they will think you've screwed them over by contacting the candidate behind their backs. They will have been annoyed with you and gone and checked to make sure they sent the terms of business and got them signed, then realised they had messed up by not sending it, so are...
The agency will claim you agreed to their terms and conditions by accepting the interview through the CV they sent you- it will probably say something like "accepting this CV is agreement to our terms and conditions' on it. In their actual terms and conditions it will say that any candidate they...