Over the past three months, several clients have already made such a request.:

The contractor asks me to transfer the payment under the contract not to him, but to the 3rd person.
Is that okay?

Yes, it is possible.The possibility arises from Article 312 of the Civil Code ("Fulfillment of obligations to a proper person").

In this case, the 3rd person may not even be a representative of the creditor in the sense of Chapter 10 of the Civil Code ("Representation. Power of Attorney").It's just that the creditor himself has a debt to the 3rd party and wants to pay off his debt immediately with your payment in favor of the 3rd party, rather than chasing money between bank accounts, paying a commission each time.

❗️But you need to cover several risks with the right design

☠️ Risk 1: you have given money to the 3rd party, but the Contractor still demands payment
Protection
We do not pay the 3rd party until we receive a corresponding written instruction from the Contractor.An electronic document with a digital signature is even better and legally equivalent to paper. Don't forget to save both the document and the signature file to your personal storage, as you can delete messages from most messengers.

Risk 2: the 3rd party requires payment from you; The Contractor cannot cancel his order; without the consent of the 3rd party, it is now impossible to pay even the Contractor himself
What happened
If you have fulfilled the instruction, this may be qualified as acceptance of the offer to conclude a contract in favor of the 3rd party (art. 430 CC).
Protection
1. We issue the Contractor's instruction as a unilateral transaction, and not as an offer to amend the contract.2. We explicitly state that the 3rd party does not receive the right to demand payment from you.

Risk 3: you have given money to the 3rd party, and the Contractor claims that he cancelled his instructions earlier and demands payment again
Protection
The NOM Clause (Non Oral Modification) will help here - a clause stating that the cancellation of an indication is null and void if it is not made in writing.
We refuse to comply with the instruction until such a reservation appears in its text.


🛡 The attached payment forwarding instructions have eliminated these and other risks.
You can spy, cheat.
❗️Don't forget to adapt. Every situation is unique, there are no "standard patterns".

What to read on the topic:A.A. Pavlov, Gloss on the fulfillment and termination of obligations, pp.551-562.
✅ A.A. Maslov "Voluntary requirements for the form of future transactions..." // Bulletin of Economic Justice of the Russian Federation No. 9/2021