Claim Form received. relating to an alleged "contract" I had with a company in relation to a business

[bigegg]

bump.

any comments on my draft defence?

[unclebulgaria67]

bump.

any comments on my draft defence?

 

Is this service contract a rolling contract, where the initial period is 12 months, but it sort of automatically renews for another 12 months, unless you cancel ? Make sure this is not the case, as I expect that this will be their argument for the claim.

[andydd]

bump.

any comments on my draft defence?

 

Well..it would all appear to be down to the contract, we havnt seen a full copy..only you have.

 

Andy

[bigegg]

I will get a copy of the contract and t&cs scanned in ASAP.

probably tomorrow evening

[bigegg]

The contract IS a 12 month auto renewing contract.

[unclebulgaria67]

The contract IS a 12 month auto renewing contract.

 

Is the claim purely about charges after you cancelled the contract ?

 

After the initial 12 months, does the contract permit you to cancel at any time, giving x days notice ? Or is there an annual contract renewal date and if you don't cancel before the date, you have to pay for another 12 months ?

[bigegg]

The contract says I can only cancel at the end of a twelve month period, by giving three months notice.

[unclebulgaria67]

The contract says I can only cancel at the end of a twelve month period, by giving three months notice.

 

Have you complied with this requirement ?

[bigegg]

I haven't.

for the simple reason that I didn't know the requirement.

It's in the t&cs which were sent to me in reply to the cpr request (above).

It's the first time I've seen them.

However.

I *did* send an email at the end of june asking them to cancel, and I do have another contract,

signed September 2011, for "change of containers only". which should supercede the earlier one, so technically I have given three month's notice (from 6/12 to 9/12), perhaps a couple of weeks short.

I will scan in the contracts and T&Cs sometime over the weekend, so you can have a proper look.

[unclebulgaria67]

So you signed a contract without knowing the t&c's ?

 

You have to think of how this would look to a judge if it went to a hearing. It would be your word against theirs. I think a judge might side with the claimant on the basis that no one would/should enter into a contract without seeing and agreeing the t&c's of the contract.

 

I think you may struggle with this, unless you can point to things in the contract that the claimant company have broken. Perhaps the terms of the contract are unfair.

 

Ask the claimant for proof that the t&c's were provided at the time the contract was agreed. You will have to make a part 18 request for this and in that request you can also ask other pertinent questions.

[ScarletPimpernel]

This is a commercial matter, so the OFT Guidance doesn't apply - it only relates to consumer debt.

[unclebulgaria67]

This is a commercial matter, so the OFT Guidance doesn't apply - it only relates to consumer debt.

 

Is this about unfair contract terms ? Are there no laws/ precendents regarding unfair commercial contract terms. Or is it assumed that people in business will ask for contract terms to be provided and they would not sign a contract without fully considering the terms.

[andydd]

This claim did appear initially to be quite simple but the more we find out (the OP never saw the original T&C's but signed the contract !) the more complex it becomes...and it is very hard to give advice untill we know all the facts instead of titbits coming out every post.

 

Andy