Every business irrespective of size should have its own legally drafted terms  and conditions of sale and services. This is especially important when a business is selling to the general public or “consumers” as different rules apply. A typical set of terms and conditions will include the nature of the goods or services, the parties, the price, payment, delivery arrangements, liability and what each of the parties can do if the other party fails to meet their side of the contract.

Why have standard terms and conditions?

• it saves time by not having to draw up separate terms and conditions for each transaction;
• it is in your business's interest to have favourable terms to itself and limit its liability, but remember the terms and conditions cannot be unreasonable as this could be a breach of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977;
• your business has certainty in its dealings with other businesses and consumers; and
• a standard form of contract allows for all levels of staff to deal with customers and gives the business the confidence that there will be no legal (and therefore commercial) problems in delegating contractual dealing.

 For further details please contact:

martin.jinks@vshlaw.co.uk

su.knowles@vshlaw.co.uk