Clarity and legibility in contractual language is widely recognised as desirable in its own right but [the Consumer Rights Act] goes beyond promoting that objective as an end in itself … the transparency provisions in the Act have to be understood as demanding ‘transparency’ in the full sense. If your
Getting a contract wet signed (pen & ink) is becoming increasingly difficult when many clients are virtual, businesses do not have offices, and the cost of postage outweighs the benefits. In the construction industry, parties often start with the intention of getting a signed contract, but these good intentions are
This post sets out the legal requirements and 4 bare minimum content essentials for a construction contract. Even where all of those exist, the courts sometimes decide there is no contract because all the essential terms were not agreed. The terms on which the parties were [of one mind] must
Imagine your business relationship is like a romantic relationship. It starts off well with promises (sometimes slightly exaggerated) on either side, enthusiasm, trust and hope, and slowly you develop some ground rules for working together harmoniously (aka a contract). However rose-tinted your spectacles are, a small part of you knows
Do you believe that if you insure your liabilities, the level of your insurance cover acts as a limit on your liability? It doesn’t. This is the most common misconception among business owners when I am delivering workshops on contracts. My objective is to help both sides protect their interests
When you are a subcontractor, you often receive bespoke subcontracts, under which the contractor is trying to pass all its risk (and more) to your company. I recommend getting these contracts checked as they can hide some seriously unusual terms. Deep in a subcontract this week I came across a
Any client needs to ensure that the works meet the contractual quality standards for goods, design and workmanship. Defects can be spotted and made good in three separate phases: During Construction The contract administrator must identify visible defects and exercise her powers before completion and ensures that issues relating to
Defects will occur in buildings. It is one of the great certainties in construction, the equivalent of death and taxes in life more generally Defining a defect Generally a defect is anything which renders the [works] unfit for the use for which it is intended, when used in a reasonable
When was the last time you really read your T&C? It can be a shocking experience. One of my favourite exercises, in my Contract Awareness workshop, is to ask a company to review in detail some of the potential showstoppers in typical T&C that they have signed. This often leads
You can avoid all sorts of complex, circular or meaningless arguments about what your contract means by writing down clearly and simply what you have agreed. That way, when the courts are asked to interpret it, their view should match yours! The court tends to apply a mix of the